The effect of visualization format and content complexity on acquisition of tactical actions in basketball

Abstract

This study tried to identify how varied level of content complexity (low vs. medium vs. high) could affect learning outcomes, cognitive load investment, and attitudes when learning basketball tactical actions from different formats of visualization (dynamic vs. static) within physical education context. One hundred and fifty secondary school students (Mage = 15.31 years, SD = .64) took part in the experiment. They were quasi-randomly (i.e., matched for gender) assigned to the six experimental conditions and asked to rate their perceived cognitive load (i.e., mental effort invested and estimated difficulty), indicate their attitudes (i.e., attention, enjoyment, engagement and challenge) and perform the learning tests (i.e., game comprehension test and game performance test) immediately after the learning phase. Results showed that for low-complexity content, both formats of visualization have similar effects on cognitive load investment, and learning outcomes. However, for medium and high complexity contents, the dynamic format had a clear advantage over the static format in terms of cognitive load investment and learning outcomes. Moreover, it was found that whatever the level of content complexity, students exposed to the dynamic visualization reported more positive attitudes compared to those exposed to the static visualization. Considering the learning outcomes and the subjective experiences (i.e., cognitive load and attitudes), the results recommend the use of dynamic visualizations for learning basketball tactical actions whatever the level of content complexity.