Hi On Mon, 6 Oct 2003, Christopher D. Green wrote:
> jim clark wrote: > >One mainstream psychologist who has had an interest in > >sports imagery is Allan Paivio, now emeritus at University of > >Western Ontario. Below is one relevant link. > >Sport Imagery Questionnaire, with some results > >http://dlibrary.acu.edu.au/staffhome/stburke/su02p1.htm > Thanks for this. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to contain a reference > to a well-controlled experiment showing that prior imagery actually > makes athletes perform better ("well-controlled" meaning one that > randomly assigned subjects to conditions, used control groups to rule > out obvious alternative explanations for any effects found, etc.). My apologies if responding to Christopher's post gave the wrong impression. I was not trying to identify a definitive study (see below for more), but simply to point Annette in at least one direction and to observe that it was not just sports psychologists who had worked/thought about this question. > There must be such a study out there. Probably lots of them, right? > Otherwise there wouldn't be such a consensus that vizualization is such > a good thing. Can anyone out there provide us with a references to the > "classic" studies that brought about this consensus? I certainly agree with Christopher's implied point that people come to believe in things despite a lack of strong evidence. But I do not know enough about this area to say whether that is the case here. I do know, however, that the issues are actually quite complex. As the questionnaire above illustrates, imagery can serve multiple purposes (e.g., motivational, cognitive). Moreover, sports differ tremendously in what psychological, physical, and cognitive skills are required. I doubt that it is possible to make a generic statement about imagery and "sports" in the abstract. As well, athletes differ widely in terms of their experience and stage of development. I vaguely remember that some studies found that the effects of imagery depended on whether the athlete was a novice or intermediate in skill level (perhaps latter was helped more?). Finally, this is an area where analogue studies are likely to provide the tighter control that Christopher is looking for, albeit with some loss of external validity. Best wishes Jim ============================================================================ James M. Clark (204) 786-9757 Department of Psychology (204) 774-4134 Fax University of Winnipeg 4L05D Winnipeg, Manitoba R3B 2E9 [EMAIL PROTECTED] CANADA http://www.uwinnipeg.ca/~clark ============================================================================ --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
