No Improvement on the Learning of Golf Putting By Older Persons With Self-Controlled Knowledge of Performance

Abstract

The aim of this study was to verify if older adults would benefit from a self-controlled schedule of knowledge of performance (KP) in the motor skill learning. The study's participants included 22 women and 18 men, with an average age of 68 years (SD = 2.95 years). These were divided into two groups: "Self", in which participants had control over when they received KP, and "Yoked", in which participants received KP in a paired manner with the Self group. The learning task was golf putting. Results showed that the groups had similar scores for accuracy and consistency of performance. Results also showed that KP requests were more based on bad than good trials. It appears that the important variable for motor learning is not who controls the provision of feedback, but the older adults' ability to use the information.

Practice Schedules and Hierarchical Organization in the Adaptive Process of Motor Learning

“…Importantly, this assumption suggests caution in interpreting the performance level achieved in previous studies that investigated golf putting learning (e.g. Chauvel et al, 2012;Nunes et al, 2018;Oliveira, Denardi, Tani, & Corrêa, 2013), since we based some aspects of our task design on them.…”

“…Furthermore, existing research provides experimental protocol for motor learning (e.g. Chauvel et al, 2012;Nunes et al, 2018;Oliveira, Denardi, Tani, & Corrêa, 2013;Poolton, Maxwell, Masters, & Raab, 2006).…”

“…As in Nunes et al (2018)'s study, participants performed the strokes on an artificial grass surface measuring 1.5 m wide and 5 m long, with a target (hole with a diameter of 10.0 cm) 15 cm from the end of the surface. We used two golf clubs (male and a female putters designed for beginners) and 15 championship golf standard balls (Figure 1B).…”

The Effect of Self-Controlled and Experimenter-Controlled Frequency of Model Demonstration on Learning a Complex Gymnastic Routine

“…On the other hand, selfcontrolled group with high frequency of modeling had cognitive representation significantly better than experimenter-controlled groups. Also, in a group of older adults learning a golf putting task, similar performance was demonstrated by selfcontrolled and yoked groups (Nunes et al, 2019). Likewise, the self-controlled group of college students had similar performance compared to the group with regulated feedback in the acquisition of backhand return in tennis table (Liu et al, 2014).…”

“…These studies showed that groups that self-controlled the conditions during physical practice achieved better outcomes than yoked groups. However, some studies showed no benefit of giving the participants any choice (Wrisberg & Pein, 2002;Liu et al, 2014;McRae et al, 2015;Chiviacowsky & Lessa, 2017;Kim et al, 2019;Nunes et al, 2019). For instance, Wrisberg & Pein (2002) found no differences in the effectiveness of learning a badminton long serve in groups with different frequencies of model observation.…”