Motor Imagery Perspective In Cross-Country Skiers With Various Technical Skill Levels

Abstract

Motor imagery is widely known to be an effective tool commonly used in sport settings to enhance motor coordination. However, differences between first- and third person imagery in terms of its effects on performance and underlying psychological mechanisms as well as conditions in which using of each perspective should be considered optimal are still not well understood. At the same time, current options to adjust mental imagery for individual need and, in particular, special strategies for imagery use depending on athletes’ level of expertise are limited. To investigate potential features of imagery perspective related to athletes technical expertise, we have tested 54 cross-country skiers (40 males and 14 females) aged from 11 to 31 (M = 16.3) and ranked from third-class junior to merited master of sport. To determine athletes’ technical skill levels dual-task methodology with following video analysis and expert technique assessment were implemented. Then, by using cluster analysis, the participants were divided into 4 groups according to their expertise. The national team members were assigned to the fifth group as best-skilled performers. Based on imagery perspective for 11 ski technical elements, groups with predominant use of first-person, third-person or switching perspective were formed by means of cluster analysis. Cross-tabulation revealed gradual rise of the third-person imagery use across motor skill development with a secondary increase in the first person images frequency in most-skilled performers. Possible explanations and applications of the obtained data are discussed.

Keywords: Sport psychologymental imagerymotor imageryimagery perspectivefirst person imagerythird person imagery,

Introduction

It is widely recognized that the main feature of sport is a continuous pursuit for best performance and this creates the conditions where improvement simply by means of an increase in amount and intensiveness of training is going eventually to hit the limits. Therefore, interventions enabling to influence the quality of training are the most valuable ones to implement at an elite sport level.

Among tools for such interventions, one of the most extensively used is mental imagery (Morris, Spittle & Watt, 2005; Murphy & Martin, 2002). According to Paivio (1985), impact of mental imagery on sport performance is mediated by motivational or cognitive mechanisms acting at general or special level. As a result, Paivio identified 4 functionally distinct types of imagery:

• Motivational general imagery conveys emotions and somatic arousal,

• Motivational special imagery represents a goal individual is aimed at or an event that stands for such a goal (e.g., winning a large-scale competition, getting on a podium, going through a medal ceremony, etc),

• Cognitive general imagery is used to create possible tactical plans for future performance,

• Cognitive special imagery is involved in motor skills practice.

The last type of imagery is more often referred to as motor imagery and recommended for use as a powerful supplementation to traditional technical training. Up to date, motor imagery has proven to be effective in facilitating new motor skills acquisition as well as perfection of already mastered techniques in sport settings (Driskell, 1994). The process or method of implementing imagery to improve motor skills performance is called mental practice. For the same reason as traditional training methods, latter is known to be an object of continuous research on optimization of its use to yield most pronounce effect on performance.

Among such efforts, one of the most consistent was made by (Holmes and Collins, 2001) who introduced the PETTLEP model. The main idea proposed in the model was to enhance benefit from motor imagery for a performer by trying to reach equivalence between real and imagined action on the following 7 parameters:

• “Physical” is a degree of arbitrary force use and background somatic arousal,

• “Environment” is perceived properties of surroundings and objects being intended to interact with,

• “Task” is features of imagined exercise such as being directed by endo- or exogenous stimuli,

• “Timing” is a tempo of imagined action (e.g., slow, real or accelerated),

• “Learning” is the actual competence in a skill being imagined,

• “Emotion” is emotional response for exercising a skill,

• “Perspective” is a point of view in the mind’s eye, which can be the first- or the third-person view.

Despite only the first-person imagery can be congruent to a picture perceived during real action (Olsson, 2008), authors do not explicitly recommend to use only the first-person perspective taking into account the results obtained by (Hardy and Callow, 1999) showing advantage of the third-person imagery to practice certain types of skills. Later, Callow et al., 2013 suggested that the third-person imagery underlying processes could be equivalent to some of the activities involved in control of real actions. In any case, influence of imagery perspective on mental practice and corresponding motor skill performance is yet not well understood.

Beyond sport settings, imagery perspective has been extensively studied by Libby and Eibach, (2011) who believed that an imagery perspective adopted by individual depended on the way he or she defines the imagined event. So, a concrete interpretation of imagined actions (in terms of its constituent steps or movements) is considered to be linked to the first-person perspective imagery, whereas an abstract interpretation (in relation to action’s broader context – e.g., its causes or consequences and actor’s characteristics or motivations, etc) is regarded as associated to the third-person perspective. E.g., a neutrally described action like “locking the door” may correspond to either “putting a key in the lock” (concrete, imagined from the first-person perspective) or “securing the house” (abstract, imagined from the third-person perspective) representation.

In turn, Vallacher and Wegner, 1987 note that individuals tend to use the most concrete interpretations when talking about actions that failed to be easily performed and thus an individual had to put conscious efforts to analyze, plan and monitor each step of the action. E.g., an individual first time riding a bike can think of his or her actions simply as of attempts to keep balance. Further analyzing action demands, an individual starts to emphasize significant elements of the action, which are currently critical to monitor to avoid failure, and while riding a bike he or she can attend to smooth pedal pushing and holding a steering wheel in a right direction. But after the action became automated, intense control is not anymore needed and released attention allows to think of the performing action in a more abstract manner. As for the example with a bike riding, action’s meaning may change to “seeing the neighborhood”, “unwinding from a hard day” or, for instance, “getting exercise” (Vallacher and Wegner, 1987). Given example clearly illustrates that an action interpretation alters while the corresponding skill performance experience is gained. In line with the findings of Libby and Eibach (2011), the same can be the case for that skill image perspective.

Problem Statement

Mental practice is widely used to learn or perfect motor skills in both beginners and experienced athletes. However there is a growing practical demand to develop an approach to adjust motor imagery use for optimal results in certain types of tasks and at various skill levels. From theoretical point of view, currently, there is lack of data on the role of perspective in motor imagery.

Research Questions

We expect that at the beginner level substantial percentage of athletes would be prone to adopt the first-person perspective while imagining a set of specific skills, whereas more skilled performance would be associated with rise in percentage of athletes inclined to the third person perspective imagery.

Purpose of the Study

The purpose of the study was to define the profile of imagery perspective use in relation to level of expertise in cross-country skiers. Latter were considered since cross-country skiing is a cyclic sport which, on the one hand, is technically demanding and, thus, expected to keep beginner skiers attending to skill details (assumed to be associated with the first-person perspective) and, on the other hand, allows experienced athletes to develop highly automated movements (assumed to be associated with the third-person perspective).

Research Methods

Findings

Results of the cluster analyses

Grouping according to level of expertise

Spearman correlation coefficient for the scores of the first and second expert was 0.93 ( p < 0.001) and the scores were averaged and the average scores for each trial was calculated. Then the athletes (n = 46) were divided into 4 clusters according to the technical score for the trial #1, deautomatization index and amount of cycles at trial #1 and trial #2. The last fifth group was comprised of the national team members (n = 8) who were considered top-class athletes and did not participate in dual-task experiment. Percentage distribution on the resulted groups is shown at figure 1 .

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Technical expertise evaluation seems to be plausible as the obtained grouping is noncontroversial to the athletes’ qualification (see figure 2 ).

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Grouping according to predominantly used imagery perspective

The sample (n = 54) was divided into 3 clusters according to the scores for imagery perspective. Centers of the resulted clusters are shown at figure 3 .

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The first cluster (33%) includes subjects who are prone to imagine almost all given actions from the first-person perspective. The second (40%) comprises of the skiers who tends to switch perspective while imagining the actions. The third (27%) involves participants who imagine the actions mainly from the third-person perspective.

Comparison of various levels of expertise on predominantly used imagery perspective

The data on the use of various imagery perspectives depending on skill level are depicted at figure 4 showing distribution of athletes with predominant use of first-person, switching or third-person perspective on distinct levels of technical expertise.

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Possible explanations and applications of the obtained data are discussed further.

Conclusion

The beginner skiers inclined to imagine their movements from the first-person perspective (see figure 4 ) that is being consistent with the present hypothesis. We consider that first-person imagery predisposes to adopt a narrow attentional focus, which allows to more deeply analyze a movement being imagined. According to N. Bernstein, 1967, such imaging strategy can significantly accelerate sensory corrections accumulation, which is being a crucial mechanism of skill acquisition at its first stages. It is possible, that the beginner athletes’ first person imagery is a manifestation of their adaptation to the activities demand through which they could find a suitable way to concentrate on the details of imagined actions and achieve correct performance.

Imagining an action from the third-person perspective, a subject can see it more generally and does not tend to deeply analyze its constituent movements. According to Vallacher and Wegner, 1987, an individual is naturally inclined to see actions within its broader context unless some of the current conditions requires the opposite. We think this could be true in relation to motor tasks as well. After a movement has become automated, there is no need to thoroughly control its elements and athletes more frequently adopt a broad attentional focus, which is believed to be associated with third-person imagery. It corresponds to the abilities of experienced athletes such as multitask performance, quick attention switching and orientation in competitive environment. Consciously thinking of automated movement mechanics has been confirmed to have a destructive influence on performance (Beilock et al., 2002).

Perhaps, at some point, first-person imagery can block further automatization process and therefore some of the athletes move to presumably more productive third-person perspective (see figure  4 ). Secondary rise in the number of skiers using predominantly first-person perspective imagery on advanced and national team levels (see figure 4 ) was not expected within the current hypothesis and is considered to be attributed to other factors becoming dominant when technical perfection comes out to be less crucial. It could be assumed, that technical and even tactical actions are becoming fully automated at these stages. At the same time, many of the advanced athletes already think of sports as of their career option and, hence, they begin to be more oriented on competitive results. In contrast to taking exercises as a hobby, when athletes can fully enjoy their technical perfection, aiming at highly competitive activity in skiing entails subjects to be concentrating on maximal movement speed and strength and a conscious emphasis on these attracts person’s attention back to movement itself. If this is the case, similar changes has to take place in person’s imagery that can result in adaptive shifting back to the first-person imagery as a more suitable way to concentrate on various aspects of imagined movement itself. This could be especially substantial for the national team members as all of them were specialized in ski sprint which is being the most demanding cross-country skiing subtype.

As a result, there could be additional increase in emotional load of imagery and its association with somatic reactions used by athletes to estimate their forces at the distance (Hanin, 2008). Correspondingly, several studies (Abelson, 975; Fiske, et al., 1979; McIsaac and Eich, 2002) have shown first-person imagery to be associated with emotional feeling and interoceptive sensations which again can be considered conditions predisposing to adopt a narrow attentional focus (Nideffer, 1990).

At last, national team level often imposes new strict requirements to athletes’ technical performance, completely different from the former ones (Novikova, 2014). This involves continuous practice to adjust technique to sharply increased demands causing an athlete to relearn movements imagining from first-person perspective. It is worth mentioning, that athletes’ conscious thinking of movements structure can also be mediated by a couching style, which is able to encourage or suppress such an activity through directing athletes’ attention.

In conclusion, the Present results have potential application in mental practice, suggesting to use the first-person imagery at the stages of intense motor learning and the third-person imagery to facilitate further progress in cases when it detained by conscious examination of movement structure.

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by Russian Foundation for Basic Research № 15-06- 1029 4

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