Effects of Goal Specificity and Goal Difficulty upon Skill Acquisition of a Selected Shooting Task

Abstract

This study investigated the effect of goal specificity and goal difficulty upon skill acquisition of a selected shooting task Utilizing a two-stage sampling technique, nine classes (90 subjects) were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: specific difficult goals, specific moderate goals, and generalized “do your best” goals. Following a pretest trial under a “do your best” condition, subjects performed five skill acquisition trials on a kneeling task under their assigned conditions. A 3×2×5 (Goal Groups × Sex × Trials) multivariate analysis of covariance with repeated measures on the last factor and pretest performance as the covariate indicated that the group with a specific difficult goal was significantly superior to the “do your best” group. There was also a significant main effect for trials, however, none of interactions were significant. The results are discussed as they relate to existing investigations in industrial, laboratory, and physical education situations.