Effects of imagery ability and visual cues on fear activation among persons with public speaking anxiety

Individuals who self identified as fearful of public speaking were recruited from a university in the Midwest, and brought individually into the research laboratory. Upon arriving, they responded to a series of anxiety-related questionnaires used to assess their fear of public speaking. One additional questionnaire measured subjects\u27 imagery ability. Their responses to the imagery ability questionnaire were used to categorize subjects into one of three groups based upon levels of imagery ability (good, moderate, or poor). As an additional part of this between subjects design, subjects were further divided randomly into one of two experimental groups: viewing either a public speaking relevant or non-relevant videotape prior to imagining a series of five public speaking vignettes. Grouping subjects in this way provided six groups for between-subjects analysis. After completing the fear-relevant and imagery questionnaires, subjects practiced relaxation and imagery techniques before viewing one of the videotapes. After viewing the videotape, subjects imagined themselves in a series of five, pre-recorded, public speaking vignettes. They continued to imagine for 30 seconds beyond the end of each recorded vignette. Following this imagine period, they were asked to make ratings about how vividly they were able to imagine the vignette, as well as how fearful they felt. They then relaxed for 30 seconds before the next in the series of vignettes was played. Each subject imagined all 5 vignettes, but in one of five different sequences. During the experiment, subjects\u27 heart rate was recorded. These heart rate data, and the subjects\u27 vividness and fearfulness ratings, were used as within-subjects dependent variables. Results showed that those individuals classified as “good” and “poor” imagers, seeing a public speaking video showed a greater heart rate increase from baseline than those “good” and “poor” imagers who had seen a non-fear relevant video. Those individuals classified as “moderate” imagers showed a small decrease in heart rate in relation to baseline. In correlational analysis, subject\u27s imagery ability scores (as measured by the Questionnaire Upon Mental Imagery) were unrelated to their ratings of public speaking vignette vividness and fearfulness. Implications and thoughts for future research are discussed