The Relationship of Mental Imagery and Mental Rehearsal to Performance of a Motor Task

Abstract

This study examined the relationship of internal and external imaginal rehearsal and imaginal style to skilled motor behavior. Dart throwing was used as the dependent measure of physical performance. All subjects were randomly assigned to a control group, an internal mental rehearsal group, or an external mental rehearsal group. After assessing baseline performance, subjects were instructed to mentally rehearse before throwing sets of three darts. Control subjects were given a distracting task prior to throws. The results showed a slight, negative relation between spontaneous external imagery and physical performance. The mental rehearsal factor, however, was not significant. Males significantly outperformed females, and imagery groups had more variability in improvement scores than the control group for women but not for men. It was proposed that females' lower dart-throwing ability may have caused mental practice to be distracting for some subjects, and thus increased improvement variability in the mental rehearsal group. Conclusions regarding the concept of imaginal style as well as the negative relation between motor performance and the propensity to use external imagery were offered.

Imagery ability and the acquisition and retention of movements

“…The reason for the success of the present study in showing a relationship between imagery ability and motor performance, where several other studies (e.g., Epstein, 1980;Start & Richardson, 1964) have failed, may be twofold. First, the imagery test was designed specifically for imagery of movement.…”

“…There was some evidence, however, that vivid imagers who did not have control of their imagery performed more poorly than all other subjects. Epstein (1980) considered imagery ability in a study that examined the effects of imagery as a form of mental preparation prior to performance. Each subject was required to complete a questionnaire that involved creating four images and rating each image on clarity and difficulty; on the auditory, olfactory, tactile, and kinesthetic sensations created; and on his/her ability to concentrate on the image.…”

Psychophysiological correlates of dynamic imagery

“…It has been argued that movement imagery taken from an internal perspective involves motor and sensory representations (Jeannerod, 1994), the latter being primarily kinaesthetic in nature (Epstein, 1980;Hale, 1982: Mahoney & Avener, 1977. In contrast, the adoption of an external perspective during movement imagery is said to engage representations that are visual or visuo-spatial in nature.…”

Tipos de imaginación motora y procesamiento predictivo

“…En Ridderinkhof y Brass (2015) se puede encontrar una taxonomía muy utilizada de imaginación motora (véase Decety et al 1988;Epstein 1980;Jeannerod 1994;Mellet et al 1998;Sirigu and Duhamel 2001). Se distiguen dos tipos: visuomotora, donde "el individuo imagina la acción motora desde la posición de un espectador virtual viendo sus propios movimientos" Ridderinkhof y Brass (2015, p. 54), o kinestésica, que supone que "el individuo se imagina realizando la acción no solo como si estuviera viendo a través de sus ojos, sino también sintiendo sus propios movimientos" Ridderinkhof y Brass (2015, p. 54).…”