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Mental Imagery

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Mental Imagery and its Limitations
Carl Brown

Grand Canyon University

Dr. Mary Chmielewski

PSY-812

November 13, 2013

Mental Imagery and Its Limitations Mental imagery is described as experience occurs without the presence of specific stimuli for the appropriate perception. Many professionals in sports training to achieve better performances have applied mental imagery as a technique. This idea has been there in sports for many years, however, it is recently being incorporated into sports training. As a psychological process intended to improve performance of athletes, it has presented positive results while other athletes have reported negative results from the visualization process. This paper aims to unearth whether indeed imagery is research founded or just a matter of popular psychology. Many researches that have been carried out by various experts explicitly indicate that the visualization concept is beneficial to sports. Mental imagery as a visualization technique has successfully aided to improve the performance of athletes. Studies conducted on imagery during the twentieth century have had inconsistent results due factors such as unavailability of reliable controls and subjects. However, recent studies on mental imagery have had sufficient evidence to suggest that it can improve performance of various sports. Finke carried out a meta-analytic research of sixty studies aimed at examining effect of mental practice on control conditions. The results from average effect sizes indicated that the practice of imagery influence performance more than without practice while less effective compared to actual physical practice. It conclusively asserted that mental imagery had better performance. Another research was carried out by Giacobbi to determine how sport skills were influence by mental practice. Although previous studies that had been conducted displayed that mental rehearsal had positive effects, they had not been carried out on subjects with sport skills other than motor tasks. In this experiment, this issue was eliminated and a hypothesis of whether people with enhanced images and control had improved performances tested. The tests involved were categorized as experienced trampolinists. The two groups were further split into control and experimental group with the subjects organized as high or low imagers according to their skill level. Over six-week phase, both groups underwent training on three skills. The experimental group practiced the skill physically and mentally for 21/2 and 5 minutes respectively and lastly 21/2 minutes on physical practice. On the other hand, the control group was subjected to 21/2 minutes of physical skills and other 5 minutes of abstract nature of mental task such as deleting vowels and math problems. Additional 21/2 minutes on physical skills were later spent. The experiment exhibited the following results: low and high imagers showed significant improvement difference. High imagery displayed better improvement than low imagery on both experimental and novice groups in situations with similar initial skill. Further, experimental and control groups had significant difference while the experimental group had significant improvement compared to the control group. From this study, it is conclusive to assert that visual imagery is effective despite the skill level (Pylyshyn, 2002). Another scientific research on mental imagery conducted recently by Hodges discovered six autonomic nervous system (ANS) responses that related with mental imagery hence advanced sports performance. The subjects were categorized into imagery and control group with each group measured on their ability to direct a serve from the opponent to their teammate in volleyball. Variations of the ANS during mental rehearsing and motor skill sessions were measured. Included in the ANS parameters that were tested are skin temperature and resistance, heart rate and respiratory frequency. The results indicated that response in physical tasks had strong correlation with sessions of mental imagery. The experiment also revealed that imagery and control groups had skills difference while there was no substantial difference in control group on pre and pro-tests. The study revealed that specific automatic response is induced by mental imagery. This experiment points out that mental imagery assist in building of schema that can be reproduced in actual practice without thinking. Other studies have also suggested that mental imagery also enhances internal motivation (Hodges, 2012). There are many problems associated with mental imagery when determining their potential benefits in athletics. One major problem is that the benefits of mental imagery are primarily subjective. Most researchers while carrying out their studies rely on athletes verbal accounts. This limited because a verbal account of an individual inadequate to form a conclusion. Another predicament while conducting studies on mental imagery is the actual performance. Although the athletes are usually provided with scripts used in carrying out mental imagery it is difficult to ascertain if indeed the athletes adhered to the scripts. Therefore, the athletes might perform mental imagery at different degrees of quality leading to problematic results. This because individuals have distinct minds thus they visualize differently. Recent execution of functional magnetic resonance imagery (fmri) illustrated strong correlation between performance and imagery. Although it shows significant correlation, it fails to address whether athletic performance benefits from mental imagery (Giacobbi, 2010) Sports psychologists have advanced many theories in effort to determine mental imagery. However, sports psychology does not have a theory that adequately explicates mental imagery effectiveness. Psychoneuromuscular theory advanced by Carpenter asserts that actual motor pattern is a duplicate of imagery rehearsal. He sees motor patterns created from imagery practice being similar to those of physical practice. Symbolic theory maintains that mental imagery working is due to motor tasks elements. It assumes that cognitive learning is obtained from imagery. Another theory, activation, signifies that optimal arousal for performance is obtained by imagery practice. The muscles are primed by the arousal hence sensory threshold is lowered to allow performance. Imagery has not been completely successful for some athletes as others claim that it did not assist them. Due to the existence of many misconceptions about imagery as a technique, some coaches are hesitant in applying it in training sessions. Further, many coaches prefer that athletes should spent time meant for imagery in resting on performing extra drills (McKinney, 2008). From the above exceptional review of visualization practice as a completion of physical activities, it is vital to conclude that the practice has research- supported underpinnings and not just a “pop psychology” and mysticism. The researches by various experts have yielded positive results that connote visual imagery as promising and beneficial in sport performance. Hence, sports program should be integrated with mental training in order to achieve best performance. Virtually most studies have shown improved motor skills due to mental training. In accordance with recently studies, more studies need to be done to improve imagery effectiveness and to address imagery problems. More techniques that are effective need to be created to enhance effects of mental imagery. From the above research and findings, it is irrefutable to note that imagery is a very vital technique in sports if applied appropriately, as many athletes have attained success. Patience should be exercise will using imagery in sports otherwise, unexpected results may be derived.

References
Finke, R. A. (1989). Principles of mental imagery. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.
Giacobbi, P. R. (2010, December 1). A Measurement and Conceptual Investigation of Exercise Imagery Establishing Construct Validity. Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport. Hodges, N. (2012). Skill Acquisition in Sport Research, Theory and Practice. Hoboken: Taylor and Francis.
McKinney, D. L. (2008, June 1). Mental Strategies to Improve Playing from Memory. American Music Teacher.
Pylyshyn, Z. W. (2002). Mental Imagery: In Search of a Theory. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 25 (02).

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