Nicolas Robin

Effects of motor imagery training on service return accuracy in tennis: The role of imagery ability

Abstract This study examined how imagery ability could affect motor improvement following motor imagery training in tennis. Skilled tennis players were divided into 3 groups with regard to their MIQ scores (good imager, poor imager, and control group). During a pre‐test, participants physically performed 15 service returns toward a target. The motor imagery training period was included during physical training for 15 sessions, and each session consisted of 2 series of 15 imagined trials and 15 physical trials. Some of the participants were required to use internal visual imagery (good and poor imager groups) while others were given a reading task (control group). Finally, 48 hours after the last training session, participants were submitted to a post‐test similar to the pre‐test. Results indicated that motor imagery improved service return, and that this improvement was better in good imagers than in poor imagers. The impact of motor imagery practice on motor performance, for skilled tennis players, is discussed.

The influences of tropical climate on imagined walking time

ABSTRACT This study investigated the effects of a Tropical Climate (TC) on actual and imagined walking times. Participants had to execute and imagine walking 3 distances with or without a 10-kg weight in either a TC or an Air Conditioning (AC) condition. The motor imagery quality was evaluated by computing the isochrony index. The results revealed that movement times were shorter for imagined walking than for actual walking and increased with the distance of the paths in both cases. By contrast, the effect of the load increased actual walking times for the 10- and 15-meter distances without affecting imagined walking times. Importantly, the isochrony index was negatively affected by the increase in load and distance and the effects of distance were amplified in a TC. These findings showed that the environmental climate in which motor imagery arises can modulate the subject’s ability to build up the temporal characteristics of simulated actions.

Impact of Tropical Climate on Selective Attention and Affect

Heat has an impact on several aspects of human cognition but the effects of the tropical climate (i.e., hot and wet) have rarely been explored. The purpose of this study was to determine whether selective attention and affect are negatively impacted by the tropical climate. The study followed a within-participants design: participants responded to an affective scale (PANAS) and performed an attention task (d2 Test) in two experimental climate conditions (tropical vs. neutral) with a one-week interval between sessions. The results indicated that they had lower positive affect and selective attention in the tropical climate than in the neutral climate. However, there was no significant difference in the effect on negative affect between conditions. The impact of tropical climate on affects and selective attention is discussed.