Archers who use imagery more are also more task oriented
1 study · 251 archers measured
The summary today
A single study has put the two together: 251 archers registered with the Turkish federation, aged 17 to 20, recurve and compound, fill in one questionnaire on their use of imagery and one on the goals they set themselves. All five forms of imagery are linked to task orientation, that is, judging oneself by one's own improvement, with correlations between 0.14 and 0.34, and four of the five are also linked, more weakly, to ego orientation, at around 0.16-0.17. The exception is imagery tied to emotional arousal, which goes with ego more than with task, 0.28 against 0.14, and is also the least reliable scale in the questionnaire. The limit lies in the numbers themselves: the highest correlation, 0.336, means about 11 per cent of the differences in common, and two questionnaires filled in at the same moment cannot say which drives which. It is a weak tendency in a large sample, measured once and in a regional journal.
Also phrased as: "visualisation and task orientation"; "imagery and goal orientation"; "task or ego orientation"; "visualising to improve on yourself"
In practice
People say visualisation helps archers focus on their own shot and their own improvement, rather than on how they compare with their opponents and the rankings.
Evidence
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2023
For Archers Published later
251 archers registered with the Turkish federation, aged 17-20, recurve and compound, SIQ and TEOSQ questionnaires: Spearman correlations with task orientation of 0.336 for cognitive general imagery, 0.320 for motivational specific and for motivational general mastery, 0.243 for cognitive specific, 0.140 for motivational general arousal, all with p<0.05 (Tablo 2, pp. 81-82). The highest, 0.336, amounts to about 11% shared variance.
Okçuluk Sporcularının Sporda İmgeleme Becerilerinin Hedef Yönelimi Düzeylerine Etkisinin İncelenmesi · Esra Şentürk, İlker Özmutlu
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2023
Context Archers Published later
With ego orientation the correlations are weaker, between 0.156 and 0.168 (p from 0.008 to 0.013), apart from motivational general arousal imagery, which reaches 0.282 (p<0.001): it is the only form that goes with ego more than with task, 0.282 against 0.140, while for the other four the link with task is between one and a half and two times that with ego (Tablo 2, pp. 81-82).
Okçuluk Sporcularının Sporda İmgeleme Becerilerinin Hedef Yönelimi Düzeylerine Etkisinin İncelenmesi · Esra Şentürk, İlker Özmutlu
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2023
Context Archers Published later
Reliability of the scales in the sample, Cronbach's alpha: general arousal 0.661, cognitive specific 0.788, cognitive general 0.807, general mastery 0.824, motivational specific 0.842; task orientation 0.932, ego 0.899 (pp. 78-79). The scale that behaves differently from the others is also the least reliable, so that finding is the least solid.
Okçuluk Sporcularının Sporda İmgeleme Becerilerinin Hedef Yönelimi Düzeylerine Etkisinin İncelenmesi · Esra Şentürk, İlker Özmutlu
Status history
- 2023 Reported The first and only study: 251 Turkish registered archers aged 17 to 20 fill in the two scales, and every type of imagery is linked to task orientation, with correlations between 0.14 and 0.34, and only weakly to ego orientation, apart from the part tied to emotional arousal, which does the opposite. No type of imagery covers more than about a tenth of the differences in orientation, and the arousal subscale is also the least reliable in the questionnaire. It is a cross-sectional association in a large sample, in a regional journal: reported.
Related
Related articles
- Does imagining the shot raise your score? What the studies measuredDoes imagining the shot raise your score? Forty years of studies on archers, from a 1986 correlation to controlled trials, and where the evidence stops.
- Is there such a thing as an archer's mental profile? What comparisons and questionnaires findDo archers have a different mind from other athletes? What comparisons between sports, mental questionnaires and estimates of the mind's share of score find.
Research lines
Cite
Campagna, M. (2026). Archers who use imagery more are also more task oriented (Version 1). In Evidence Registry. Retrieved 16 October 2026, from https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/mind/imagery-use-task-orientation
@misc{campagna2026_immaginazioneorientamentocompito,
author = {Campagna, Matteo},
title = {Archers who use imagery more are also more task oriented},
year = {2026},
howpublished = {Evidence Registry, matteocampagna.com},
url = {https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/mind/imagery-use-task-orientation},
note = {Version 1; accessed 2026-10-16}
}
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