The literature on imagination fails frequently to distinguish process from function and the variations in methods that researchers use can compound the problems of accurately inferring process from the data. It is necessary to examine closely what processes and functions are, in fact, implicated by the evidence and what is the contribution to the data of using particular methods of assessment. Specific sets of procedures in the field are examined to demonstrate this point and special attention paid to the relevance of treatment-person interactions for understanding the full complexity of imagery functioning. The development of new procedures that focus on the diagnostics of the communications which subjects make about their experiences is needed to recognize this complexity. Aiming toward such a goal, one particular method is outlined that appears to usefully reveal imaginative phenomena in richer detail.
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