ABSTRACT

Imagery training is well-established in sports, rehabilitation, and work settings. Both classic and recent meta-analyses confirm that it can improve motor performance and promote motor learning in adults. Findings from studies focusing on children and adolescents, however, are ambiguous, and it is not clear whether imagery training has an impact on performance and learning in individuals of younger ages. Given that the potential impact of imagery training in children and adolescents has yet to be determined, we conducted a meta-analysis to extend knowledge on the effectiveness of imagery training in this population. We included imagery training studies investigating healthy children or adolescents at an age of 6–18 and focusing on a motor task, which resulted in 19 studies and 110 effect sizes. Our analysis revealed an overall medium positive effect for imagery training of Cohen’s d = 0.494, 95% CI [0.287, 0.701]. The results demonstrate that imagery training can improve motor performance in children and adolescents. Future research is needed to further differentiate the effects across age, task, or developmental aspects, and to provide more elaborate recommendations for applied settings such as physical education, rehabilitation, or competitive sports.

摘要

意象训练在运动、康复和工作环境中得到广泛应用。经典和最近的荟萃分析均证实，它可以改善成人的运动表现并促进运动学习。然而，针对儿童和青少年的研究结果模棱两可，并且尚不清楚意象训练是否对更小年龄个体的表现和学习有影响。鉴于意象训练对儿童和青少年的潜在影响尚未确定，我们进行了一项荟萃分析，以扩展对这一人群意象训练有效性的了解。我们纳入了意象训练研究，调查 6-18 岁的健康儿童或青少年并专注于一项运动任务，这产生了 19 项研究和 110 个效应量。我们的分析显示 Cohen 的 d = 0.494, 95% CI [0.287, 0.701] 对图像训练的总体中等积极影响。结果表明，意象训练可以提高儿童和青少年的运动能力。未来的研究需要进一步区分年龄、任务或发展方面的影响，并为体育、康复或竞技运动等应用环境提供更详尽的建议。