Imagine How Good That Feels: The Impact of Anticipated Positive Emotions on Motivation for Reward Activities

Background Disease burden and unsatisfactory treatment outcomes call for innovation in treatments of depression. Prospective mental imagery, i.e. future-directed voluntary imagery-based thought, about potentially-rewarding activities may offer a mechanistically-informed intervention that targets deficits in reward processing, a core clinical feature of depression. We propose that the previously described impact of prospective mental imagery on motivation for everyday activities is facilitated by affective forecasting , i.e. predictions about an individual’s emotional response to the imagined activities. Methods Participants ( N = 120) self-nominated six activities to engage in over the following week and were randomized to either: (1) an affective forecasting imagery condition ( n = 40); (2) a neutral process imagery condition ( n = 40); or (3) a no-imagery control condition ( n = 40). Results As predicted, increases in motivation ratings from pre to post experimental manipulation were significantly higher following affective forecasting imagery compared to both neutral process imagery ( d = 0.62) and no-imagery ( d = 0.91). Contrary to predictions, the number of activities participants engaged in did not differ between conditions. Conclusions Results provide initial evidence for a potentially important role of affective forecasting in prospective mental imagery. We discuss how these findings can inform future research aiming to harness prospective mental imagery’s potential for clinical applications.