A comprehensive, open-source battery of movement imagery ability tests: Development and psychometric properties

Imagining actions is a covert and multidimensional skill difficult to quantify. Comprehensive assessments rarely combine measures of imagery generation, maintenance, and manipulation. We developed and validated a combination of tests to assess these processes of movement imagery, online. 180 healthy individuals completed the MIQ-RS questionnaire (generation), the Imagined Finger Sequence Task (iFST; maintenance), and the Hand Laterality Judgement Task (HLJT; manipulation). MIQ-RS showed a bifactorial structure (visual and kinesthetic modalities) according to confirmatory factor analysis, and its reliability (internal consistency) was good. In the iFST, internal validity analyses via generalized mixed models showed a clear effect of sequence complexity, stronger for execution than imagery. Reliability, estimated via signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) using hierarchical Bayesian models, was also adequate (SNR ≥ 1.6). In the HLJT, expected effects of rotation angle, hand view, and their interaction, consistent with biomechanical constraints, were also found. Reliability was also adequate (SNR ≥ 1.75). Criterion validity across tests, assessed using Bayesian Spearman’s correlations, showed that correlations were generally absent (BF ₀₁ ≥ 3), and when present, of small magnitude (r ≤ 0.27). Test-retest reliability (122 participants reassessed 6-8 days after), computed via Intraclass Correlation Coefficients (ICCs), was generally adequate (ICCs ≥ 0.67). We conclude that the online versions of these tests showed adequate structural/internal validity and (test-retest) reliability. However, weak criterion validity suggests individuals with high ability to generate movement imagery may not necessarily have high ability to maintain and/or manipulate movement imagery, underscoring the need for comprehensive assessment of this capacity.