Matteo Campagna
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Imagery training improves an archer's imagery ability

1 study · 6 archers measured

ForContextAgainst20202022202420262020, for, n = 62020, context, n = 6
Each circle is a study: its position gives the year, its row whether it is for, against or context, its size how many participants it measured. Light circles are studies on other populations or without archers.

The only data come from a case study of six Korean national team archers, three men and three women with an average age of 26. They did eight half-hour sessions in the laboratory imagining the minutes from the start-of-competition announcement to the first end, with sound recorded at a World Cup event and a neurofeedback device that vibrated whenever brain activity crossed a threshold. Imagery ability, measured with a questionnaire that asks how clear and controllable the images are, rises on average in all five dimensions: visual from 8.2 to 11, auditory from 8 to 10.2, kinaesthetic, which grows the most, from 8.5 to 12.2, emotional from 7.7 to 10.7 and control from 8 to 10.5. Case by case the picture is less tidy, because one archer does not improve on control and another drops slightly on the auditory scale, and according to the authors those who kept practising imagery on their own gained the most. These are averages of six people, with no statistical test and no comparison group, and anyone who fills in the same questionnaire after eight sessions of dedicated attention may rate themselves higher for that reason alone.

Also phrased as: "imagery ability"; "vividness of mental images"; "training imagery in archery"; "kinaesthetic imagery"; "neurofeedback and imagery"

In practice

It is said that imagery is a skill like any other: at first the images are blurred and slip away, and with practice they become sharper and easier to steer.

Evidence

  • 2020
    For Archers Published later

    6 elite Korean archers (3 men, 3 women, 26.5 ± 3.2 years), eight 30-minute sessions imagining the start of a competition with sound from a World Cup event and vibration neurofeedback, before and after with no control. Martens' Sport Imagery Questionnaire, which measures the vividness and control of images: visual from 8.17 to 11 (+2.83), auditory from 8 to 10.17 (+2.17), kinaesthetic from 8.5 to 12.17 (+3.83), emotional from 7.66 to 10.66 (+3), control from 8 to 10.5 (+2.5). No statistical test; case by case one archer does not improve on control, one barely moves on emotion and control and drops slightly on auditory imagery, one changes little on auditory imagery.

    A Case Study on the Effect of Imagery Training for Elite Archers of South Korea · Youngsook Kim, Taiseok Chang

  • 2020
    Context Archers Published later

    In the same study beta activity over the motor areas while imagining the shot falls in five archers out of six and rises in one: for instance from 0.000410 to 0.000259 in archer E, and from 0.000376 to 0.000393 in archer D. The changes are tiny and reach significance only because hundreds of samples per second are treated as independent observations: it is a hint about the mechanism, not evidence.

    A Case Study on the Effect of Imagery Training for Elite Archers of South Korea · Youngsook Kim, Taiseok Chang

  • 2020
    Context Archers Published later

    The archers were also given cards for practising imagery on their own: according to the paper's discussion, those who did so consistently improved their imagery more and reduced their anxiety more, while those who stopped at about four sessions on their own changed little. It is an observation with no figures by group.

    A Case Study on the Effect of Imagery Training for Elite Archers of South Korea · Youngsook Kim, Taiseok Chang

Status history

  1. 1990 Not studied No one in the registry's bibliography had yet measured archers' imagery ability before and after imagery training: the question had no data.
  2. 2020 Reported The first data arrive, from six people. Six elite Korean archers do eight sessions of neurofeedback-assisted imagery, and every dimension of imagery ability rises on average: visual from 8.2 to 11, auditory from 8 to 10.2, kinaesthetic, which grows more than the others, from 8.5 to 12.2, emotional from 7.7 to 10.7 and control from 8 to 10.5. Not everyone improves on everything, and according to the authors those who carried on alone at home gained the most. These are averages of six people, with no statistical test and no comparison group: reported, only just.

Related

Related articles

Research lines

Cite
APA

Campagna, M. (2026). Imagery training improves an archer's imagery ability (Version 1). In Evidence Registry. Retrieved 16 October 2026, from https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/mind/imagery-training-imagery-ability

BibTeX
@misc{campagna2026_visualizzazionecapacitaimmaginativa,
  author = {Campagna, Matteo},
  title = {Imagery training improves an archer's imagery ability},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {Evidence Registry, matteocampagna.com},
  url = {https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/mind/imagery-training-imagery-ability},
  note = {Version 1; accessed 2026-10-16}
}

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