On your turn, press J to throw to the left, or press K to throw to the right.

Important Instructions:

In the upcoming experiment, we are investigating the effects of practicing mental visualization in game play. Thus, we need you to practice your mental visualization skills. We have found that the best way to do this is to have you play an online ball tossing game with other participants who are logged on at the same time.

In a few moments, you will be playing a ball tossing game with other participants over our secure network. The game is very simple. When the ball is tossed to you, indicate who you would like to throw the ball to using the keyboard by pressing either 'J' (for the player to your left) or 'K' (for the player to your right).

These will all be labeled for you during the game.

The game will also pause at several points to help us understand how mental visualization impacts thoughts. At this time, you and the other participants will be presented a probe question regarding your thoughts at the moment the game paused. Please answer these questions honestly. They will not affect your scores or progress in any way.

** Please read these instructions very carefully! **

We will ask that you report your thoughts as they were immediately before the presentation of the thought probe.

You will see the following question appear:

Please rate whether your thoughts just before this message were on-task (1) or off-task (2). Indicate your answer using the keyboard (1 or 2).

Your thoughts are off-task when:

  • You are thinking about anything that is going on in your external environment,
  • You are focusing on internal things, like planning, memories, or imagining future events, or
  • You are focusing on any sensations in your body.

Please be honest, your response will not affect your progress in any way.

Your ball tossing performance is not as important compared to you MENTALLY VISUALIZING the entire experience. Imagine what the others look like. What sort of people are they? Where are you playing? Is it warm and sunny or cold and rainy? Create in your mind a complete mental picture of what might be going on if you were playing this game in real life.