Effect of Motor Imagery and Action Observation on Mental Representation and Movement Accuracy of Basketball free Throw

This study was aimed to address the effect of motor imagery and action observation on the mental representation and accuracy of basketball free throw. For this purpose, 40 participants were divided into four groups including: imagery, observation, mixed, and control. Participants practiced the basketball free throw for one week (100 trials per day) according to their grouping. One week after the last session of training, a retention test was performed. Movement accuracy and the structure of mental representation were measured. Results of movement accuracy showed that the mixed group had a higher accuracy than other groups. Also, the observation group performed more accurate than imagery group. In the mental representation measure, the mixed group had a more structured mental representation than other groups. In addition, the mental representation of imagery group was more structured than observation group. These findings were interpreted according to the different underlying of these practice types