The effects of visuo-motor behavior rehearsal on competitive performance tasks, anxiety, and attentional style

This study was designed to investigate the effects of visuo-motor behavior rehearsal (VMBR), across a 5 month time period, on: (a) the competitive game performance of basketball skills with varied task demands; (b) the state and trait anxiety levels of highly skilled performers; and (c) the attentional, control, and interpersonal characteristics of highly skilled performers. Subjects consisted of 10 members from a nationally ranked. Division 1 women's basketball team and were assigned to either the VMBR group or the no treatment group. The competitive performance measures included both open and closed tasks. The closed task, free throw shooting, was measured by average free throw percentage. The open tasks were measured by: (a) average field goal percentage; (b) average points per minute played; (c) average rebounds per minute played; (d) average turnovers per minute played; and (e) average fouls per minute played. The Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2 (CSAI-2) (Martens, Burton, Vealey, Bump, & Smith, 1983) was utilized to measure precompetition state anxiety. Martens' (1977) Sport Competition Anxiety Test (SCAT) provided the competitive trait anxiety measure. The Test of Attentional and Interpersonal Style (TAIS) (Nideffer, 1976) was utilized to measure the attentional, control, and interpersonal characteristics of the subjects.

A 2 X 3 (groups x blocks) repeated measures design was the underlying model utilized to investigate the effects of VMBR on the competitive performance measures and on the subscales of the CSAI-2 (Martens et al., 1983). A 2 x 2 (groups x blocks) repeated measures design was the underlying model for the investigation of the effects of VMBR on trait anxiety, as measured by the SCAT (Martens, 1977), and the attentional, control, and interpersonal factors measured by the TAIS (Nideffer, 1976). The findings suggested that: (a) VMBR may contribute to performance improvement of a closed task in a competitive sport setting; (b) the somatic component of state anxiety as measured by the CSAI-2 (Martens et al., 1983) may be significantly improved with VMBR; (c) trait anxiety, as measured by the SCAT (Martens, 1977), is not readily influenced by VMBR; and (d) the attentional, control, and interpersonal factors of the TAIS (Nideffer, 1976) are not readily influenced by VMBR.