Posted: March 5th, 2016

Discuss the findings of our lab in relation to hypotheses explaining why mental practice is effective (e.g., neuromuscular hypothesis, brain activity hypothesis,

Mental practice (MP) is defined as “cognitive rehearsal of a physical skill in the absence of overt movement” (Magill, 2010). Due to this definition, MP could incorporate a number of different rehearsal techniques. For example, MP could be merely thinking about the task. Typically, however, it is thought of as rehearsing a task where the athlete imagines performing the activity. Initially there was reserve regarding the effectiveness of MP, but more recently, there has been consistent findings demonstrating MP to be a beneficial approach for a number of different functions. One function that has been demonstrated to be beneficial from MP is learning a technical skill. The function that you are going to explore in this lab is whether MP is beneficial for learning a technical skill.

Method
Task: The task is to bounce a ball from the floor to a target drawn on the wall using the non-
preferred hand.
Equipment;
Basketball (or similar sized ball)
A target drawn on the wall – The target should consist of three scoring zones. Each
scoring zone will be square. The first zone should be represented by the highest score in the middle to smallest score in the outer circle.
The size of the 3 point zone should 50cm by 50 cm and for the 2 point zone 1m by 1m

Procedure:
The procedure of this lab is to complete a pre-test on the task, followed by ten trials of mental practice of the task and finally, the post-test.
Pre- and Post-Test
The pre- and post-test will involve the participant bouncing the ball at the target for 10 bounces.
To perform the task, you should hold the ball and stand in a comfortable position around 2.5 metres from the target.
You should then bounce the ball into the ground towards the target using your non- preferred hand
That is, you should throw the ball using your non-preferred hand into the ground and aim that the ball bounces up and hits the middle of the target.
Add together each of the 10 throws to get an overall performance score.
After you finish the pre-test and before you start the post-test (after the mental
practice trials) you will need to take a 5-10 min break.
Mental Practice
You need to mentally practice performing the task
The mental practice trials will consist of sitting in a quiet area and mentally imaging doing the performance of the 10 trials (remember 1 trial is ten throws).
During mental practice, do not perform any physical performance of the task.
Try to imagine key characteristics to the performance such as the weight of the ball in
your hand, the effort you need to bounce the ball onto the ground, the sound the ball makes when it hits the ground and then hits the wall and the view of the ball hitting the wall.
You score the imagery performance of the task by adding together the scores of your 10 imaginary throws (e.g., if you imagine throw 1 hitting a 2, then 3, 1, 2, 1, 3, 2, 3, and lastly 2 then your overall score will be 21).
Results
1. Present the results of the lab in a graph (e.g.,line graph).
2. Interpret the results of the lab in relation to the aim of the lab (i.e.,what did
you actually find). Was there a change in performance based from Mental Practice?
Discussion Questions
1. Define mental practice and describe two roles of mental practice in sport.
2. Discuss the findings of our lab in relation to hypotheses explaining why mental practice is effective (e.g., neuromuscular hypothesis, brain activity hypothesis,
and cognitive hypothesis).
3. Define imagery ability and discuss why imagery ability might have an effect on
the benefit of mental practice

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