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Date of Award

Spring 2025

Document Type

Masters Thesis

Department or Program Affiliation

Department of Health and Human Development

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Health and Human Development

First Advisor

Keeler, Linda

Second Advisor

Arthur-Cameselle, Jessyca

Third Advisor

Chalmers, Gordon R.

Fourth Advisor

MacDonald, Samantha L.

Abstract

Athletes across a wide range of expertise have reported using a visual imagery perspective switching (VIPS) strategy during their mental rehearsal (e.g., Kaminskiy et al., 2017), yet there are no known experimental studies on sport performance that have determined how imagery with VIPS compares to an external visual imagery (EVI) or internal visual imagery (IVI) only perspective; additionally, it is unclear how perspective preference moderates the performance effects of visual imagery perspective manipulations. Thus, the primary aim of the present study was to explore the effects of polysensory IVI, EVI, and VIPS interventions on volleyball serve performance, with a secondary purpose to elucidate the interactive effects of perspective preference alignment and nonalignment on participants’ target accuracy. Fifty-one intermediate-level volleyball players (Mage = 21.35; SD = 3.68) engaged in a single session, 10-minute imagery practice and performed 10 volleyball serves toward target areas in a pre- and post-test experimental design that involved matched-group random assignment. The analyses revealed no interaction between imagery intervention groups and time on target accuracy nor service errors, though a medium effect size was found only for participants with moderate to high imagery ability. Additionally, a main effect of time, with a decrease in service errors from pre- to post-test was observed with a large effect size for both analyses. The results suggest that IVI, EVI, and VIPS brief interventions had a comparable effect on volleyball serve performance, regardless of athletes’ perspective preferences. Implications, limitations, and future research directions are discussed.

Type

Text

Keywords

Imagery, mental practice, visualization, visual imagery perspectives, internal visual imagery, external visual imagery, perspective switching, visual imagery perspective switching, kinesthetic imagery, perspective preference, imagery ability

Publisher

Western Washington University

OCLC Number

1522524946

Subject – LCSH

Visualization; Imagery (Psychology); Sports--Psychological aspects; Volleyball--Serve

Format

application/pdf

Genre/Form

masters theses

Language

English

Rights

Copying of this document in whole or in part is allowable only for scholarly purposes. It is understood, however, that any copying or publication of this document for commercial purposes, or for financial gain, shall not be allowed without the author’s written permission.

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