Intelligence and the Improvement in a Gross Motor Skill After Mental Practice

Abstract

Summary. Forty‐four male teachers' college students mentally practised a gross motor skill with which they had previously been unfamiliar. At the end of the six‐day practice period, the subjects' ability to physically perform the movement was assessed and was compared with the scores the subjects had obtained on a test of general intelligence. An insignificant negative correlation was obtained. In breakdown of the relation between these two variables, it appeared that the highly skilful subjects, as assessed by their physical performance at the test, tended to have a significant negative correlation between their skill scores and the intelligence marks. This feature was noted in another study in the literature.