The Effect of Action Observation, Imagery and Execution on Autonomic Nervous System Activity and Imagery Ability

Our study aims to identify the effect of observation, imagery and execution on selected psychophysiological indices and imagery ability. The participants were categorized into four groups (action kinesthetic imagery, action visual imagery, action observation and action execution). at pretest, the participants imagined each revised movement imagery questionnaire items. During imagery, their psychophysiological indices were recorded. Participants rated ease of imaging based on this questionnaire and did their exercises for three sequence days according to their groups. The post-test was performed as the pre-test protocol. The univariate covariance analysis test revealed significant differences between the score in variables of skin temperature level, heart beat and breathing rhythm but there was no clear advantage for a specific group. On the other hand, there were no significant differences between four groups in the ability to visualize at posttest. Therefore, it seems that all four methods are equally effective in the imagery ability.