The relative effectiveness of combinations of mental and physical practice on performance scores and level of aspiration scores for an accuracy task

This study was primarily concerned with the relative effectiveness of combinations of mental and physical practice on the dependent variables of performance and level of aspiration. A secondary purpose was to investigate the relationships between the level of aspiration and the level of performance in an attempt to evaluate two hypotheses: 1. That the expected or aspiration score is significantly related to the most recent knowledge of performance, and 2. That the verbal expression of an expected score is significantly related to subsequent performance. Thirty-six women were tested individually on a ball throwing accuracy task at six sessions over a period of two weeks. Procedures for the four groups of subjects were identical except for the treatment combinations which were imposed over nine trials at each of the six sessions. The treatment conditions consisted of the combinations of two levels of the two independent variables, mental practice and physical practice. Initial performance scores, final performance scores, and level of aspiration scores were obtained for each subject at each of the six sessions. The data were analyzed and evaluated through three methods of analysis: (1) 2x2 covariance factorial analysis, (2) 2x2 factorial analysis, and (3) coefficients of correlation