Journal of Sports and Motor Development and Learning
Scientific Journal

The Effect of Internal and External Focus of Attention on Acquisition, Retention and Transfer of Dart Throwing in Mentally Retarded Children

Document Type : Research Paper I Open Access I Released under CC BY-NC 4.0 license

Authors

Maryam Lotfi 1
Jalal Dehghanizade 1
Fateme Sadat Hosseini 2

1 PhD Student of Motor Learning, Department of Motor Behavior, Faculty of Physical Education and Sport Sciences, Urmia University, Urmia, Iran

2 Assistant Professor of Sport Psychology, Department of Motor Behavior, Faculty of Physical Education and Sport Sciences, Urmia University, Urmia, Iran

https://doi.org/10.22059/jmlm.2015.57268
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 (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.
 
 

Keywords

dart throwing
external attention
internal attention
mentally retarded
motor learning
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Journal of Sports and Motor Development and Learning
Volume 7, Issue 4 - Serial Number 4
Winter 2016
Pages 511-527

  • Receive Date 25 October 2014
  • Revise Date 17 December 2015
  • Accept Date 03 January 2015

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