This study investigated the effects of four different types of mental practice (free imagery, directed visual, directed reading, and directed audio) on the performance of 45 beginning and 40 intermediate college bowlers. The groups bowled six games with two sets of five minutes of mental practice prior to the first frame and the sixth frame of each game. Data were analyzed by a two-way analysis of variance with repeated measures. No significant differences existed between treatment groups at either the beginning or intermediate levels. Conclusions were that no one technique of mental practice was more effective than another in increasing bowling performance.

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Orientador: Sonia Ray / Resumo: Esta tese investiga o papel da prática mental no processo de preparação para a performance musical. Adota como referencial teórico o conceito de pedagogia da performance musical de Ray (2015), que propõe uma abordagem interdisciplinar entre a educação e a atuação prática do músico. O objetivo geral desta pesquisa é propor a prática mental como estratégia pedagógica na preparação para a performance musical. A metodologia inclui revisão da literatura disponível, pesquisa de campo (questionário aplicado a estudantes e professores de performance musical de cursos graduação e pós-graduação no Brasil) e discussão dos resultados. O trabalho está estruturado em quatro capítulos: 1. Revisão de literatura, 2. Metodologia e pesquisa de campo, 3. Discussão dos resultados, 4. Estratégias pedagógicas para aplicação da prática mental. As conclusões apontam para a confirmação da tese de que a prática mental pode ser uma importante ferramenta pedagógica no processo de preparação para a performance musical. / Abstract: This dissertation investigates the role of mental practice in the process of preparation for musical performance. It has as theoretical reference the concept of music performance pedagogy by Ray (2015), who proposes an interdisciplinary approach between the field of education and the practical acting of the musician. The main objective of this research is to propose mental practice as a pedagogical strategy in preparation for music performance. The methodology includes review of available literature, field research (questionnaire applied to students and teachers of music performance of undergraduate and graduate courses in Brazil) and discussion of the results. The dissertation is divided in four chapters: 1. Literature review, 2. Methodology and field research, 3. Discussion of results, 4. Pedagogical strategies for using mental practice. The conclusions point to the confirmation of the thesis that mental practice can be an important pedagogical tool in the process of preparation for musical performance. / Doutor

Exekutive Funktionen (EF) sind eine Gruppe von Top-Down-Prozessen, die in neuartigen Situationen eingesetzt werden, um neue Trigger-Response-Assoziationen herzustellen oder vorhandene Handlungsoptionen an neue Situationen anzupassen. Obwohl EF erschöpfend untersucht wurden, bleiben wichtige Fragen offen. Beispiele dafür sind (a) Sind Exekutivfunktionen vollständig trennbar oder beruhen sie auf einem gemeinsamen neurokognitiven System? (b) Was messen verschiedene Versionen der Stroop-Aufgabe, einer der meist-verwendeten Aufgaben zur Prüfung der Inhibitionsfunktion? (c) Muss Inhibition immer Ressourcen-fordernd sein, oder gibt es eine Form der Inhibition, die mühelos implementiert werden kann? Zur Beantwortung dieser Fragen, habe ich neurokognitive Korrelate von EF und ihrer Verbesserung mithilfe posthypnotischer Suggestionen (PHS) und Ereigniskorrelierter Hirnpotentiale (EKP) untersucht. Zusammenfassend ergaben sich folgende Antworten: (a) Psychometrische und EKP-Daten aus den Studien zur Gedächtnisaktualisierung und Inhibition sowie deren Verbesserung anhand PHS zeigten sowohl funktionsspezifische als auch gemeinsame neurokognitive Prozesse der Inhibition und Aktualisierung. (b) Obwohl sowohl die vokale als auch die manuelle Version der Stroop-Aufgabe Inhibitionsfunktionen erfordern, ist die vokale Version Ressourcen-fordernder, da sie mindestens einen zusätzlichen Lokus der Interferenz im Antwort-Produktionsprozess aufweist, der nicht mit PHS beeinflussbar ist und der in der manuellen Version fehlt. (c) Unter Verwendung PHS zur Erhöhung der Präferenzen für kalorienarme Lebensmittel untersuchte ich die Auflösung von Konflikten. Die EKP-Ergebnisse zeigten, dass auch Konflikt-Auflösung, ähnlich wie Inhibition, Ressourcen konsumiert. Insgesamt zeigt dieses Projekt, dass die Verwendung Aufgaben-bezogener PHS in Kombination mit Neuroimaging-Techniken einen fruchtbaren Ansatz für die Untersuchung ungeklärter Fragen über Exekutivfunktionen darstellt. / Executive functions (EF) are a group of top-down processes used in novel situations to develop or adapt existing responses to the task at hand. Even though EFs are studied exhaustively, several important questions remain unanswered: (a) Are EFs entirely separated, or do they rely on a common system? (b) What do different versions of the Stroop task measure? (c) Does inhibition always need to be effortful? To address these questions, I investigated neurocognitive correlates of EFs and their enhancements by means of posthypnotic suggestions (PHS) and event-related potentials (ERP). However, before one can use PHSs, it must be elucidated whether and how they affect EFs. Although PHSs are used repeatedly for improving inhibition, it is unclear whether their effects are mediated by bottom-up or top-down processes. By using an updating task, I showed that effects of PHSs can be attributed to top-down processes. Accordingly, a new theory of hypnosis was proposed and empirically tested by modeling hypnotizability scores with structural equation modeling. In short, the simulation-adaption theory suggests that several top-down processes are employed for responding to suggestions. After elucidating the driving mechanism of PHSs is mentally practicing a novel strategy, PHSs were used for addressing the questions regarding EFs. Summarizing (a) the psychometric and ERP results from several studies indicated that different EFs rely on both function-specific and shared neurocognitive processes. (b) Even though different versions of the Stroop task are tapping into inhibition, the vocal compared to the manual version has at least an extra response-production-related locus of interference. (c) Using PHSs for increasing preferences for low-calorie food items, it is shown that resolve is effortful to implement, as indicated by increased P300 amplitudes. Together, this project shows how PHSs, along with neuroimaging techniques, can provide a novel approach for investigating EFs.