MENTAL PRACTICE AND PERFORMANCE: CURRENT STATUS AND FUTURE RESEARCH DIRECTIONS   DANIEL M. LANDERS AND RAFER LUTZ ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY   For the past 50 years, the mental aspects of performance have fascinated athletes and coaches.  Although there has been considerable speculation about the relationship between mental factors and sport and motor performance, there was not much scientific attention on this topic until the 1970s.  The research literature at this time focused on mental practice, including visualization and imagery, and how this might affect sport and motor performance.  This literature was seemingly conflicting until quantitative reviews (i.e., meta-analyses) in the 1980s showed that mental practice was able to improve performance approximately one-half of a standard deviation over control groups that had no opportunity for mental practice.  Although mental practice does not produce as large an effect as does physical practice, the performance effects are better than having no mental practice at all.  Dose-response studies, in which varying ratios of mental to physical practice were systematically applied, suggest that time scheduled for physical practice should not be used for mental practice training since this substitution is not optimal for performance.  In this presentation, the literature on the amount of mental practice needed to optimize performance will be addressed.  Some new findings, which examine systematic variation in the amount of mental practice that is given beyond a constant level of physical practice, will be presented.  In addition, research dealing with the content or type of mental practice (i.e., internal or form focused vs. external or outcome focused imagery) will also be reviewed and recommendations for teachers and coaches will be made concerning the amount and type of imagery needed for athletes at different skill levels.