The Effect of Self-talk and Mental Imagery on Motor Performance in Adolescents

ABSTRACT: The current study examined the effect of varying combination of positive and negative imagery and self-talk(ST) on performance in adolescents. seventy five adolescents boy with an age range of 12-16 and a mean age of 13.9 years (SD = 1.45) volunteers and after completed the Movement Imagery Questionnaire-Revised (MIQR; Hall، Martin, 1997) randomly allocated to one of the five evenly sized conditions (n = 15/condition), namely (1) negative imagery ، positive ST, (2) positive imagery ، negative ST, (3) positive imagery ، positive ST, (4) negative imagery ، negative ST, or (5) control group. Standard dartboard used for this research that include 0-100 scores. Mixed-design ANOVAs revealed that performance(F=4.99,P?0.05) changed over time as a function of the assigned experimental condition. Participants in the positive imagery/positive ST condition had the best performance and participant in the negative imagery/positive ST condition had the worst performance, also participants in the negative imagery/positive ST was better than control condition. the finding suggest combination of positive mental imagery and ST as a potential technique to improve performance ,combination of negative mental imagery and ST can hamper performance whereas positive ST can remove negative effects of mental imagery.