The role of motor imagery in learning via instructions☆
Section snippets
The role of motor imagery in learning via instructions
Many people have learned complex skills such as handling computers, cameras and cell phones. In most cases these skills are largely based on instructions, which are provided by manuals or peers. An important advantage of instructions is that they offer a quick route to learning. In contrast to trial-and-error learning in which contingencies are learned gradually over time, learning through instructions appears to be instant (e.g., Cohen-Kdoshay and Meiran, 2007, De Houwer et al., 2005,
Instructions and physical practice
Ever since the seminal work of Schneider and Shiffrin (1977), physical practice is considered as the prime gateway to automaticity. In recent years, however, an increasing amount of research suggests that novel instructions specifying S-R mappings (e.g., Cohen-Kdoshay and Meiran, 2007, De Houwer et al., 2005, Liefooghe et al., 2012, Meiran et al., 2015, Wenke et al., 2007), but also instructions specifying response-effect contingencies (Theeuwes, De Houwer, Eder, & Liefooghe, 2015) and even
Motor imagery
MI has received much attention in the past decades (see Guillot and Collet, 2005, McAvinue and Robertson, 2008, Schuster et al., 2011, van Meer and Theunissen, 2009 for reviews). Richardson (1967, p. 95) defines MI as “the symbolic rehearsal of a physical activity in the absence of any gross muscular movements”. Thus, MI is based mainly on the mental simulation of an action under training conditions in which the actual execution of that action is minimal or absent. Although MI is (more) covert
The present study
Although MI has been investigated extensively in the context of skill acquisition, relatively little is known about the effects of MI on the application of novel instructions. More specifically, it is not yet clear whether MI can improve the application of new instructions as it is the case for PP (Ruge & Wolfensteller, 2010). Such modulation would suggest that MI can also lead to a quick shift in processing mode. The first aim of the present study was to put this hypothesis at test. In
Participants and design
Twenty-four students at Ghent University participated for course requirements or payment of 20 EURO. Participants had normal or corrected-to-normal vision and were naive to the purpose of the experiment. All participants signed an informed consent and the experiment followed the ethical guidelines of Ghent University. Each participant performed the NP, PP, and MI condition in three different blocks. On each run, one S-R mapping comprised a close response sequence and the other S-R mapping
Experiment 2
A potential concern of Experiment 1 is that it was quite long and that each participant had to perform all three training conditions. The use of a within-subjects design could induce the carry-over of response strategies, which are known to modulate experimental results (e.g., Greenwald, 1976, Poulton, 1973, see Altmann, 2005 for a more recent example). Performance observed in the MI condition could be contaminated by strategies participants developed in the PP condition and vice versa. For
General discussion
The present study investigated the effect of MI on the application of newly instructed S-R mappings. The results of two experiments suggest that MI improves performance, albeit to a lesser extent than PP. In addition, PP improves the selection and retrieval of a response sequence, as well as the execution of the movements corresponding with this response sequence. In contrast, MI mainly improves response selection but does not seem to strongly influence movement execution. We consider both
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2022, Internet InterventionsCitation Excerpt :In addition, we modeled the interaction between both factors, allowing for a random intercept and random slope for Time. In line with Theeuwes et al. (2018), reported p-values for Time, User Profile, and the Time x User Profile interaction were based on a Type III ANOVA using a χ2-distribution implemented in the R package car (Fox and Weisberg, 2011). Contrasts were calculated using dummy coding.
Role of verbal working memory in rapid procedural acquisition of a choice response task
2021, CognitionCitation Excerpt :With our six-choice task, and no more than 16 s to digest the instructed presentation of the rules, very little actual practice appears necessary to complete proceduralisation. In all these cases, it is entirely likely that, during instruction, participants covertly simulated the response to each stimulus through motor imagery, facilitating proceduralisation (cf. Theeuwes, Liefooghe, De Schryver, & De Houwer, 2018). We know less, as yet, about the representation mediating performance after the transition to fluent performance.
Using motor imagery practice for improving motor performance – A review
2021, Brain and CognitionCitation Excerpt :By separating elements of pre-movement planning (equivalent) and real time execution (non-equivalent), both similarities and differences between imagery and actual execution can be considered. Evidence comes from behavioral measures of response selection (i.e. duration of movement preparation) and movement execution (i.e. performance duration; Theeuwes et al., 2018). The proposition by Glover and Baran (2017) that ventral stream visual areas may be recruited during motor imagery was not confirmed in the meta-analysis by Hardwick et al. (2018).
Motor planning with and without motor imagery in children with Developmental Coordination Disorder
2019, Acta PsychologicaCitation Excerpt :Motor imagery can improve motor performance, in particular movement accuracy and efficacy (Di Rienzo et al., 2016). This imagery-driven motor learning can generalise to other tasks that are physically executed (Schuster et al., 2011; Theeuwes, Liefooghe, De Schryver, & De Houwer, 2018). Motor imagery is an emerging strategy to improve performances for elite athletes (Weinberg, 2008), musicians (Keller, 2012), and for the rehabilitation of neurological patients (Oostra, Vereecke, Jones, Vanderstraeten, & Vingerhoets, 2012; Spruijt et al., 2013) including those with DCD (Wilson et al., 2016; Wilson, Thomas, & Maruff, 2002).
Motor command inhibition and the representation of response mode during motor imagery
2018, Acta PsychologicaCitation Excerpt :Whereas initial task-sets can be formed on the basis of instructions (e.g., Liefooghe, Wenke, & De Houwer, 2012; Meiran, Pereg, Kessler, Cole, & Braver, 2015), these task-sets do not integrate all instructed information and practice is needed to incorporate these additional instructions (see Braem, Liefooghe, De Houwer, Brass, & Abrahamse, 2017 for a demonstration in the domain of context-specific automaticity). Taken together, the present results corroborate with previous findings and indicate that overt task execution has an added value in shaping task-set representations, which can possibly not be obtained on the basis of MI (see also Theeuwes, Liefooghe, De Schryver, & De Houwer, in press for a similar conclusion). There are two notable differences between the present findings and the results of Rieger et al. (2017), which need to be discussed.
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This research was supported by grant BOF09/01M00209 of Ghent University to Jan De Houwer, by grant G00951N to Baptist Liefooghe and by the Interuniversity Attraction Poles Program initiated by the Belgian Science Policy Office (IUAPVII/33).