The emerging field of "motor cognition" is concerned with the mental processes by which the motor system plans and produces skilled actions. A key topic in this field is "motor imagery" or people’s ability to simulate or imagine the movements of their bodies in space. Although this ability is known to distinguish expert from novice performance in motor domains such as sport, little research has been conducted on the cognitive processes underlying it because of the absence of suitable measures. However, with the development of the "mental travel" paradigm, it is now possible to investigate motor imagery by comparing the relationship between the duration of real and imagined skill execution.