Object and Spatial Imagery in professional female soccer players

Converging evidence demonstrates that visual imagery is not unitary and instead suggests the existence of two distinct subsystems, of object and spatial imagery. Gender differences have been found, with females scoring higher than males in measures of object imagery, and males performing better on spatial imagery tasks. Evidence has been also reported suggesting an association between participating in sports and spatial imagery abilities. In the present study we aimed to investigate the relationship between participating in sports and object and spatial imagery in a sample of females. In particular we aimed to verify whether females playing soccer show higher levels of spatial imagery abilities than females who do not play any sports, and whether playing soccer reverses the pattern usually observed in females (objet imagery higher than spatial imagery). To this aim we administered measures of object and spatial imagery to a group of professional female soccer players and to a group of female who practiced regular physical activity, without any specific training in sports. The soccer players reported higher abilities and preferences for imaging spatial relations and layouts, while the control group reported higher preferences for object imaging. However, both groups reported higher object than spatial imagery abilities and preferences. These data suggest that spatial imagery is associated with playing soccer, but also confirm a preference in females for visual object imagery.