The Influence Of Visual Participation On Imagery Accuracy Of Different Speeds Moving Objects

Imagery has been defined as “using all the senses (visual,auditory,tactile, proprio-ceptive,etc.)to re-create or create an experience in the mind”.Imagery in sport is an important psychology-cal skill which athletes should master. Imagery could not only promote sports technologylearning, strategy acquisition and improve performance, but also help athletes enhance self–confidence, regulate arousal level, deal with anxiety and promote rehabilitation of sportsinjuries. However, the scientific research and application of the imagery training is lack of thetheoretical and practical basis. Previous studies did not pay much attention to the imagerytraining method.In this study, the use of the eye tracker was introduced into the study of imagery. It is aimed atdeveloping a new method of imagery training. We used Laeng’s“perception-image” two stageresearch paradigm to investigate the imagery accuracy of different movement speed objectsunder three different visual participation conditions of staring, tracking and eyes closed. Andto preliminarily validated whether the imagery process which involve eye movement couldenhance the accuracy of imagery on the moving objects and whether the eye tracker couldmonitor the imagery process. A total number of40participants from Capital Institute ofPhysical Education were involved in this study. Eye-tracker was used to monitor the imageryprocess of the participants.Combined the results of this study and related discussions, the main conclusions of thisresearch are as follows:1. Speed is an important factor to affect the imagery accuracy of moving objects. Theimagery accuracy of objects moving with slow speed is the highest, followed by mediumspeed, fast speed is the lowest.2. There has no significant difference between the imagery accuracies of moving objectswhen image with the eyes-pursuited and image with the eyes closed. This did not showthe “functional equivalence” effect between the perceptual process and imagery process.3. There has no significant difference between the imagery accuracies of moving objectswhen image with the eyes stared at a fixed point and image with the eyes pursuited. Andthis indicated that imagery process of moving objects and static objects may have differentpsychological mechanisms.4. Only in the condition of imaging with the eyes closed, men could image the objectsmoving with slow speed more accurately than women. In the other conditions, there haveno significant gender differences between the imagery accuracy of objects moving.