1. Chapter 19 Mental Practice
Concept: Mental practice can be effective for learning and relearning motor skills and for preparing to perform motor skills

2. Mental Practice
Definition: The cognitive rehearsal of a physical skill in the absence of overt physical movements
It can take the form of thinking about the cognitive or procedural aspects of a motor skill, or
Engaging in visual or kinesthetic imagery of the performance of a skill or part of a skill
Imagery can be internal or external
Mental practice is distinct from “meditation”
around him

3. Roles for Mental Practice
Research has investigated two distinct roles for mental practice
A practice strategy to aid the acquisition of motor skills
A means of preparing to perform a well-learned skill

4. Mental Practice Aids Motor Skill Acquisition
To determine the influence of mental practice on skill learning, researchers have typically compared three practice conditions:
Physical practice only (PP)
Mental practice only (MP)
No practice (NP)
What do results consistently show?
PP > MP > NP
What do results show if a group is added that receives a combination of equal trials of physical and mental practice?
Similar to PP only

6. Mental Practice Aids Motor Skill Acquisition, cont’d
Some examples of learning situations that research has shown benefit from mental practice:
Rehabilitative settings
Power training
Part of a general preparation strategy that aids learning

7. Singer 5 step general learning strategy that involves elements of mental practice in 3 steps
1. Get ready physically, mentally, emotionally
2. Mentally imaging performing action, visually and kinesthetically.
3. concentrate intensely on only 1 relevant cue
4. execute action
5. evaluate performance outcome

8. Results of study by Lidor, Tennant, and Singer
Error
Subjects first learned a task involving ball throwing
had throw ball over a net and hit a target
points were awarded according to where ball hit target
One group used 5-step general learning strategy
Control did not
1. Get ready physically, mentally, emotionally
2. Mentally imaging performing action, visually and kinesthetically.
3. concentrate intensely on only 1 relevant cue
4. execute action
5. evaluate performance outcome
Control
5 – Step
Strategy
Control
5 – Step
Strategy
Ball throw practice Lawn dart transfer

9. Types of Imagery Related to Motor Skill Performance Preparation
5 types of imagery that athletes use to improve performance:
Motivational – specific
Motivational – general mastery
Motivational – general arousal
Cognitive – specific
Cognitive – general
See Table 19.1 for specific descriptions of each

10. Mental Practice Aids Peformance Preparation
Imagery is the most common mental practice strategy for skilled athletes preparing to perform a skill (Martin et al. 1999)
Between competitive events
Immediately prior to a during a competitive event
Rehabilitating an injury

11. Why is Mental Practice Effective?
No comprehensive theories that explain why mental practice in the form of imagery is effective (Martin et al., 1999)
Three generally accepted hypotheses:
Neuromuscular hypothesis: EMG recordings in muscles showing involvement
Brain activity hypothesis: Brain activity during imagery similar to activity during physical performance of a skill
Cognitive hypothesis: Helps learner answer “what to do” questions that are common during the initial stage of motor skill learning

12. Why is Mental Practice Effective?
No comprehensive theories that explain why mental practice in the form of imagery is effective (Martin et al., 1999)
Three generally accepted hypotheses:
Neuromuscular hypothesis: EMG recordings in muscles showing involvement
Brain activity hypothesis: Brain activity during imagery similar to activity during physical performance of a skill
Cognitive hypothesis: Helps learner answer “what to do” questions that are common during the initial stage of motor skill learning

13. Imagery Ability
Some people have great difficult imaging a described action
Research indicates that the effectiveness of imagery is based on people’s ability to visually or kinesthetically image physical movement
Imagery ability is an individual differences variable
Hall and colleagues developed an imagery ability questionnaire to assess a person’s imagery ability
See example questions in A Closer Look
Research shows that people with low imagery ability can still benefit from mental practice

14. Movement Imagery Questionnaire (MIQ)6 2 3 4 5 7 1
Very Easy Somewhat Neutral Somewhat Hard Very
Easy Easy Hard Hard