A comprehensive, open-source battery of movement imagery ability tests: Development and psychometric properties

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Motor Control
• Psychology

Background:

• Movement imagery is a complex skill involving generation, maintenance, and manipulation.
• Accurately measuring these distinct sub-processes and their interrelations is challenging.
• Existing methods may not fully capture the multidimensional nature of movement imagery.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a suite of online tests to assess the sub-processes of movement imagery.
• To evaluate the structural validity, internal consistency, and reliability of these novel assessment tools.
• To examine the criterion validity and potential dissociability of movement imagery sub-processes.

Main Methods:

• Utilized online versions of the Movement Imagery Questionnaire-Revised, Second Edition (MIQ-RS) for generation.
• Employed the Imagined Finger Sequence Task (iFST) for maintenance and the Hand Laterality Judgement Task (HLJT) for manipulation.
• Assessed structural validity, internal consistency, reliability (SNRs, ICCs), and criterion validity (Bayesian correlations) in 180 healthy adults.

Main Results:

• MIQ-RS demonstrated a bifactorial structure (visual, kinaesthetic) with good internal consistency.
• iFST and HLJT showed expected effects related to task complexity and biomechanical constraints, with adequate reliability.
• Test-retest reliability was generally adequate (ICCs ≥ 0.67).
• Criterion validity across tests was weak, with absent or small correlations (BF01 ≥ 3, r ≤ 0.27).

Conclusions:

• The online movement imagery assessment tools possess adequate structural/internal validity and test-retest reliability.
• Weak criterion validity suggests that the sub-processes of movement imagery (generation, maintenance, manipulation) are largely dissociable.
• Comprehensive, multidimensional assessment is crucial for accurately evaluating an individual's movement imagery ability.