formed by American psychologist Joseph R. Cautela, a method of behavior therapy which is dependent upon the employment of imagination and presumes that covert and overt behavior are correlated, meaning each one impacts the other one, and that both are reliant upon the laws of learning. A person visualizes behaving a certain way in a realistic scenario in their life that presents a certain degree of problems, praises their self of the cognitive participation in such, and then attains an authentic shift in their behavior.