Which modality is best for delivering an imagery script? Evidence for desirable difficulty effect

ABSTRACT

The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of a brief mental imagery task on immediate and delayed learning performance when participants were instructed about the functioning of a game system in basketball using either a written or an audio script. Expert (N = 88) and novice (N = 88) basketball players were randomly assigned to one of four experimental conditions: (i) written script + no-imagery, (ii) audio script + imagery, (iii) written script + imagery, and (iv) written script + imagery. The main results showed that, regardless of the delivery modality of the script, novice participants derived benefited more from the no-imagery condition compared to the imagery condition in the immediate test. However, this advantage reversed in the delayed test one week following, indicating that mental imagery becomes more advantageous, particularly when delivered in written form. On the other hand, the results demonstrated that expert players performed better in both imagery conditions (in both immediate and delayed tests), particularly when the imagery was delivered in an audio format. These results suggest that the modality used to deliver a mental imagery script can significantly influence learning effectiveness, depending on the level of expertise.

KEYWORDS:

• Brief mental imagery
• expertise
• modality
• learning
• basketball tactics

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.