The current dissertation aims to explore the connection between autobiographical memories (AM) and mental imagery (MI) through a systematic review and an empirical study. The present review investigates the role of AM and MI as mood induction procedures (MIP). Results broadly suggest that a variety of cues to elicit AM or MI has been used. It was also found that few studies reported statistical results about the methods efficacy, control for demand effects, or employed physiological measures of emotion. Further work investigating the implications of these methodological issues is recommended. The empirical study explored the effects of MI tasks (positive or neutral) on AM of healthy young adults. In Session 1, participants remembered a sad life event. Depending on their group, they should imagine either a positive or a neutral alternative scenario to the memory. Two weeks later, in Session 2, they had to complete the same memory task. Results indicate that MIPs were effective, with increases in negative mood after the sad AM and improvements in mood in both groups after imagery regardless of its emotional content. Memory report revealed that groups had a similar profile of memory intrusion. This suggests that mental imagery may be used as an effective emotional regulation strategy for negative autobiographical material, and that the emotional content of imagery may not have a crucial impact in this process. Further studies are needed to evaluate the use of imagery as emotional regulation, explore different types of emotional memory and extend this paradigm to clinical populations.