[Measurements of the imagery activity of swimmers]

A series of four experiments was designed in order to measure the imaginal abilities of beginner, intermediate, and competitor swimmers. Based on Counsilman (1977) and Cratty's studies (1964) that swimmers must concentrate on tactile and kinesthetic sensations and that visual informations are essential to the motor act realization, it was hypothesized that competitor swimmers would have higher scores to the imagery tests than the other groups. Three experiments preceded the fourth one (ref. to the paper) where nine beginners, nine intermediates, and nine competitors were tested for their imaginal abilities, when submerged under water, in a pool (3.05 meter diameter) fixed within the laboratory. The aquatic imagery test included three measures: (1) a latency time, or the time taken for each of the 10 pre-selected movements, to explore the visual image; (2) an intensity rating scale (range 1 to 5) to estimate the vividness of the visual image; and (3) a recognition test for each of the 10 movement patterns. It was found that the competitors were perceiving a clearer visual image of the movement patterns than the other groups. However, the mean data of the latency time and the recognition test does not seem to support a positive correlation between the imaginal ability and the swimmer's aquatic ability. A more extensive experimentation would confirm the tendency of the results.