DOES MENTAL PRACTICE ENHANCE PERFORMANCE

Mental practice is the cognitive rehearsal of a task prior to performa nce. Although most researchers contend that mental practice is an effe ctive means of enhancing performance, a clear consensus is precluded b ecause (a) mental practice is often defined so loosely as to include a lmost any type of mental preparation and (b) empirical results are inc onclusive. A meta-analysis of the literature on mental practice was co nducted to determine the effect of mental practice on performance and to identify conditions under which mental practice is most effective. Results indicated that mental practice has a positive and significant effect on performance, and the effectiveness of mental practice was mo derated by the type of task, the retention interval between practice a nd performance, and the length or duration of the mental practice inte rvention.