The effects of mental practice on motor skill learning and performance: A meta-analysis.
TL;DR: This article conducted a more comprehensive review of existing research using the meta-analytic strategy proposed by Glass (1977) and found that mental practice prior to performing a motor skill can enhance one's subsequent performance.
Abstract: A longstanding research question in the sport psychology literature has been whether a given amount of mental practice prior to performing a motor skill will enhance one's subsequent performance. The research literature, however, has not provided any clear-cut answers to this question and this has prompted the present, more comprehensive review of existing research using the meta-analytic strategy proposed by Glass (1977). From the 60 studies yielding 146 effect sizes the overall average effect size was .48, which suggests, as did Richardson (1967a), that mentally practicing a motor skill influences performance somewhat better than no practice at all. Effect sizes were also compared on a number of variables thought to moderate the effects of mental practice. Results from these comparisons indicated that studies employing cognitive tasks had larger average effect sizes than motor or strength tasks and that published studies had larger average effect sizes than unpublished studies. These findings are discus...
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19 Nov 2008TL;DR: This meta-analyses presents a meta-analysis of the contributions from the home, the school, and the curricula to create a picture of visible teaching and visible learning in the post-modern world.
Abstract: Preface Chapter 1 The challenge Chapter 2 The nature of the evidence: A synthesis of meta-analyses Chapter 3 The argument: Visible teaching and visible learning Chapter 4: The contributions from the student Chapter 5 The contributions from the home Chapter 6 The contributions from the school Chapter 7 The contributions from the teacher Chapter 8 The contributions from the curricula Chapter 9 The contributions from teaching approaches - I Chapter 10 The contributions from teaching approaches - II Chapter 11: Bringing it all together Appendix A: The 800 meta-analyses Appendix B: The meta-analyses by rank order References
6,776 citations
TL;DR: The nature and function of human agency is examined within the conceptual model of triadic reciprocal causation, which accords a central role to cognitive, vicarious, self-reflective, and self-regulatory processes.
Abstract: The present article examines the nature and function of human agency within the conceptual model of triadic reciprocal causation. In analyzing the operation of human agency in this interactional causal structure, social cognitive theory accords a central role to cognitive, vicarious, self-reflective, and self-regulatory processes. The issues addressed concern the psychological mechanisms through which personal agency is exercised, the hierar- chical structure of self-regulatory systems, eschewal of the dichotomous construal of self as agent and self as object, and the properties of a nondualistic but nonreductional conception of human agency. The relation of agent cau- sality to the fundamental issues of freedom and deter- minism is also analyzed. The recent years have witnessed a resurgence of interest in the self-referent phenomena. One can point to several reasons why self processes have come to pervade many domains of psychology. Self-generated activities lie at the very heart of causal processes. They not only contribute to the meaning and valence of most external influences, but they also function as important proximal determi- nants of motivation and action. The capacity to exercise control over one's own thought processes, motivation, and action is a distinctively human characteristic. Because judgments and actions are partly self-determined, people can effect change in themselves and their situations through their own efforts. In this article, I will examine the mechanisms of human agency through which such changes are realized.
6,408 citations
Cites background from "The effects of mental practice on m..."
...Cognitive simulations in which individuals visualize themselves executing activities skillfully enhance subsequent performance (Bandura, 1986; Corbin, 1972; Feltz & Landers, 1983; Kazdin, 1978; Markus, Cross, & Wurf, in press)....
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TL;DR: A mechanism is proposed that is able to encode the desired goal of the action and is applicable to different levels of representational organization, as well as investigating the role of posterior parietal and premotor cortical areas in schema instantiation.
Abstract: This paper concerns how motor actions are neurally represented and coded. Action planning and motor preparation can be studied using a specific type of representational activity, motor imagery. A close functional equivalence between motor imagery and motor preparation is suggested by the positive effects of imagining movements on motor learning, the similarity between the neural structures involved, and the similar physiological correlates observed in both imaging and preparing. The content of motor representations can be inferred from motor images at a macroscopic level, based on global aspects of the action (the duration and amount of effort involved) and the motor rules and constraints which predict the spatial path and kinematics of movements. A more microscopic neural account calls for a representation of object-oriented action. Object attributes are processed in different neural pathways depending on the kind of task the subject is performing. During object-oriented action, a pragmatic representation is activated in which object affordances are transformed into specific motor schemas (independently of other tasks such as object recognition). Animal as well as human clinical data implicate the posterior parietal and premotor cortical areas in schema instantiation. A mechanism is proposed that is able to encode the desired goal of the action and is applicable to different levels of representational organization.
2,154 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a number of issues concerning the extension of self-efficacy theory to memory functioning are discussed, such as the multidimensionality and measurement of perceived memory capabilities, the veridicality of memory self-appraisal, the efficacious exercise of personal control over memory functioning, the psychosocial processes by which people preserve a favorable sense of selfefficacy over the life span, and strategies for generalizing the impact of training in memory skills.
Abstract: The articles included in the special series in this issue of Developmental Psychology demonstrate that perceived self-efficacy for memory functioning is an important facet of metamemory. Self-beliefs of efficacy can enhance or impair performance through their effects on cognitive, affective, or motivational intervening processes. This commentary addresses a number of issues concerning the extension of self-efficacy theory to memory functioning. These include the following: the multidimensionality and measurement of perceived memory capabilities; the veridicality of memory self-appraisal; the efficacious exercise of personal control over memory functioning; the psychosocial processes by which people preserve a favorable sense of memory self-efficacy over the life span; and strategies for generalizing the impact of training in memory skills. Much of the research on perceived self-efficacy has focused on its role in the regulation of motivation, action, and affective arousal (Bandura, 1986; 1988a, 1988b, in press). More recently, research conducted within this conceptual framework has sought to clarify how perceived self-efficacy affects thinking processes, either as events of interest in their own right or as intervening influences of other aspects of psychosocial functioning. This research has begun to delineate the ways in which self-percepts of efficacy can enhance or impair the level of cognitive functioning (Bandura, in press). These cognitive effects take various forms.
1,703 citations
TL;DR: Dual coding theory (DCT) as mentioned in this paper explains human behavior and experience in terms of dynamic associative processes that operate on a rich network of modality-specific verbal and nonverbal representations.
Abstract: Dual coding theory (DCT) explains human behavior and experience in terms of dynamic associative processes that operate on a rich network of modality-specific verbal and nonverbal (or imagery) representations. We first describe the underlying premises of the theory and then show how the basic DCT mechanisms can be used to model diverse educational phenomena. The research demonstrates that concreteness, imagery, and verbal associative processes play major roles in various educational domains: the representation and comprehension of knowledge, learning and memory of school material, effective instruction, individual differences, achievement motivation and test anxiety, and the learning of motor skills. DCT also has important implications for the science and practice of educational psychology — specifically, for educational research and teacher education. We show not only that DCT provides a unified explanation for diverse topics in education, but also that its mechanistic framework accommodates theories cast in terms of strategies and other high-level psychological processes. Although much additional research needs to be done, the concrete models that DCT offers for the behavior and experience of students, teachers, and educational psychologists further our understanding of educational phenomena and strengthen related pedagogical practices.
1,659 citations
Cites background from "The effects of mental practice on m..."
...In a comprehensive review of research on the benefits of mental rehearsal for teaching motor skills, Feltz and Landers (1983) concluded that imaginal practice improves performance relative to a control group, especially for motor skills with cognitive components....
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