Effects of Relaxing and Arousing Music during Imagery Training on Dart-Throwing Performance, Physiological Arousal Indices, and Competitive State Anxiety

Abstract

Music that is carefully selected to match the requirements of activities and the characteristics of individuals has been shown to produce significant impacts on performance enhancement (Priest et al., 2004). There is also evidence that music can enhance imagery (Grocke and Wigram, 2007), although few studies have investigated the effects of music on imagery in the context of sport skills. In the present study, the effects of relaxing and arousing music during imagery on dart-throwing performance, physiological arousal indices, and competitive state anxiety, were investigated among 63 novice dart throwers. Participants had moderate-to-high imagery ability and were randomly assigned to unfamiliar relaxing music (URM), unfamiliar arousing music (UAM), or no music (NM) groups. Performance was assessed by 40 dart throws at a concentric circles dartboard before and after 12 imagery sessions over 4 weeks. Measures of galvanic skin response (GSR), peripheral temperature (PT), and heart rate (HR) were taken during imagery sessions 1 and 12, and the Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2 Revised (CSAI-2R) was administered prior to the pre- and post-intervention performance task. Dart-throwing gain scores were significantly higher for URM than for UAM and NM, with no significant difference between UAM and NM (URM = 37.24 ± 5.66, UAM = 17.57 ± 5.30, and NM = 13.19 ± 6.14, F2,62 = 5.03, p = 0.01, η2 = 0.14). GSR, PT, and HR reflected lower arousal for URM than for UAM or NM. Significant decreases in somatic anxiety were evident for URM and UAM but not NM. Significant decreases in cognitive anxiety were evident for URM and NM but not UAM. Significant increases in self-confidence were evident for URM but not UAM or NM. Performance improved in all three conditions but URM was associated with the largest performance gain, the lowest physiological indices of arousal, and the most positive CSAI-2R profiles. Listening to relaxing music during imagery may have benefits for performance in other fine motor skills.

Psychological Profile, Competitive Anxiety, Moods and Self-Efficacy in Beach Handball Players

“…However, the relationships between the set of constructs proposed in this research had not been analyzed, and they were also differentiated by gender. For this reason, the obtained results make a significant contribution to beach handball and allow us to better understand psychological aspects that have been considered relevant for athletes' performance in previous investigations [8,9,16,29].…”

“…Among the most relevant psychological manifestations linked to sports performance is competitive state anxiety, which must be controlled to improve the processes of adaptation to competition and is currently the object of interest of multiple researchers [8][9][10]. The factors that can influence competitive state anxiety, both in its cognitive and somatic manifestation and according to the model proposed by Martens and collaborators [11][12][13], are diverse, such as the perception of opponent level, the importance of the competition, the confidence in the own capacities or the abilities of coping with the stress [14,15].…”

Imagine, feel “there”, and flow! Immersive experiences on m-Facebook, and their affective and behavioural effects

“…This is because imagery can serve two functions: cognitive and motivational. So imagery might facilitate learning and memory processes (Mousa et al, 2013;Slagter et al, 2011), while helping individuals remain focused on the task at hand (Bodeck et al, 2015;Calmels et al, 2004;Kuan et al, 2018), feel confident in their personal skills (Koehn et al, 2013) and deal with challenges (Briley et al, 2017;Munroe et al, 2000). These mechanisms are indeed closely related to the skill-challenge and the focused attention aspects of flow.…”

Effect of Music with Brainwave Synchronizer on the Performance of Collegiate Throwing Athletes

“…Effect of Music with Brainwave Synchronizer on the Performance of Collegiate Throwing Athletes cognitive anxiety. As cognition responds to relaxing music, self-confidence increase was also observed (Kuan, Morris, Kueh, & Terry, 2018).…”