Does forming an implementation intention lead individuals to spontaneously use visual mental imagery?

Abstract

Planning through implementation intention involves forming mental representations of a goal-relevant situation and a goal-directed behavior. The main objective of this study was to determine whether mental representations during conscious planning with if-then plan were spontaneously visualized. The sample included 205 participants, asked to perform an easy vs. difficult pro-environmental behavior. They formed an if-then plan vs. a goal intention and were asked whether they spontaneously used mental imagery. Seven days after, 109 participants reported the number of behaviors they performed. The perceived difficulty of the behavior did not differ significantly, this variable was excluded from analyses. A logistic regression was performed and showed that participants who formed an if-then plan used significantly more spontaneous mental imagery compared to goal intention participants. ANCOVAs also revealed that they reported more behaviors than participants who formed a goal intention. However, participants who spontaneously visualized their if-then plan did not report more goal attainment than other participants. This result, which suggests a distinction between spontaneous and instructed visualization (i.e. explicitly requiring participants to visualize their plan), is discussed.