Jalal Dehghanizade; Maryam Lotfi; Hasan Mohammadzade
Abstract
The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of physical training and working memory training on mental rotation ability. 45 non-athlete female students were purposively selected and randomly assigned to one of these groups: aerobic training, working memory training and control (each group ...
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The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of physical training and working memory training on mental rotation ability. 45 non-athlete female students were purposively selected and randomly assigned to one of these groups: aerobic training, working memory training and control (each group 15 subjects). This study was quasi-experimental, which was a type of pretest-posttest with a control group. Mental rotation test was conducted for the sample. Physical training and working memory training groups participated respectively in aerobic training and working memory training for 30 minutes daily for two weeks. The control group performed their daily activities. Results of ANOVA with repeated measures showed that aerobic and working memory training affected mental rotation ability (P≤0.05). The findings suggested that cognitive abilities are facilitated by cognitive and motor interventions.
Maryam Lotfi; Jalal Dehghanizade; Fateme Sadat Hosseini
Abstract
The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of focus of attention on learning dart throwing in mentally retarded children.In this quasi-experimental study, 22 mentally retarded boys (age 10-12 years old) were randomly selected according to IQ (50-70) and were assigned to two homogenous attention ...
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The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of focus of attention on learning dart throwing in mentally retarded children.In this quasi-experimental study, 22 mentally retarded boys (age 10-12 years old) were randomly selected according to IQ (50-70) and were assigned to two homogenous attention (internal, external) groups after the pretest and a training session according to the obtained scores, age and IQ. The subjects practiced in 5 blocks and each block 8 throws. Two-way analysis of variance with repeated measures and ANOVA were used to analyze data. In retention phase, both groups increased accuracy in their throwing (P=0.044). Variability (P=0.044) and throwing accuracy (P=0.047) decreased due to the training. In transfer phase, internal focus group could not transfer skill to new conditions while variable group succeeded to transfer their skill to new conditions. Also, external focus group had lower variability (P=0.049) and higher accuracy (P=0.048) than internal focus group. According to the findings, external focus group was able to retain and transfer skills to new situations which confirmed constrained action hypothesis (Wulf et al., 2001) in mentally retarded individuals.