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The current study investigated the Emotion element of the PETTLEP model of motor imagery using penalty kicks in soccer. Two six-week PETTLEP-based imagery interventions were compared to a stretching group (control). Both imagery interventions (skill-based and emotion-based) were facilitative and differed only in their emotional content. Thirty-three participants' penalty taking performance, self-efficacy and interpretations of anxiety were measured prior to and following the intervention period. Post-intervention performance scores for both imagery groups were significantly greater than the stretching group. However, there were no differences between the two imagery groups. In addition, there were no beneficial effects of either imagery intervention on self-efficacy or interpretations of anxiety symptoms when compared to the stretching intervention. These data offer further support for the effectiveness of the PETTLEP model in designing performance facilitating imagery interventions. We propose that the inclusion of emotional content into imagery practices may be more influential in competitive rather than practice situations.
Considerable scientific research has demonstrated imagery to be an influential tool in sport psychology (see Driskell, Copper, & Moran, 1 994). However, the imagery literature has been criticised for not providing a detailed mechanism for explaining how performance is modified (Murphy, Nordin, & Cumming, 2008). To this end, recent developments in brain imaging techniques have suggested that representing an action through imagery and actual execution of action access similar neural regions of the brain (Ehrsson, Geyer, & Naito, 2003; Fadiga et al., 1 999). This overlap in brain activation has been termed 'functional equivalence' by some researchers (for a review of functional equivalence theory, see Murphy et al., 2008), and is considered one reason why imagery leads to beneficial effects on physical performance. The theory of functional equivalence shares a basic tenet of Lang's bio-informational theory (Lang, 1 977, 1 979). That is, an emotional image will produce a physiological response analogous to the actual behavior. For example, Hecker and Kaczor (1988) reported competitively anxious imagined scenes produced elevated heart rates in a sample of athletes. Importantly, it has been proposed that imagery's effectiveness depends on how well these co-active neural regions are activated through imagery (Holmes & Collins, 2002).
Supporting this notion of functional equivalence, recent empirical studies have highlighted the potential for more compelling findings when functionally equivalent imageries are...