Effects of mental practice on the accomplished performance

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of mental practice on the accomplished performance of a dart-throwing task when the task could not be physically practiced during the physical activity rest intervals. The participants were 19 male and 11 female university undergraduates and graduate school students. Two learnining periods—a physical activity phase and a physical activity rest phase—were set up as experimental conditions. First, in the physical activity phase, the participants were randomly assigned to one of two learning conditions: Combination Practice (CP: n=16) in which both physical and mental practice were performed, and Physical Practice conditions (PP: n=14) in which only physical practice was performed. Then, in the physical activity rest phase, the participants were assigned to one of four practice groups: (1) the use of mental practice coupled with physical practice in the physical activity phase, and the use of mental practice in the physical activity rest phase (CP-MP; n=7); (2) the use of mental practice coupled with physical practice in the physical activity phase, and no practice in the physical activity rest phase (CP-NP; n=7); (3) the use of physical practice in the physical activity phase, and the use of mental practice in the physical activity rest phase (PP-MP; n=8); (4) the use of physical practice in the physical activity phase, and no practice in the physical activity rest phase (PP-NP; n=8). The results showed that the CP-MP and PP-MP groups performed better in the retention test than the CP-NP and PP-NP groups in terms of the accuracy and consistency of the dart-throwing task. These results indicate that dart-throwing performance can be retained by mental practice for three weeks during the physical activity rest phase.