Kinematical Study of Mechanisms of Physical Performance, Action Observation, and Mental Imagery Using Feedback Manipulation

Fazeli, Davoud; Taghizadeh, Hossein; Jabbari, Fatemeh; Ghohestani, Leila

doi:10.22059/jsmdl.2024.379355.1791

Document Type : Research Paper I Open Access I Released under CC BY-NC 4.0 license

Authors

¹ Department of Sports Sciences, Faculty of Education and Psychology, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran.

² Department of Sports Sciences, Faculty of Education and Psychology, Shiraz University , Shiraz, Iran.

³ Department of Sports Sciences, Faculty of Education and Psychology, Shiraz University, Shiraz , Iran.

⁴ Department of Sports Sciences , Faculty of Education and Psychology, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran.

https://doi.org/10.22059/jsmdl.2024.379355.1791

Abstract

Introduction: This study aimed to directly manipulate feedback during physical execution and action observation to determine whether feedback acts as a mediating variable in the different effects of physical practice, observational practice, and motor imagery.
Methods: Sixty right-handed students participated in the study and were randomly assigned to six groups: physical practice, observational practice, mental (motor imagery) practice, physical practice without feedback, observational practice without feedback, and a control group. Participants practiced golf putting for one day (9 blocks of 18 trials each). Each training group performed the task according to their assigned condition—physically, observationally, or through motor imagery. In the physical without feedback and observational without feedback conditions, participants were prevented from observing the ball's stopping point. Performance was measured using two variables: shot accuracy and the number of dynamic degrees of freedom.
Results: In terms of movement accuracy, results showed that removing feedback in both physical and observational practice reduced performance to the level of mental imagery. However, regarding the number of dynamic degrees of freedom, motor imagery significantly differed from the no-feedback groups. Removing feedback in these two conditions did not bring their performance to the level of mental practice.
Conclusion: These findings were interpreted based on underlying cognitive and perceptual mechanisms. It was argued that physical practice is perception-based, while motor imagery relies on memory representations and is therefore more cognitively driven. Observational practice, in contrast, appears to involve a bidirectional perceptual-cognitive process.

Keywords

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Journal of Sports and Motor Development and Learning

Kinematical Study of Mechanisms of Physical Performance, Action Observation, and Mental Imagery Using Feedback Manipulation

References

References

Volume 17, Issue 2
July 2025
Pages 43-59

Kinematical Study of Mechanisms of Physical Performance, Action Observation, and Mental Imagery Using Feedback Manipulation

References

References

Volume 17, Issue 2July 2025Pages 43-59

Volume 17, Issue 2
July 2025
Pages 43-59