Music, Imagery Training, and Sports Performance Garry Kuan Student ID: 3754228 College of Sport and Exercise Science Victoria University Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Research March, 2014 ii Doctor of Philosophy Declaration “I, Garry Kuan, declare that the PhD thesis entitled ‘Music, Imagery Training, and Sports Performance’ is no more than 100,000 words in length, exclusive of tables, figures, appendices, references and footnotes. This thesis contains no material that has been submitted previously, in whole or in part for the award of any other academic degree or diploma. Except where otherwise indicated, this thesis is my own work.” Signature: __ ____________ Date: 12.03.2014 iii ABSTRACT Imagery is widely used in performance enhancement in sport. Music is also used to enhance sports performance. In this thesis, I examined the role of relaxing and arousing music during imagery on subsequent sports performance in three linked studies. The purpose of Study 1 was to investigate the effects of relaxing and arousing music on physiological indicators of arousal level and subjective psychological perception of arousal during imagery of a sport task. First, appropriate music excerpts were selected with the involvement of professional musicians, sport psychologists, and sport science students. They selected three unfamiliar relaxing music (URM) excerpts, three unfamiliar arousing music (UAM) excerpts, and three familiar arousing music (FAM) excerpts from 90 pre-selected classical music excerpts generated in an initial search for use with imagery. In this study, unfamiliar music excerpts were chosen to minimise the confounding effects of individual past associations which affect arousal level in unpredictable ways. FAM excerpts were added to test the differences between familiar and unfamiliar arousing music. After that, 12 skilled shooters performed shooting imagery while listening to the three preselected music excerpts of each type (URM, UAM, and FAM) each in random order. Using a ProComp+ system and BioGraph Software version 5.0 from Thought TechnologiesTM, I monitored participants’ galvanic skin response (GSR), peripheral temperature (PT), electromyogram (EMG), and heart rate (HR) during each type of music, which was played concurrently with imagery. Each participant listened to three classical music excerpts representing each of the three categories (nine pieces in total). Three music excerpts were played in each iv of the three training sessions, with resting levels of physiological measures being recorded before conducting the next imagery session. Between these excerpts, participants rested until normal arousal levels were regained. Results from subjective music ratings, physiological and psychological measures showed UAM was the most arousing and URM was the most relaxing music. In Study 2, I aimed to test whether relaxing, arousing, or no music affected the subjective experience of the imager, and the performance of a dart throwing sport task. Participants in this study were 63 sport science students with intermediate imagery ability, measured by the Sport Imagery Ability Measure (SIAM; Watt, Morris, & Andersen, 2004). Participants were matched into three groups: 1) unfamiliar relaxing music during imagery (URMI), 2) unfamiliar arousing music during imagery (UAMI); and 3) no music during imagery (NMI - control). A pre- test-intervention- post-test design was used with 40 trials of throwing darts at a concentric circles dartboard at pre-test and post-test. The Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2R (CSAI-2R; Cox, Martens, & Russell, 2003) was administered before the pre-test and after the post-test dart-throwing performance. All participants completed 12 sessions (four weeks) of imagery. In Session 1 and 12, participants’ GSR, PT, and HR were measured. Manipulation checks indicated that URMI showed the lowest levels of arousal and arousal level in this condition reduced most from the start to end of sessions. UAMI howed the highest levels of arousal and NMI levels were between those of URMI and UAMI. One-way ANOVA of dart-throwing gain scores revealed that there was a significantly greater gain score for performance for URMi than the other conditions, F (2, 62) = 5.03, p = .01, eta2 = .14. Gain scores were URMI = 37.24 v ± 25.94, UAMI = 17.57 ± 24.30, and NMI = 13.19 ± 28.15. Post Hoc Tukey tests indicated that there was a significant difference in gain scores on dart-throwing performance for URMI versus UAMI, p = .04, and URMI versus NMI, p = .01. However, there was no significant difference between UAMI and NMI, p = .85. In the final study, Study 3, I examined the effects of relaxing and arousing music during imagery on the subsequent performance of high-arousal power and fine- motor skill tasks, and the subjective experience of both relaxing and arousing music during imagery training, using a match-mismatch approach. The study included a pre-test – intervention – post-test design. Participants were semi- professional elite shooters (n = 26) and weightlifters (n = 25). All participants had moderate to high imagery ability measured by the SIAM and had at least two years of competitive experience at State level. In both sports, participants were assigned at random to one of two interventions: unfamiliar relaxing music during imagery (URMI), and unfamiliar arousing music during imagery (UAMI). This produced four conditions: fine motor task (pistol shooting) with either relaxing (URMI; matched) or arousing (UAMI; mismatched) music, and power task (weightlifting) with either relaxing (URMI; mismatched) or arousing (UAMI; matched) music. Shooting performance was measured in a standard 10m air- pistol shooting simulated competition, and weightlifting performance was measured on a simulated competition of a standard Olympic event – Clean and Jerk. All participants completed 12 sessions of imagery over four weeks before the post-test was conducted. In Session 1 and 12, participants’ GSR, PT, and HR were measured. The CSAI-2R was administered prior to pre-test and post-test performance. For pistol shooting, results from the independent samples t-test vi showed that differences across type of music used with imagery were significant on the gain-score for competition performance t(24) = 2.71, p = .01, Cohen’s d = 1.06, with a significantly larger increase in performance for URMI than UAMI. For weightlifters, results from the independent samples t-test revealed the differences between conditions were significant in terms of gain-scores for competition performance t(23) = 5.63, p < .001, Cohen’s d = 2.26, with a significantly greater gain score with unfamiliar relaxing music than unfamiliar arousing music. Contrary to previous findings when music was played before or during actual sports tasks, in this study unfamiliar relaxing music facilitated imagery of both fine-motor and power sports tasks, suggesting that relaxation plays a role in the imagery of sports skills. If this finding is replicated for the use of music with imagery across other strength and power tasks that are usually enhanced by arousing music prior to or during actual performance (Karageorghis et al., 2009; Simpson & Karageorghis, 2006), it has important implications for the use of particular types of music with imagery, and supports the proposition that relaxation is beneficial for imagery. vii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to take this opportunity to thank and express my appreciation to many wonderful individuals that have provided so much love and support during my thesis. First and foremost, I would like to specially thank my principal supervisor, Professor Tony Morris, for his professional guidance, persistent feedback, open communication, attention to detail, encouragement, continual support and patience throughout the research. His advice on all aspects of the development of this thesis, and his support in publishing my research findings and involving me in other research, has been invaluable for the successful completion of this thesis. I will always be indebted to you for your diligence and friendship in the latter part of my professional development. I would also like to thank my associate supervisor, Professor Peter Terry from the Department of Psychology, University of Southern Queensland, for his kind support and advice on music and sports research. Thank you for your kind words, and encouragement to keep me motivated and inspired in completing my thesis writing. Thank you for your help in contacting the elite shooters for Study 3. I honestly felt very privileged and honoured to have this great opportunity to work with both supervisors and have such an exceptional and dedicated supervisor throughout my PhD journey. Also a very special thanks to the pistol shooting and weightlifting coaches, athletes, and clubs allowing me to complete my Study 1 and Study 3. I am also grateful to the coaches, who facilitated contacts with participants, patiently checking and re- validating my imagery script, and offered their time to work closely with me and with the elite athletes. Their kindness and hospitality in offering their time and viii accommodation for me during interstate travel has played a pivotal role in completing the thesis. I would like to acknowledge the staff members and colleagues from the College of Sport and Exercise Science, with whom I worked closely, and who also helped to promote my research to the sport science students to participate in Study 2. Also, thank you to the students, who