Came across an interesting chapter from a book that unpacks creative visualisation and its role in accessing unconcious or implicit memory . It shows that when we visualise, it stimulates our full sensory aray (touch, smell, vision etc) and that it works best in enhancing performance (up to 30% improvement over control group in physical skills!) if it is combined with physical practice, a demanding cognitive component and positive visualisation (ie successful outcome).

It also finds that our imagined experience, very closely matches the real deal, so if we are asked to walk and press a button in our imagination, it takes just as long as if we did it in real life, but moderated by our expectations (so if we erroneously expect it to take longer, then it will in our imagination, but not in real life).

So for me this is the key. Consider cognitive dissonance theory, in which we seek to tip the balance from a belief about something to another position, by undermining one and building up the other.

We can use creative visualisation to help undermine unhelpful beliefs and attitudes. If we posit a situation that is in line with their old beliefs and ask them to visaulise it, they may be so laden with  expectations (and the sensory experience is so real) about how it will turn out, that it distorts their visualisation of the situation. Resulting in a pretty unrealistic outcome or vision.

Then when we invite the learner to execute the same situation in real life, the dissonance will be so much the greater. This has really interesting implications for change management and coaching. As an eLearning consultant, I often find my pure-play eLearning solutions need a behavioural/attitudinal change component to be effective so this may be a useful tool in my kit. What do you think?