The effects of imagery on the performance of a fine motor skill: Golf putting
Abstract (summary)
The purpose of this study was to explore the effects of imagery on a fine motor skill: golf putting. Two research hypotheses were postulated for this project: (1) Individuals who experience imagery combined with practice will show more improvement in putting performance than those individuals who experience physical practice only. (2) Individuals who experience an imagery script that contains imagining a positive outcome will improve their putting performance to a greater degree than individuals who experience an imagery script that does not contain positive outcome or individuals who experience physical practice only. In addition, two research questions were posed: (1) Do high imagers appear to benefit from imagery more than low imagers? (2) To what degree did subjects manipulate their imagery scripts and did that manipulation affect putting performance? All subjects were from the Louisville, Kentucky, area which includes the surrounding Southern Indiana area. A total of 121 subjects participated in this research project, 77 females and 44 males. Previous research designs had included design limitations which included no imagery script manipulation checks, no measurement of subjects' imagery ability, poorly delineated imagery scripts and poorly defined performance measures. Subjects were randomly assigned to one of four groups, three experimental groups and one control group to form matched groups on putting experience. The experimental design was a between groups design. The subjects were run through a five stage experimental design in maximum groups of four subjects. The five stages of the experimental design were a training session on the skill, putting a golf ball in a pretreatment measure, an imagery or physical practice control session, putting a golf ball in a post-treatment measure, and an imagery script manipulation check. The results were subject to parametric analysis using analysis of variance, analysis of covariance and Pearson Product Moment correlations. The results of the study indicated that imagery coupled with physical practice did not have a significant effect on putting performance as compared with physical practice only. In addition, when imagery ability was considered, the results indicated no significant effect, although there was a trend in the predicted direction. Furthermore, imagining a successful outcome had no significant effect on performance as compared to imagining no outcome.
Indexing (details)
Recreation;
Physiological psychology
0814: Recreation
0989: Physiological psychology