The Effects of Individual Differences in Internal Representations on Conscious Processing and Performance in a Motor Task

Individuals can differ in their experiences of conscious thought, such as a tendency to represent thought processes with visual imagery or in the form of language. These differences in internal representations can also be evident during motor control, where conscious and verbalizable control of movements can negatively affect performance, while visualizations can be facilitative. The Internal Representation Questionnaire (IRQ) was developed to measure propensity to engage certain types of representations and includes factors related to imagery and verbalization. However, its ability to predict motor performance has not been tested. In this study 155 participants (105 female) completed the IRQ, movement specific reinvestment scale (MSRS), and performed a novel motor task, presented on the online platform Gorilla. Performance efficiency on the motor task and verbalized descriptions of the movement were measured before and after a period of practice. Significant improvements in performance across the practice period evidenced engagement in learning the task (F = 37.8; p < .001; ηp2 = .285). The forced entry regression showed that the IRQ was a significant predictor of MSRS responses (F4,114 = 6.8, p < .001, R2 = .192, R2Adj = .163). Specifically, there was a significant positive relationship between IRQ verbal (t = 3.6, df = 118, p < .001) and orthographic (t = 2.5, df = 118, p = .014) factors with MSRS. IRQ and MSRS did not predict the verbalized motor task descriptions. However, IRQ factors of manipulational representation (t = -2.7, df = 84, p = .008) and visualization (t = 2.96, df = 84, p = .004) did predict performance efficiency in the motor task (F6,78 = 2.36, p = .038, R2 = .154, R2Adj = .089), but only when performed after practice. Results suggest there may be some conceptual overlap between internal verbalizations and reinvestment. The IRQ has potential to be a valuable tool for predicting motor performance by integrating measures of an individual’s tendency to visualize or engage in verbal processing when learning new motor patterns.