Abstract
Welcome to the summer 2021 issue of Imagination, Cognition, and Personality. As we indicated in our prior issue, pandemic marathon is continuing, but progress is being made. There is exciting research in the psychology and the social sciences that continues, unabated. Volume 40, Issue 4 contains five articles. The topics in this issue examine personality and aesthetic motivation, sex differences in mental rotation of hands, sleep disturbances and disassociation. Additionally, fantasy and imagination in terms of preschooler’s inquisitiveness about science is examined as well as the power of mirroring in terms of anomalous experiences and an examination of mnemonics and recall.
The initial study by Adrian Furnham explores the Big 5 personality traits and aesthetic motivation. This is a massive study totaling over 4000 British managers who completed tests of personality disorders, motives, and values in the context of aestheticism motivation and culture. Intriguing results show personality traits of Inquisitiveness and Sociability were positively associated with aesthetic motivation. This implications of this study are critical insofar as provides reasons to promote people who are successful in aesthetic motivation jobs to managerial jobs.
The second study is by Hiroyuki Muto, Soyogu Matsushita, and Kazunori Morikawa. Mental rotation is mediated by sensorimotor processes. In order to understand the role of somatosensory objects in mental rotation, they investigated the effects of gender differences in holding weight by the hands on mental rotation performance. There were gender differencs, in mental rotation performance. The results have interesting ramifications for the visual acuity and embodiment literature.
The third study by Damla Aksen, Craig Polizzi, and Steven Lynn examines correlates and mediators of dissociation. The American Psychiatric Association indicates that dissociation is marked by disruptions in the integration of consciousness, behavior, body representation, emotion, identity, memory, motor control, and perception (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Dissociative experiences can be manifested in mild, often non-pathological variants, including absorption, daydreaming, and common cognitive failures including attention lapses
There were several, significant findings between dissociation and emotion dysregulation, sleep, alexithymia, and neuroticism. It was intriguing how sleep partially mediated the relationship between emotion dysregulation and dissociation as well as mediating between impulsivity and dissociation. This study is very important for its ramifications in dealing with sleep problems such that dissociation may increase impulsivity due to emotion regulation difficulties.
The fourth study is by Maureen Claire Smith, Maria Fusaro. They examine fantasy and imagination in terms of preschooler’s inquisitiveness about science. This study demonstrates that “pretend play” facilitates children’s interest and curiosity in science. They used multivariate analyses of variance to reveal that differences in inquisitiveness by imaginary companion status was associated with scientific inquisitiveness. They discuss the importance of how children having imaging companions facilitates social science inquiry skills and found that children with imaginary companions produced both more science relevant questions and higher quality science relevant questions about natural phenomena. Hence, the value of pretend play cannot be overstated and should never be diminished in encouraging scientific inquiry.
The fifth study by Giovanni B. Caputo, Steven Jay Lynn, James Houran examines gazing at oneself in a mirror. in terms of induced altered and anomalous experiences. They begin by discussing the power of mirrors in enhancing the trans-generational development of human consciousness. Their historical review of documents of spirituality in ancient Greece, along with poetic and artistic testimonies of Dionysian rituals is enticing. They provide examples of natural mirroring by gazing by upon metal or glass surface as well as water or oil surfaces; that was common in ancient Egypt and the Orient. The results involving mirror-gazing and eye-to-eye-gazing are intriguing with important ramifications in understanding visual, bodily, and self-identity modalities.
The final article is by María Angeles González, Aitziber Goñi-Artola, and Alfredo Campos. They examine recall and mnemonics in terms Spanish Basque words. In learning a second language, keyword mnemonics is considered to be one of the most effective foreign language learning techniques. This research team compared the rote learning method of language acquisition compared to the keyword technique. Findings revealed support for both techniques depending on who generated the keywords.
We hope you enjoy this summer issue and find these topics intriguing and transformative during this time of enlightenment and resilience from the past year.
James M. Honeycutt, Keith D. Markman, and Amedeo D’Angiulli
Co-Editors