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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
Publisher
Medknow Publications
Journal
Journal of Sports Science and Medicine