Recent research suggests that psychological techniques may facilitate injured athletes' rehabilitation, yet little is known about the psychological techniques trainers currently employ and how they view these interventions. In this study, 206 athletic trainers assigned Likert scale ratings to 11 psychological techniques indicating how much they valued a specific technique, how skillfully they employed it, and how often they utilized it. Trainers also responded to an open ended question asking how they would deal with the psychological aspects of an injury described in a short scenario. Results revealed a tentative model for the way trainers view psychological techniques. Categories of techniques included techniques involving the modification of physical and psychological states (goal setting, pain management, relaxation, imagery, and breathing techniques), techniques involving verbal cognitive techniques (communicating openly, changing negative self talk, emotional counseling, and crisis counseling), and non-recommended techniques (encouraging heroism and screening negative information). The study explored trainers' perceptions of each of the 11 psychological techniques in depth and discussed these findings. The study found that although trainers highly value psychological interventions in their work with injured athletes, they assigned low ratings to the techniques they knew little about. However, as exposure to sport psychology information increased, ratings assigned to the techniques that modify physical and psychological states also increased. Similarly, the longer trainers had worked in their field, the more highly they valued the verbal cognitive interventions. In contrast, neither exposure to sport psychology information or athletic training experience proved predictive of ratings assigned to the non-recommended psychological techniques. These findings suggest the importance of introducing skills training for psychological techniques early in the athletic trainers' educational curriculum so that trainers can gain awareness of the efficacy of certain psychological techniques and skill at using these techniques. Moreover, trainers could benefit from course work explaining potential negative consequences of employing harmful or ineffectual psychological interventions.

The primary purpose of this study was to compare regular classroom instruction which used Guided Mental Imagery (GMI) to a non-GMI teaching method. This comparison was expected to yield data which would provide insights relating to the potential of GMI as a useful and effective instructional strategy. Quasi-experimental research methods were followed. The experimental design was a modified "post-test only control group design." Two-hundred-four students in naturally occurring in tact classes formed the experimental and control groups. All groups received instruction in identical science/health content. Two parallel post-tests were administered to all students. Post-test "A" was given immediately after instruction to measure learning acquisition. Post-test "B" was given four weeks later to measure retention of learning. Means for test scores were grouped according to treatment and sub-grouped by the variables: IQ, handedness, identified learning disability, and intellectual giftedness. T_ tests for differences between independent means were conducted. Students' acquisition of basic academic content, when instructed with GMI methodology, was found to differ significantly from students' acquisition of the same content with non-GMI instruction. No statistically significant differences based on instructional methodology were found for content retention. The investigator concluded that GMI instruction may increase learning. Although measures of retention did not show significant differences between groups, a review of the mean scores revealed a minimal difference. This was interpreted to indicate equality of retention between the two methods. Recommendations for further investigation were offered. Post-testing of subjects at additional intervals, and increased training of students and teachers in GMI prior to collection of data were suggested.

Eighty four female undergraduate students participated in a psychotherapy analog study to determine the effects of imagery ability, guided imagery therapy treatments, and personal versus supplied constructs upon self-disclosure variables in a 2 x 3 x 2 Anova design, with repeated measures on the final factor. Dependent variables were measured by reaction time, total talk time, speech duration, silence quotient, and Doster's (1971) Self-Disclosure Rating Scale. Subjects were divided into two imagery ability levels on the basis of local mean scores on Sheehan's (1967) modification of Betts' (1909) Questionnaire upon Mental Imagery. Three treatment procedures were employed: a guided focal imagery treatment, which encouraged imagery involving the interpersonal topics to be discussed, a guided relaxation imagery treatment which used standard sensory relaxation scenes, and a treatment which imparted ambiguous instructions. The final factor was repeated measures of the eight negative topics the subjects were asked to discuss. Four were chosen from the subjects' Role Construct Repertory Test grid (Kelly, 1955; Landfield, 1971), and four were selected from the Semantic Differential (Snider & Osgood, 1969).

A skill instruction technique based on cognitive behavioral principles was applied to thermal imagery to determine if it could enhance either subjective or physiological responsiveness. The effects of imagery instruction were compared with the effects of muscle relaxation on imagery vividness, thermal imagery involvement, and the finger temperature response. The subjects were 39 male and 29 female volunteers from a minimum security federal prison. The personality characteristic of absorption was used as a classification variable to control for individual differences. It was hypothesized that high absorption individuals would reveal higher levels of imagery vividness, involvement, and finger temperature change; that imagery skill instruction and muscle relaxation would be more effective than a control condition; and that the low absorption group would derive the greatest benefit from the imagery task instruction condition. None of the hypotheses was supported. Finger temperature increased over time during the experimental procedure but remained stable during thermal imagery. The results suggest that nonspecific relaxation effects may best account for finger temperature increases during thermal imagery. Results were discussed in relation to cognitive-behavioral theory and the characteristic of absorption.

This study was designed to determine if long term training of mental imagery skills is more beneficial to an athlete than immediate imagery rehearsal practiced only prior to an event. Subjects were thirty male high school baseball athletes who were randomly assigned to one of three treatment conditions: (1) long term imagery training and practice; (2) immediate imagery practice only; and (3) control. An accuracy relay-throwing test was performed with pre-test, mid-test, and post-test performance trials. Results of the study revealed no statistically significant differences over the three test periods for any of the treatment conditions. Thus, long term imagery combined with immediate imagery practice, immediate imagery practice and control groups performed equally well on the baseball throwing task.

This study is an examination of ocular imagery in the secular poetry of T.S. Eliot. As a symbol, eyes begin as a metonym for the panoptic vision of society. In the earliest poems, Michel Foucault's conceptions of discipline illuminate the acerbic paranoia attached to ocular imagery and its source in the culture of turn-of-the-century Boston. Towards 1919, the image of eyes becomes an objective correlative for the figure of Dante's Beatrice who represents both earthly and divine love. The loss of sight by the various speakers in both - "Gerontion" and The Waste Land is then the loss of connection to both the earthly woman and God. Finally, in The Hollow Men, the tenor and vehicle merge completely so the eyes themselves become the object of desire. / by Joshua RIchards. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2009. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2009. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Across three experiments, we assessed how location and color information contributes to the identification of an object whose image has been degraded, making its identity ambiguous. In Experiment 1, some of the target objects had fixed locations within the scene. We found that subjects used this location information during search and later to identify the blurred target objects. In Experiment 2, we tested whether location and color information can be combined to identify degraded objects, and results were inconclusive. In Experiment 3, both the location and color of each object was variable but statistically predictive of the object's identity. We found that subjects used both sources of information-color and location - equally when identifying the blurred image of the object. Overall, these findings suggest that location information may be as determining as intrinsic feature information to identify objects when the objects' intrinsic features are degraded. / by Derrick Schlangen. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2013. / Includes bibliography. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / System requirements: Adobe Reader.

Kwok Yee-shan, Meaco. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 71-81). / Abstract and questionnaire in English and Chinese. / Acknowledgments --- p.i / Abstract --- p.ii / Table of Contents --- p.v / List of Tables --- p.x / Chapter CHAPTER ONE --- Introduction --- p.1 / Statement of the Problem --- p.1 / Purposes of the Study --- p.4 / Operational Definitions --- p.5 / Assumptions --- p.6 / Limitations --- p.7 / Delimitations --- p.7 / Significance of the Study --- p.7 / Chapter CHAPTER TWO --- Review of Literature --- p.9 / Imagery --- p.9 / Confidence --- p.18 / Anxiety --- p.23 / "Relationship among Imagery, Confidence and Anxiety" --- p.27 / Summary of Review --- p.33 / Chapter CHAPTER THREE --- Methodology --- p.35 / Participants --- p.35 / Design --- p.35 / Procedure --- p.36 / Pilot test --- p.36 / Orientation --- p.37 / Pre-test --- p.38 / Treatment conditions --- p.38 / Post-test --- p.42 / Procedural Reliability and Manipulation Checks --- p.43 / The Outcome Expectancy --- p.43 / The Consumer Satisfaction --- p.43 / The Treatment Integrity --- p.43 / Measure --- p.44 / The Modified Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2 --- p.44 / The French Short Serve Test --- p.45 / The Poole Long Serve Test --- p.46 / Data Analysis --- p.46 / Chapter CHAPTER FOUR --- Results --- p.48 / The Descriptive Analysis --- p.48 / Major Findings --- p.50 / "The effect of imagery on confidence, cognitive anxiety, somatic anxiety and performance" --- p.50 / Significant factor(s) in predicting performance --- p.51 / The Post-experimental Assessment --- p.52 / The Outcome Expectancy --- p.52 / The Consumer Satisfaction --- p.53 / Summary of the Findings --- p.54 / Chapter CHAPTER FIVE --- Discussion --- p.55 / "The Influence of Imagery on Confidence, Cognitive Anxiety, Somatic Anxiety and Performance" --- p.55 / The effect of imagery on confidence --- p.56 / The effect of imagery on cognitive anxiety --- p.56 / The effect of imagery on performance --- p.57 / The effect of imagery on somatic anxiety --- p.58 / Nature of the task --- p.59 / The temporary design --- p.59 / Methodological factors --- p.60 / The duration of imagery training --- p.60 / The order of imagery presentation against physical practice --- p.61 / The imagery intervention script --- p.62 / Significant Factor(s) in Predicting Performance --- p.63 / Nature of the task --- p.64 / The importance of the competition --- p.64 / The psychological skills employed --- p.65 / The Post-experimental Assessment --- p.66 / The outcome expectancy --- p.66 / The effectiveness of the imagery intervention --- p.67 / Conclusion --- p.67 / Recommendations for Future Research --- p.68 / Bibliography --- p.71 / Appendix --- p.82 / Appendix A: Informed Consent --- p.82 / Appendix B: Competitive State Anxiety Inventory - 2 Directions --- p.83 / Appendix C: Outcome Expectancy --- p.87 / Appendix D: Consumer Satisfaction --- p.88 / Appendix E: Treatment Integrity --- p.89

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2001. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [157]-172). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2001. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [157]-172). Also available on the Internet.