Lecture 8: Psychological skills 2

Question 1

imagery

Answer 1

• Visualisation
  ○ Different to visualisation as uses all the senses, visualisation is just sight.
  
  • Mental rehearsal
  • Symbolic rehearsal
  • Covert practice
  • Mental practice imagery
  • Imagery: recreation of experience in the mind
    ○ Recalling information from memory stored as experiences and shaping them as meaningful images

Question 2

difference between imagery and mental rehearsal

Answer 2

• Imagery: ‘ a symbolic experience that may occur in any sensory mode’ - Hardy, Jones and Gould, 1996
  
  • Mental rehearsal: ‘ the cognitive rehearsal of a task in the absence of overt physical movement’
  • Imagery should involve as many senses as possible as helps to create more vivid images

Question 3

evidence of imagery effects

Answer 3

• Medium overall effect of imagery interventions
  
  • Significant enhance,ent of motor performance, motivational and affective outcomes
  • Imagery and physical practice more effective than physical practice alone suggesting differential effects
  • There appears to be a dose-reponse
  • There remain gaps in understanding moderators (e.g. imagery type, ability and skill level.

Question 4

when is imagery used?

Answer 4

• Before / During / After (Hall, 2001)
  
  • Athletes report using more before
    than during and after
  • Underused after practice
  • Should be used in injury rehabilitation and on the occasions that it is more focus is on motivation rather than rehearsal of exercise
  • More emphasis as faster recovery has been identified

Question 5

why do athletes use imagery?

Answer 5

• Relates to what the person images
  
  • Muscles feeling loose
    Function
  • Refers to why
  • To feel relaxed
  • Two functions – Cognitive and Motivational (Pavio 1985)
    Oriented towards general or specific behaviours

Question 6

content of imagery

Answer 6

1. Images of the surroundings in which athlete competes
   
   2. The positive/negative characteristics of image
   3. The senses involved in imagery
   4. Perspective taken in creating imagery

Question 7

positive and negative imagery

Answer 7

• Positive most often reported during practices and pre-competition
  
  • Negative most often reported during competition

Question 8

types of imagery

Answer 8

• Visual
  
  • Kinaesthetic
  • Auditory
  • Olfactory

Question 9

which types of imagery are used most often?

Answer 9

• Visual and kinaesthetic used most often
  
  • Farahat, Ille and Thon (2004): visual imagery group performed better than kinaesthetic though both performed better than control

Question 10

imagery perspective

Answer 10

depends on athlete and situation

internal imagery - execution of a skill from your own vantage point

external imagery - view from the perspective of an outsider

Question 11

factors effecting imagery

Answer 11

- Nature of the task
		○ Tasks involving cognitive components
	- Skill level of the performer
		○ Beneficial for novice and elite
	- Imaging ability
		○ Probably most powerful influence also in distinguishing between elite and novice performance
	- Using imagery with physical practice
		○ Mental practice does improve performance more than no physical practice

Question 12

how does imagery work?

Answer 12

• We can generate information from memory that is essentially the same as an actual experience
  
  • Imaging events can have an affect on our nervous system similar to that of the real world experience

Question 13

explanations for imagery

Answer 13

1. Psychoneuromuscular theory
   2. Symbolic learning theory
   3. Bioinformational theory

Question 14

psychoneuromuscular theory

Answer 14

• Proposes that imagery produced similar neuromuscular activity to the actual movement
  
  • Ideomotor principle of imagery (Carpenter 1894)
  • Supporting evidence:
    ○ Imagined arm movements produced small muscular contractions (Jacobson, 1931)
    ○ EMG activity greatest when imagining skiing over rough sections of a course (Suinn, 1976)
    ○ EEG does not replicate exact neural pattern of activity Slade et al, 2002)

Question 15

symbolic learning theory

Answer 15

• Sackett 1934
  
  • Proposes that imagery generates and strengthens a ‘mental blueprint’ of the required action
  • Enables rehearsal of cognitive aspects of a skill (e.g., strategy, decision making)
  • Supporting evidence
    ○ Beneficial effects of mental practice are greater for cognitive than motor tasks
    ○ Imagery involves the same neural pathways as actual perception

Question 16

bioinformational learning theory

Answer 16

• Lang 1977/1979
  
  • Image: a functionally organised set of propositions stored in the brain
  • Stimulus propositions: the content of the scene to be imagined
  • Response propositions: verbal, motor, physiological, emotional responses to the scene
  • Imagery instructions that include response propositions generate stronger responses (Cumming et al., 2007)

Question 17

PETTLEP

Answer 17

○ The Physical nature of the movement
		○ The specifics of the Environment
		○ The type of Task
		○ The Timing of the movement
		○ Learning the content of the movement
		○ The Emotion of the movement
		○ The Perspective of the person

Question 18

uses of imagery

Answer 18

• Improve concentration
  
  • Enhance motivation
  • Build confidence
  • Control emotional responses
  • Acquire, practice and correct sports skills
  • Acquire and practice strategy
  • Prepare for competition
  • Cope with pain and injury
  • Solve problems

Question 19

when is imagery most effective?

Answer 19

• Most effective when using multiple senses
  
  • Most effective when including stimulus and response propositions
  • Effectiveness may be mediated by imagery ability
  • Neuroscience revealing more about the degree of functional equivalence between imagery and perception
    “Despite the unqualified enthusiasm which it commonly receives in applied sport psychology, mental imagery is not a panacea for all ills in sport” (Moran, 2012)

Question 20

SMARTER goals

Answer 20

• S – Specific (Who, What, When, Where, Why?)
  
  • M – Measurable (How will you it’s achieved?)
  • A – Actioned (What are you going to do?)
  • R – Resourced (What do you need?)
  • T – Time based (How long is it going to take?)
  • E – Evaluate (How successful were you?)
  • R – Reset (Once achieved, start fresh)

Question 21

issues with goal setting

Answer 21

Issues with goal setting research in sport - Kyllo and Landers, 1995
Methodological
- Setting own goals / rejecting assigned goals
- Small sample size
Individual & Task characteristics
- Sport participants already motivated
- Feedback more immediate

Question 22

new directions to goal setting

Answer 22

New directions (Lock and Latham, 2006)

1. Goal choice
2. Learning goals
3. Framing
4. Affect
5. Group goals
6. Traits
7. Macro level
8. Subconscious priming

Question 23

public goal setting intervention

Answer 23

Public goal setting intervention (Ward and Carnes, 2002)
- Intervention: Self-set + public posting of performance goals in 5 College linebackers
- 3 elements of performance
○ “Reads” (positioning for pass or run)
○ “Drops” (correct response to opposition line-up)
○ “Tackles” (of ball carrier to stop progress)

Question 24

team goal setting

Answer 24

• Goal setting as most effective team building strategy
  
  • Most research has looked at brief intervention
  • Cohesion has been the main variable of interest
  • Aim to satisfy needs of individual members whilst improving environmental conditions
    a) Season long programme
    b) Direct and indirect delivery method
    c) Control group
    d) Additional constructs (motivational climate)

Question 25

how goals influence performance

Answer 25

• Direct Attention
  ○ Improves focus and gives meaning to training and competition
  
  • Effort Mobilisation
    ○ This is still needed by the athlete and may not be achieved by goal setting alone
  • Persistence
    ○ The importance of the goal to the athlete drives this influence
  • Development of new learning strategies
    ○ The above will lead the athlete to test new strategies and ways of achieving their goals
    (Locke, Shaw, Saari and Latham, 1981)

Question 26

how do goals work

Answer 26

1. Motivate
   
   2. Create plan
   3. Monitor progress

Question 27

competence

Answer 27

○ Task – Perceptions of competence self referenced. Meeting the demands of the task, exerting effort and improving one’s skill level.
○ Ego – Interest in demonstrating superior competence. Better than others or surpass normative standards.

Question 28

adapt outcomes of competence

Answer 28

• Engaging in training
  
  • Giving best effort in training and competition
  • Exhibiting persistence even when things not going well
  • Selecting optimally challenging activities and opponents
  • Performing to potential consistently
  • Continually working on improvement

Question 29

maladaptive outcomes of competence

Answer 29

When focused on demonstrating superiority and when there are doubts over ability:

- Holds back in effort and training
- Experiences performance impairment as a result of doubts as to whether they are good enough
- Selects challenges that are too difficult or too easy 
- Withdraw from sport as a result of feeling incompetent