Abstract
The provision of feedback is a crucial factor for the evolution of the learner’s performance. It is known that the knowledge of performance has the function of guiding the learner’s attention to critical aspects of the movement pattern. The objective of this study was to examine the effect of frequency of knowledge of performance (KP) during the acquisition of the basketball free throw in older persons. Sixty active individuals (men and women) aged 60–69 years of age, divided into three experimental groups received KP in 100, 66, and 33% of their attempts during three practice sessions totaling 90 trials. The task was the basketball free throw. Volunteers were asked to conduct tests of immediate retention, 24 h retention, and 24 h transfer test, after the last practice session. During the acquisition phase, the volunteers received KP on the movement pattern on the previous attempt, which was obtained from a qualitative hierarchical checklist of the free throw (14 items). Sessions were recorded in order to confirm whether volunteers were able to score throughout sessions. ANOVA indicated that all individuals showed an improved performance in the retention and transfer tests. But the KP frequency of 66% was superior in both qualitative (movement pattern) and quantitative (score) measurements throughout the trials (p ≤ 0.05). In conclusion older persons seem to need an optimal KP frequency supply during the learning process.
Highlights
With aging, the capacity to continue to learn new motor skills is of the utmost importance for maximizing quality of life, since older persons need to practice and learn new skills and to relearn motor skills that were practiced in the past; this is true whether the skills are part of a recreational activity, a training task or a rehabilitation task (Carnahan et al, 1996)
The objective of this work was to investigate the effect of the frequency of the provision of knowledge of performance (KP) (33, 66, and 100%) on the acquisition of a motor skill in older individuals
One of the reasons for this work is that, according to Magill and Grodesky (2005) and Spirduso et al (2005), strategies should be employed to facilitate learning among the older population. One example of such a strategy would be the provision of extrinsic feedback that offers information regarding the pattern of the movement, or what is known as KP
Summary
The capacity to continue to learn new motor skills is of the utmost importance for maximizing quality of life, since older persons need to practice and learn new skills and to relearn motor skills that were practiced in the past; this is true whether the skills are part of a recreational activity, a training task or a rehabilitation task (Carnahan et al, 1996). In motor learning studies using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), some structural and functional changes were observed in the brains of older participants (Boyke et al, 2008; Bo et al, 2011; Lin et al, 2012; Turner and Spreng, 2012) These studies reveal that older persons continue to demonstrate brain plasticity over the course of the aging process. Shephard (1997) has pointed out that the decline due to aging only means that the instructor/teacher must take a number of special steps at the moment of giving information in order for the skill to be acquired This can be observed, for example, in the study by Carnahan et al (1996), who showed that older persons who received extrinsic feedback, or knowledge of results (KR), after every five attempts were more consistent and precise in their performance the ones who received KR after each attempt. When the relationship between KR frequency and aging is considered (Behrman et al, 1992; Carnahan et al, 1996; Wishart and Lee, 1997; Gehring, 2008), the results do not complement each other, and nor do they clarify what is the ideal frequency of providing KR to the older persons
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