The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of demonstration ability of model on the acquisition, retention and transfer of field motor tasks in observational learning. Subjects for this study were 48 female elementary school children(six...
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of demonstration ability of model on the acquisition, retention and transfer of field motor tasks in observational learning. Subjects for this study were 48 female elementary school children(sixth grade). They were assigned randomly to one of four different condition groups containing 12 subjects each: Control group (no-modeling group), unskilled model observation group, skilled model observation group and mixed model observation group.
Both experiment 1 and 2 were designed to investigate the optimal observation condition for acquisition, retention and transfer by characteristics of field motor tasks. The motor task used in the experiment 1 was the badminton-cuttingdrop as one of open skills. The motor task used in the experiment 2 was the golf-putting as one of closed-skills.
Subjects of experiment 1 and 2 were the same subjects. They performed 60 acquisition trials(6 blocks) followed by 20 retention trials(2 blocks) and 20 transfer trials(2 blocks). Before the acquisition trials of experiment 1 and 2, subjects of modeling groups observed demonstration of model of 10 trials.
Data obtained from all subjects(N=48) in acquisition, retention and transfer trials for the absolute error, variable error, radial error and directional angle were analyzed with two-way ANOVA by the significance level of α=.05 and Tukey's HSD were used to analyze the main effects of this study.
The designs of this study were a 4×6(observation conditions×trial blocks) factorial design with repeated measures in acquisition, a 2×2 factorial design with repeated measures in retention and a 2×2 factorial design with repeated measures in transfer by motor tasks(experiment 1 and 2).
The results of experiment 1 and 2 by performance phase were summarized as follows;
1) Acquisition phase
Except for the directional angle of two motor tasks, the absolute, variable and radial error showed that the latter blocks performed significantly better accuracy than the former blocks.
On the other hand, the results for the groups by motor characteristics were as follows;
(1) Open motor task(badminton cuttingdrop)
The absolute, variable, radial error and directional angle showed that the mixed model observation group performed significantly better accuracy than the other three groups.
(2) Closed-motor task(golf putting)
The absolute and variable error showed that the mixed model observation group performed significantly better accuracy than the other three groups. On the other hand, the directional angle showed that the skilled model and unskilled model observation groups performed significantly better accuracy than the other two groups. However, the radial error showed that no-modeling group performed significantly better accuracy than the other three groups.
2) Retention phase
Except for the directional angle and radial error of the closed-motor task, the latter block(block 2) performed significantly better accuracy than the former block(block 1) without regard to motor characteristics.
On the other hand, the results for the groups by motor characteristics were as follows;
(1) Open motor task(badminton cuttingdrop)
The absolute and variable error showed that the mixed model observation group performed significantly better accuracy than the other three groups. However, there were no main effects for the groups in the radial error and directional angle.
(2) Closed-motor task(golf putting)
The absolute, variable error and directional angle showed that the mixed model and unskilled model observation groups performed significantly better accuracy than the other two groups. However, there were no main effects for the groups in the radial error.
3) Transfer phase
Except for the directional angle and radial error of the closed-motor task, the latter block(block 2) performed significantly better accuracy than the former block(block 1) without regard to motor characteristics.
On the other hand, the results for the groups by motor characteristics were as follows;
(1) Open motor task(badminton cuttingdrop)
The absolute, variable and radial error showed that the mixed model observation group performed significantly better accuracy than the other three groups. However, there were no main effects for the groups in the directional angle.
(2) Closed-motor task(golf putting)
The absolute error showed that the unskilled model observation group performed significantly better accuracy than the other three groups. On the other hand, the directional angle showed that the mixed model observation group performed significantly better accuracy than the other three groups. However, there were no main effects for the groups in the variable and radial error
In conclusion, the results of this study showed that modeling conditions were an effective teaching-learning strategy for acquisition, retention and transfer of the two field motor tasks. Especially, these findings showed that mixed model observation condition tends to produce improvements in the observational learning of field motor tasks.