Holmes Emily A, Mathews Andrew
Medical Research Council Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Cambridge, United Kingdom.
Emotion. 2005 Dec;5(4):489-97. doi: 10.1037/1528-3542.5.4.489.
A special association between imagery and emotion is often assumed, despite little supporting evidence. In Experiment 1, participants imagined unpleasant events or listened to the same descriptions while thinking about their verbal meaning. Those in the imagery condition reported more anxiety and rated new descriptions as more emotional than did those in the verbal condition. In Experiment 2, 4 groups listened to either benign or unpleasant descriptions, again with imagery or verbal processing instructions. Anxiety again increased more after unpleasant (but not benign) imagery; however, emotionality ratings did not differ after a 10-min filler task. Results support the hypothesis of a special link between imagery and anxiety but leave open the question of whether this also applies to other emotions.
尽管几乎没有证据支持，但人们常常假定意象与情感之间存在特殊关联。在实验1中，参与者想象不愉快的事件，或者在思考其文字含义的同时聆听相同的描述。与处于文字条件下的参与者相比，处于意象条件下的参与者报告了更多焦虑情绪，并且将新描述评定为更具情感色彩。在实验2中，4个小组聆听良性或不愉快的描述，同样伴有意象或文字处理指令。不愉快（而非良性）的意象之后，焦虑情绪再次出现更大幅度的增加；然而，在进行10分钟的填充任务后，情感评定并无差异。结果支持了意象与焦虑之间存在特殊联系的假设，但意象与焦虑的联系是否也适用于其他情绪这一问题仍未解决。
