The effects of different types of imagery delivery on performance and self-efficacy

The main objective of this thesis is to identify the most effective way of delivering imagery to athletes. Researchers have proposed that imagery effectiveness is affected by a number of factors, including the method used to deliver imagery. One type of imagery delivery, referred to as routine imagery (RI) in this thesis, has been used in many studies and applied settings (for a review, see Cooley, Williams, Burns, & Cumming, 2013) where the same scenario was imagined without any changes throughout the intervention period. Another method recently used in the literature, which is called progressive imagery (PI) in this thesis, is to implement various elements of imagery in a progressive way (Wakefield & Smith, 2012). In other words, in PI we start the imagery training programs with simple images, few objects, and little action, then create more complex situations by adding information in steps. Another alternative training method introduced in this thesis is retrogressive imagery (RETI), in which the process of PI is reversed