Perceptual-Cognitive Changes During Motor Learning: The Influence of Mental and Physical Practice on Mental Representation, Gaze Behavior, and Performance of a Complex Action

Abstract

Despite the wealth of research on differences between experts and novices with respect to their perceptual-cognitive background (e.g., mental representations, gaze behavior), little is known about the change of these perceptual-cognitive components over the course of motor learning. In the present study, changes in one’s mental representation, quiet eye behavior, and outcome performance were examined over the course of skill acquisition as it related to physical and mental practice. Novices (N = 45) were assigned to one of three conditions: physical practice, combined physical plus mental practice, and no practice. Participants in the practice groups trained on a golf putting task over the course of 3 days, either by repeatedly executing the putt, or by both executing and imaging the putt. Findings revealed improvements in putting performance across both practice conditions. Regarding the perceptual-cognitive changes, participants practicing mentally and physically revealed longer quiet eye durations as well as more elaborate representation structures in comparison to the control group, while this was not the case for participants who underwent physical practice only. Thus, in the present study, combined mental and physical practice led to both formation of mental representations in long-term memory and longer quiet eye durations. Interestingly, the length of the quiet eye directly related to the degree of elaborateness of the underlying mental representation, supporting the notion that the quiet eye reflects cognitive processing. This study is the first to show that the quiet eye becomes longer in novices practicing a motor action. Moreover, the findings of the present study suggest that perceptual and cognitive adaptations co-occur over the course of motor learning.

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

“…On the questionnaire, they indicated on sixpoint Likert scales (1 = very difficult, 6 = very easy) how easy it was to follow the instructions and how easy it was to imagine the movements involved in the tennis serve. In addition, they were asked to mention any problems they experienced during training (Frank et al, 2016).…”

“…They found that practice led to an improvement in performance that was accompanied by functional changes in mental representation structures. Similarly, mental representations have been found to change functionally with mental practice such as imagery (Frank et al, , 2016(Frank et al, , 2018bSimonsmeier et al, 2018) and observation (Frank et al, 2018a) as well as in the context of expertise (e.g., Schack and Mechsner, 2006) and rehabilitation (Braun et al, 2007).…”

Visual expertise and the Quiet Eye in sports – comment on Vickers

“…Between 1998 and 2009, he was 11 years the number one in the official world golf ranking. Among others, his exceptional performance in putting can be attributed to his QE on the CISS 1 (2016) October 2016 I Article 108 I 3 green (Frank, Land, & Schack, 2016;Vickers, 1992). Over an exceptionally long time, Tiger Woods was able to outperform other golf players.…”

In my mind’s (quiet) eye: a perceptual-cognitive approach to the Quiet Eye – comment on Vickers

“…From this point of view, it might be the effect anticipation based on the effect representation available that is reflected by the QE. Recent research indicates that the representational networks of a motor action develop alongside of the QE during learning (Frank, Land, & Schack, 2016). Participants trained on a golf putting task over the course of three days.…”

“…It is therefore surprising that our insight into its functioning, into the underlying mechanisms of the QE, has remained scarce to date. While research on the QE has grown, covering cross-sectional research designs (e.g., expert novice paradigm with QE as dependent variable; e.g., Vickers, 1992) as well as longitudinal research designs (e.g., learning paradigm with QE Citation: Frank, C., & Schack, T. (2016). In my mind's (quiet) eye: a perceptual-cognitive approach to the Quiet Eye -comment on Vickers.…”