Action and situation imagery modelling: Classical research and emerging perspectives in Russian psychology

Abstract

Motor imagery is a key concept in the context of psychological mechanisms of movement control. For approximately 200 years, movement has been considered a consequence of desire to reproduce corresponding previous sensory experience. Hence, voluntary movement execution should rely on its mental counterpart which is created secondary to its reception by sensory organs, like other content of the consciousness, in a process called interiorization. This mental counterpart formation is not instant and results from learning. However, studies of this process are challenging as it is usually based on pre-existing stereotypes and in general never starts from scratch in adults. Russian psychologists provided 2 solutions for this issue, namely, studies involving children and studies introducing specific action conditions (e.g. sensory feedback inversion). Evidence from these studies suggests that the motor image is a gradually forming nested structure comprised of 2 parts. The first one, situation imagery, functions to represent environment. Accuracy of this representation is a primary factor to limit performance since action imagery, being the second part of the motor image, has to be created in congruence with this mental reconstruction of environmental conditions. Sometimes specific activity called orientational activity is required to probe the environment. Although orientational activity seems to interfere with action execution, it is recommended to not merely keep this probing in place but even to facilitate it as a mean to enhance learning. A set of criteria, called orienting basis of an action, indicating progress towards a goal and enabling a subject to assess action performance and need for corrections, appears to be an essential element in action planning. Depending on whether there is a match between action content and its orienting basis as well as whether progress towards a goal has positive or negative appraisal, there can be 4 possible scenarios for action correction: (1) correction is not required, (2) the orienting basis has to be corrected so that the action could be successfully used, (3) the orienting basis has to be corrected to block the action, (4) the execution has to be corrected to match the orienting basis. Corrections can be performed automatically, with conscious efforts or after additional probing activity depending on level of expertise, degree of mismatch between orienting and executional parts of an action and a cause of errors. Importance of attention to the situation varies according to specifics of a particular sport and personal experience. It is suggested to recognize activities with most important role of: (1) situation imagery for tactical tasks performance, (2) situation imagery for technique control, (3) action imagery. These classes are integrated into a hierarchical structure with the last ones being subordinated to the first in succession.