Table 3.
List of the mental strategies identified and their descriptions.
| Mental strategy | Description | Example quote |
|---|---|---|
| Actual movement | These mental strategies were focused on their physical body, and not imagery within the mind, where participants initiated actual movement | “[I] shifted my eyes to one direction and then the other”—22A |
| Auditory | Sounds derived from imagination or memory, or sounds that participants spoke/sang in their head | “I was just singing some Hindi songs [in my head]”—10B |
| Breathing | Participants focused on their breathing by either noticing their breathing or trying to control it | “I did breathing, concentrated purely on breathing”—1B |
| Clear mind | Clearing the mind from any thoughts to have an empty mind | “I tried to not think of anything”—11A |
| Imagination | Imagery or scenarios that the participants have not personally experienced | “I [imagined] a leaf, growing on an oak tree… the little leaf forming the little bud, bursting [from] the tree, going through its whole cycle and then into autumn and the leaf falling off the tree”—3B |
| Imagined movement | Strategies that involved imagery of moving a body part in a specific way, either from imagination or memory | “I [imagined] wiggling my toes or [stretching] the toes”—8A |
| Memory | Imagery or events derived from memory | “We had a party there once, there [were] three of us sitting in the garden having a barbecue”—16A |
| Moral values | Thinking about a moral value that was important to oneself | “I was thinking about decisions and I have been thinking a lot about the tennis [match] and I was thinking that I was really pleased to have stuck to the rules of the contest”—25A |
| Non-specific focus | Focus on the neurofeedback task with no verbalisation about thoughts or imagery | “I just concentrated as hard as I could”—4B |
| Numerical task | Mental strategies involving a simple numerical task | “I just ended up trying to concentrate on doing a list of prime numbers”—9A |
| Pain memory | Recalling physical pain from a past event | “Like trying to picture like an ache going down my—in the middle of my back”—2A |
| Planning | Mentally preparing for a future event | “I think I was thinking of my essay and what I was going to do, thinking about the different things I need to [do], different materials I can use, and where I’m going to do it”—11A |
| Resolving stress | Considering possible solutions to current stressful events in one's life | “I was actually beginning to see a way through some of those issues, the issues that I was thinking about, and finding a solution to a couple of the things”—3B |
“A” and “B” denotes non-CNP and CNP participants respectively.