The Relationship Between Motor Imagery Ability and Mental Representation Structure in Basketball Players

Motor imagery is one of the cognitive aspects of the tasks which is investigated as a factor affecting performance in many situations. Also, another cognitive dimension of tasks that researchers believe to play an important role in motor control and performance is mental representation. This study aimed to determine the relationship between motor imagery ability and mental representation structure in basketball free throw.

The design of this research was correlational and a convenient method of sampling was used. In this study, the Motor Imagery Questionnaire-Revised and Mental Representation Software were used as tools. The motor imagery ability of 60 female basketball players was measured and 10 participants with the highest (mean age: 16.3±2.05 years) and 10 participants with the lowest (mean age: 20.3±4.9 years) imagery ability were selected. Then, their mental representation was measured using mental representation software. The relationship between motor imagery ability and mental representation was analyzed using correlational analysis.

The results showed that the group with the highest motor imagery ability had a more structured mental representation which was more similar to that of criterion mental representation. Also, the results showed that there was a positive relationship between imagery and mental representation structure scores in both groups.

These results were interpreted using the perceptual-cognitive approach. Also, these results were considered a piece of evidence for the top-down process of imagery. Achieving these results indicate that psychological skills training accompanied by technical skills training will have a critical contribution for the athletes to success in sports.