psychometric properties of persian-prospective imagery task in a non-clinical iranian population

Background: imagery involves the mental simulation of sensory experiences without external stimulation and plays a significant role in the development and persistence of various mental disorders. however, there is currently no suitable tool available in persian to assess both positive and negative imagery abilities. objectives: therefore, the present study aimed to adapt the prospective imagery task (pit), which measures positive and negative imagery abilities, and evaluate its factor structure. methods: in this cross-sectional study, 365 participants were selected using a convenience sampling method. participants completed several scales, including the ambiguous scenarios test relevant to depressed mood ii (ast-d-ii), spontaneous use of mental imagery scale (suis), beck’s depression inventory (bdi-ii), pit, and dimensional anhedonia rating scale (dars). the psychometric properties of the scales, including validity, reliability, and factor structure, were analyzed. results: cronbach’s alpha was used to evaluate the internal consistency of the scales, which was 0.90. the test-retest correlation coefficient was 0.75 (p < 0.001) over a two-week interval. the intraclass correlation coefficient (icc) was 0.84. significant correlations were found between the pit and bdi-ii, ast, dars, and suis, indicating good convergent validity. two factors were identified through exploratory factor analysis (efa) using principal component analysis with varimax rotation, accounting for 55% of the total variance. conclusions: the validated persian pit provides a reliable tool for assessing positive and negative imagery abilities in iranian populations, facilitating future research on imagery’s role in mental health and the evaluation of imagery-based interventions. its strong psychometric properties make it suitable for clinical applications, such as diagnosing imagery disturbances and monitoring treatment progress.