Imagery as a Skill: Longitudinal Analysis of Changes in Motivational Imagery

Abstract

Imagery intervention research indicates that athletes improve their imagery skill through practice. As a skill, imagery is expected to improve over time only if athletes increase their use of imagery (i.e., engage in imagery practice). Forty-four track-and-field athletes striving for selection to national games completed the Sport Imagery Questionnaire to assess imagery use and the Motivational Imagery Ability Measure to assess imagery ability. The athletes completed the measures three times within 13 months prior to the games. Although cognitive general imagery use increased over time, paired t-tests indicated that there were no other significant changes across the functions of imagery use. For motivational imagery ability, there were minimal changes from Time 1 to Time 3 indicating the athletes’ motivational imagery ability remained relatively stable. These results add support for targeted imagery interventions as athletes do not spontaneously or independently begin to increase their use of imagery; athletes need purposeful interventions to realize improvements in imagery skills.