Mahboubeh. Mohammadpour, Salma Hashemian, Hamed Yaghoubi, Shahedi.Valiolah, Imanipour Vahid and Mahdi Armandnia
The success of athletes in minor and major events can be attributed to the response time. The significance of response time is manifested when you witness that an athlete wins over a competitor only with a difference of fraction of a second in the reaction time or movement time. This study aims to investigate the effect of mental practice on response time, using Nelson's Speed of Movement Test. The subjects included 45 female university students who were randomly classified under three groups, after obtaining a satisfactory score in Motor Imagery Ability Test (n=15). The response time was measured and practiced by Nelson Speed of Movement Test and the scores for response time were recorded in two pre-test and post-test phases. The practices were carried out in 4 sessions based on which the physical practice group carried out the exercises practically, and the mental practice group carried out the exercises mentally and the mental-physical practice group firstly carried out the exercises mentally and then physically. The data analysis was carried out via one-way ANOVA and correlated t-test. The findings revealed that 4 sessions of combined mental-physical practices caused a remarkable progress in the response time for the subjects and after that the highest progress belonged to the metal practice group, as compared with the physical practice group.
