Motor Imagery Research Paper

Imagery Imagery is the creation or recreation of an experience in the mind. It is often referred to by the use of many different terms including visualization, mental rehearsal, covert practice, and mental practice (Weinberg & Gould, 2006). Typically, imagery is done with the absence of physically movement (Vealey & Greenleaf, 2010) Imagery is distinct from visualization because imagery should include an array of senses, not just the visual senses. Including your visual sense, imagery is then followed by utilizing your kinesthetic and tactile senses to able to feel how your body is moving and what you would be feeling with your body. Add into the mix your auditory and olfactory sense for what you hear and what you smell respectively. Lastly,

PETTLEP is an acronym that has seven different elements to it. First there is the Physical nature of the movement, then the specifics of the Environment. Third is the Type of task and then the Timing of the movement. Fourth is the Learning the technique of the movement and then the Emotion (assigned meaning by an individual) of the movement. Lastly is the Perspective of the person. Perspective is referring to the internal or external views of imagery, which to me means your own perspective or a third person’s perspective, respectively (Holmes and Collins, 2001). This model has been put to the test multiple times and has been found support for including these PETTLEP elements into one’s imagery sessions (Smith, Wright, Allsopp & Westhead,

Many of the articles reported that they did the imagery interventions in the off season (Citation). It seemed to be that way because that is when many athletes have time to participate in research. It seems to me that the best time depends on the athlete themselves. Some athletes might be able to do imagery anywhere and it is very effective for them, others might to find an extremely quite place and only then imagery is effective. There seems to be just one hard fast rule, and it is that imagery, along with other psychological skill, should be systematically implemented (Citation – the article that I shared with the