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Effect of different attentional instructions on the acquisition of a serial movement task
Citation
Woo, M. T., Chow, J. Y., & Koh, M. (2014). Effect of different attentional instructions on the acquisition of a serial movement task. Journal of Sports Science and Medicine, 13(4), 782-792. http://www.jssm.org/research.php?id=jssm-13-782.xml
Abstract
Recent research in attentional focus of instruction has predomi-nantly over-emphasized the investigation of discrete and contin-uous skills rather than serial skills. The purpose of this study was therefore to examine the effect of different attentional focus instructions on learning a serial skill task (i.e., taekwondo rou-tine) in novice learners. It was predicted that the use of move-ment outcome instructions could enhance the learning of a serial skill as previously supported in studies examining the acquisi-tion of discrete and continuous skills. Thirteen female partici-pants were recruited for this study and were assigned to either movement form condition - control group (n = 7) or movement outcome condition – treatment group (n = 6). All participants underwent 12 practice sessions over an 8-week period with their respective instructional conditions with each session lasting 30 minutes. Video recording of the serial skill tasks (hand tech-niques, kicking techniques and 10-step routine) were captured at “the-twelfth-training session”, “after 1-week”, and “after 1-month”. It was found that more participants in the treatment group obtained a higher score in all three serial skill tasks, espe-cially in Mastery component of ‘Kicking’ techniques at ‘after 1-week’ (p < 0.05, r = 0.57). This study suggested that movement outcome instructions have positive medium effect on balance control for serial skill task, especially in kicking actions.
Date Issued
2014