Investigating the role of mental imagery use in the assessment of anhedonia.Julie L. Ji,Marcella L. Woud,Angela Rölver,Lies Notebaert,Jemma Todd,Patrick J. F. Clarke,Frances Meeten,Jürgen Margraf &Simon E. Blackwell -2025 -Cognition and Emotion 39 (2):227-245.detailsAnhedonia, or a deficit in the liking, wanting, and seeking of rewards, is typically assessed via self-reported “in-the-moment” emotional and motivational responses to reward stimuli and activities. Given that mental imagery is known to evoke emotion and motivational responses, we conducted two studies to investigate the relationship between mental imagery use and self-reported anhedonia. Using a novel Reward Response Scale (adapted from the Dimensional Anhedonia Rating Scale, DARS; Rizvi et al., 2015) modified to assess deliberate and spontaneous mental imagery use, (...) Study 1 (N = 394) compared uninstructed and instructed mental imagery use, and Study 2 (N = 586) conducted a test of replication of uninstructed mental imagery use. Results showed that greater mental imagery use was associated with higher reward response scores (Study 1 & 2), and this relationship was not moderated by whether imagery use was uninstructed or instructed (Study 1). Importantly, mental imagery use moderated the convergence between reward response and depression scale measures of anhedonia, with lower convergence for those reporting higher mental imagery use (Study 1 & 2). Results suggest that higher spontaneous mental imagery use may increase self-reported reward response and reduce the convergence between reward response scale and depression questionnaire measures of anhedonia. [199 / 200 words]. (shrink)
Towards a better understanding of the role of reappraisal in psychopathology and its treatment: commentary on “Reappraising Reappraisal: An Expanded View”.Thomas Ehring &Marcella L. Woud -2023 -Cognition and Emotion 37 (3):378-383.detailsReappraisal plays a central role in theoretical models of emotion regulation (ER) (e.g. Gross, 2015), and is often regarded as a prominent example of a functional ER strategy. This is supported by...