Covert Rehearsal

Description of the Strategy

The question of whether or not a person can improve his or her performance by means of mentally rehearsing that performance is one that has been studied for several decades. Known by various terms, such as mental practice, visualization, symbolic rehearsal, positive imaging, and introspective rehearsal, covert rehearsal is basically the internal practice of a behavior or sequence of behaviors in the absence of overt or physical movement, with the goal of performance enhancement. Examples of the use of this procedure include both cognitive and overt behavioral tasks. In the cognitive realm, covert rehearsal has long been used to improve memory, such as in studying for a test, preparing to deliver a speech, or trying to memorize a list of some kind. In the behavioral realm, covert rehearsal has been used, for example, to improve performance in sports and musical accomplishment and to prepare a person to communicate or socialize with other people.

Covert rehearsal involves repetition of the material to be learned, and it may be done in a number of different contexts, such as imagining the details of an event or stimulus item, being reminded of the event by an external or internal cue, or reorganizing one's thoughts about an event in a different way. The repetition may be simple, such as continual internal recitation of something one wants to retain in memory, like a list, a poem, or a phone number. Or the repetition may be elaborate, relating the target stimulus to an image, such as oneself on the basketball court practicing a particular shot, or to a context different from the original one, or attaching it to cues, as in the development of mnemonic devices. In the process of rehearsing, different modalities may be used. These modalities may be imagerial, verbal, or musical. In a therapeutic context, the imagerial modality is used most often in covert rehearsal.

Covert rehearsal is used to either strengthen a correct response or to eliminate an incorrect response. In the first case, the response one might want to strengthen or increase may be the improvement of a sequence of behaviors necessary for smooth performance, such as in a sport or athletic event, sharpening one's debating skills, or the way one communicates to another. In all these cases, the response already exists, and the individual has a certain level of skill in the performance of the response.

In the second case, the targeted response may be an inappropriate or unwanted emotional reaction, such as in the case of anxiety, negative self-evaluation, improper sexual arousal, depressing thoughts, and so forth. In these cases, the desired response (which would counteract or overcome these emotional reactions) may not occur at all, or it may occur at a low frequency. An individual may engage in covert rehearsal in order to learn more effective and more appropriate ways of dealing with situations in which these emotional reactions occur.

The therapist uses the covert rehearsal procedure as a way to help a client identify specific areas of difficulty, practice the behaviors or strategies he or she is trying to learn, and provide “coaching” in the form of suggested alternative behaviors. Covert rehearsal is itself a skill, subject to conscious or voluntary control, whereby a person gains control over the experience.

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