The role of mental imagery and emotion in imagined interaction

Abstract

Imagined interactions, internal dialogues experienced as conversations with significant others, are conceptualized as a form of social cognition. Imagined interactions have important affective components and mental imagery. Results of an investigation demonstrate that verbal imagery is associated with self‐dominance, rehearsal and understanding while visual imagery is associated with more pleasantness. Pleasant imagined interactions are lower in self‐dominance and more similar to actual communication than unpleasant imagined interactions. The results are explained in terms of information processing and relational communication; two categories of imagined interaction reflecting verbal and mixed imagery are also proposed.