The reflexive imagery task: An experimental paradigm for neuroimaging

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Psychology
• Neuroscience

Background:

• High-level cognitions can be involuntarily triggered by external stimuli and action sets.
• The Reflexive Imagery Task (RIT) previously showed involuntary subvocalizations when participants viewed objects and tried not to name them.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the reliability and robustness of the RIT paradigm.
• To explore a modified RIT with simultaneous presentation of multiple visual objects.
• To assess the potential of the RIT for integration with neuroimaging technologies.

Main Methods:

• A modified RIT was developed where two non-focal objects were presented simultaneously.
• Participants were instructed to suppress thoughts of the objects' names.
• The occurrence of involuntary subvocalizations was recorded and analyzed across trials.

Main Results:

• The RIT effect, characterized by involuntary subvocalizations, was replicated with a high occurrence rate (M = 0.78).
• The modified RIT showed the effect occurring for both simultaneously presented objects (M = 0.35).
• Findings were consistent across two experiments with different participant samples.

Conclusions:

• The RIT is a reliable and robust paradigm for studying involuntary cognitive processes.
• The modified RIT effectively elicits involuntary subvocalizations even with dual-stimulus presentation.
• This paradigm holds promise for advancing research in high-level mental processes, attention, imagery, and action control.