Imagery rehearsal ability, relaxation and brain wave activity: implications for imagery intervention programmes in sport psychology

[摘要] Despite the well documented advantageous functions of imagery rehearsal as it pertainsto sporting performance, the relationship between relaxation, imagery rehearsal abilityand brainwave activity has received relatively little attention from sport researchers.With this in mind, the primary purpose of the present study was to invest'gate thepossibility of the existence (If such a triadic relationship and consider the implicationsthat this relationship may have on the development of imagery intervention programmesin Sport Psychology.Two male and seven female undergraduate Physical Education students, aged between18 and 28 years volunteered to participate in the study. The Vividness of MovementImagery Questionnaire (VMIQ) was administered to all subjects in order to assess eachsubject's imagery ability. The subjects were then randomly assigned to either thecontrol or to the experimental group. Two weeks after completing the VMIQ, thesubjects completed the VMIQ for a second tim, During the second administration ofthe VMIQ all subjects were attached to an EEG ~ojectroencephalograph) machine. Thestrategically placed EEG electrodes were attached for the purpose of assessing whetheror not significant changes in alpha brainwave patterns were evident during imageryrehearsal. The experimental group differed from the control group in that theexperimental group took part in a relaxation exercise prior to completing the VMIQ fora second time, whilst the control group did not receive the relaxation intervention. Theresults of the study indicated that there was enhanced alpha brainwave activity in theright occipital lobe during the imagery conditions. Whilst it could be speculated fromthe research findings that imagery ability and. brainwave activity differed fromindividual to individual and from one imagery condition to another, these differenceswere not statistically significant. Although not statistically significant, the differencesobserved between the pre and post-test scores for the experimental group were howeverpurported to be meaningful since three of'the four subjects from the experimental groupshowed an improvement on imagery ability following the relaxation intervention. Thisfinding justifies the need for future research into the relationship between relaxation andimagery rehearsal. It was also concluded that whilst some subjects emitted the greatestalpha activity during the same imagery dimensions for which they reported the highestimagery abilitiy scores, other subjects emitted the greatest alpha activity during thesame imagery dimensions for which they reported the lowest scores in imagery abilitiy.As such, it could not be concluded from the present research findings that a correlationbetween imagery ability and alpha brainwave activity actually exists.

[发布机构] University of the Witwatersrand