Verbal Instructions and Motor Learning: How Analogy and Explicit Instructions Influence the Development of Mental Representations and Tennis Serve Performance

Frontiers in Psychology

article

Christopher Meier¹  Cornelia Frank²  Bernd Gröben¹  Thomas Schack² 

[1] Faculty of Psychology and Sports Science, Department of Sports Science, Sports and Education Research Group, Bielefeld University;Faculty of Psychology and Sports Science, Department of Sports Science, Neurocognition & Action - Biomechanics Research Group, Bielefeld University;Center of Excellence Cognitive Interaction Technology (CITEC), Bielefeld University

关键词: instruction;    mental representation;    long-term memory;    chunking;    junior tennis players;    explicit learning;    implicit learning;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00002

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

To better understand the benefits of using analogy and explicit instructions, the underlying cognitive mechanism remains to be explored. The concept of chunking provides a promising approach to the cognitive mechanism of instructions and can be approximated by analyzing athletes’ mental representations. The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of analogy and explicit instructions on performance and the cognitive representations of the tennis serve in intermediate participants over the course of a 5-week training period. Junior tennis players ( N = 44; M = 11.5 years) were tested on their tennis serve and, based on their initial performance and their individual error patterns, assigned to one of three groups: an analogy group ( N = 15), an explicit group ( N = 15), or a control group ( N = 14). Their performance and their mental representation structures were assessed prior to and after the 5-week training period and again after a retention period of 14 days. Independent of group, findings demonstrated higher velocity from pretest to posttest. Participants in both the analogy and the explicit group showed enhanced accuracy over time and more functional mental representation structures. Thus, both analogy instruction and explicit instruction helped to structure mental representations in their long-term memory.

【 授权许可】

CC BY