**6. Volition**

Volition or will is the process by which an individual needs, wants, and commits to a course of action or goal. Volition is purposive striving, a primary psychological function for stability, security, and survival. Unsurprisingly, goal-directedness is at the root of many psychological theories and a significant feature of theories of consciousness [39,40]. In *The Theatre of Consciousness*, Bernard Baars [39] stated the following:

The only conscious components of action are as follows:


Most actions are automatically generated. Only when there is novelty or special care required are actions conscious and under voluntary control. In his ideomotor theory of voluntary control, William James proposed that ideas and images trigger automaticity in brain centers that carry out voluntary actions. Conscious events are only needed to specify new goals and actions. When people focus on their movements, they may actually interfere with the automatic control processes that normally regulate

movements, whereas focusing on the effect of movement allows the motor system to self-organize more naturally [41].

Affect, feelings, and drives are intimately related to the sense of striving to satisfy desires and goal attainment. Volition is the driving force of mental image generation and the contents of consciousness [42]. William James stated that "the pursuance of future ends (goals) and the choice of means for their attainment [schema] are the mark and criterion of the presence of mentality (consciousness) in a phenomenon" [42] (p. 8). Goals are set at a meta level governed by drives, values, and beliefs to allow planning of actions, inhibition of actions, and reflection ("wait and see") as the situation requires. A similar theory was independently developed by Marc Jeannerod (1999) [43].

The evidence suggests that consciousness evolved earlier in human evolution than language [44]. How much earlier is a matter for debate. Feinberg and Mallatt [45] argued that consciousness evolved 520 to 560 million years ago. Developmentally, also, consciousness is accessible earlier than language [44]. For these reasons, language and speech are subservient to imagery. Among its many uses, vivid imagery plays a key role in planning goal-directed behavior. The cognitive system has a meta level to control and monitor the object level. This duality of levels is advantageous because it enables moment-by-moment adjustments to goal-seeking behavior at the object level. Mental imagery instantiates the conscious representation of the self—the "I" of "I am"—and the environment, and interactions between self and others. Conscious imagery allows the conduct of mental simulations of action sequences at the object level without energy expenditure or risk. The object level interfaces with the social level in the public domain of shared activities and object levels. The possible outcomes of alternative future actions may be appraised prior to a course of action. In this way, conscious mental imagery serves as a mental toolbox, producing its internal contents for the user to explore and manipulate in the selection and preparation of future physical and social activity. This idea was anticipated by Francis Bacon more than 400 years ago when he wrote the following:

"For sense sendeth over to imagination before reason have judged; and reason sendeth over to the imagination before the decree can be acted; for imagination ever precedeth voluntary action" [46].

The principal role of mental imagery is to perform "thought experiments" by rehearsing activation of schemata and simulating alternative cycles of action to evaluate potential outcomes in the objective world before making actions physically. Conscious imagery provides the necessary competence to perform thought experiments in a risk-free manner. Thought experiments enable the imager to generate a sequence of interacting processes consisting of goals, schemata, actions, objects, and affects. The envisaged processes are similar to those of the scientist establishing theories and hypotheses and testing them using controlled investigation. The aims, methods, and results of the experiment are at the meta level and are determined by needs, beliefs, and values. The remaining processes are at the object level. Once triggered, implementation of activity cycles gives rise to actual physical activity, perception, and feeling.

ACT describes and explains the mental processes involved in the continuous sequence of adaptations and interactions that occur in making decisions and choices about how to act in the social and physical worlds. Conscious mental imagery serves a basic adaptive function in enabling a person to prepare, rehearse, and perfect his or her actions. Mental imagery provides the necessary means to guide experimentally and transform experience by running activity cycles as mental simulations of the real thing. Such activity rehearsal can only proceed effectively when the rehearsal incorporates vivid imagery. Imagery that is vivid, through virtue of being as clear and as lively as possible, closely approximates actual perceptual-motor activity, and is of benefit to action preparation, simulation, and rehearsal. In cases where conscious imagery is absent or removed by central nervous system (CNS) injury, there is a need for an alternative means of action planning.

It is established that 2–3% of the population has "congenital aphantasia", meaning that they do not experience visual mental imagery, or lack the ability to control it, but are no less able to control their behavior than people who can visualize. A study of 21 cases of aphantasia found that the majority of participants had some experience of visual imagery from dreams or involuntary "flashes" of imagery, for example, at sleep onset. Thus, their aphantasia involved a deficiency of voluntary imagery rather than a total absence [47]. In one recent study, an aphantasic individual performed significantly worse than controls on the most difficult visual working memory trials [48]. Her performance on a task designed to involve mental imagery did not differ from controls. However, she lacked meta-level cognitive insight into her performance, which is consistent with the current theory. Aphantasic individuals are able to use verbal intentions in goal-directed behavior, schematic spatial imagery, and non-imaged action plans as alternative control systems.
