Imagery and Referential Activity in narratives elicited by Object Relations Technique cards

Aim: The central symbolizing phase in Bucci’s theory of the Referential Process (1997) involves the connection of experience from multiple modalities to images and words. This study focussed on the relationship of particular features of imagery to language style. Specifically we looked at the characteristics of Object Relations Technique (ORT) cards, including color, image articulation and number of figures in relation to levels of Referential Activity (RA) of narratives generated in response to these stimuli. Methods: Two hundred Italian non-clinical participants were asked to tell stories elicited by the 13 cards of the Object Relations Technique (ORT) (Phillipson, 1955). All narratives were transcribed and RA was assessed using the Italian version of the WRAD (Mariani, Maskit, Bucci, & De Coro, 2013). Results: The images with a single figure elicited narratives with the highest level of RA, followed in descending order by the cards with two or three figures and group situations; the narratives told in response to the chromatic colour cards were higher in RA than achromatic colour cards, which in turn were higher than cards with diffuse shading. Discussion: According to most interpretations proposed for projective tests (e.g. Klopfer, Davidson, 1962; Exner, 2003), chromatic colour cards produce more emotional activation. Narratives told to these cards were highest in RA. The RA was also higher in the narratives elicited by cards with a single figure, perhaps because these cards were likely to evoke a more clear, concrete and specific experience than the cards with a greater number of figures.