Assignment 2

Written Assignment

Motor Learning

Fall 2004

For this paper, you will be designing a motor learning experiment. The topic should be about something related to motor skill instruction. Your paper should be approximately 4-6 pages and should cover the following 5 sections:

(You do not need a summary or abstract for your paper, but start with introduction).

I. Introduction should cover these areas:

A. First discuss what the problem is to the field of motor learning or pedagogy. This is the issue of interest. Topic needs to relate to pedagogy (instruction)

1) I stated AMost instruction literature states that your eyes should be placed directly over the ball when golf-putting, however some of the pros do not do this@. Why? What is causing the difference (e.g. could be eye-dominance)

2) or, for another example of a problem = AIs internal imagery better than external imagery for learning a motor skill?

B. Next, you need to give definitions and/or theory

1) I defined eye-dominance and what it does

2) I discussed the eye-dominance hypothesis

3) or, for imagery example, you would discuss imagery theory.

C) discuss relevant research.

1) I discussed baseball players and eye-dominance hypothesis

2) find related research to the problem

3) you will need to get three outside references for your paper. (Hint: go to the library and use Psychlit, if you do not know how to use it, see the reference librarian)

4) for imagery example , you would discuss other imagery research related to learning motor skills. (E.g., research showing internal imagery is better than external imagery)

D) you need to discuss possible alternative strategies

1) I stated that you could place eyes inside the line for better accuracy

2) Will this alternative strategy work? =this is why your setting up problem

3) or, for imagery example, you could discuss what has not been research in imagery research (e.g., watching film)

E. What are your predictions (hypotheses)?

1) I hypothesized that placing your eyes inside the line would be better for right-eyed right handed individuals. Cross dextral would putt better with eyes over ball

2) external imagery better if both groups watch film.

Note: It may help you to develop hypotheses and work backwards

This section should be at least 2-3 pages

II. Methods

A. Who will be your subjects and why. What will be their ages?

B. What will be the tasks used? Describe. I used a putting grid.

C. What is your procedure for testing? What groups are you using?

How long is your testing ? How many trials? What is your manipulation? (Ex. Both eye-dominant groups putted with their eyes over the ball and inside the line. I wanted to determine which was better.)

D. Methods should be described so that anyone can replicate your experiment.

This section should be at least 1 page

III. Results.

A. Make them up. Who performed better? Do not worry about how to correctly write the statistics. Just give Mean values for each group.

IV. Discussion.

A. What did you find? Did it support your hypotheses? (Ex. I found that right-eye dominant golfers putted better when they placed their eyes inside the line, as I predicted).

B. Describe how these findings have implications to coaching or teaching.

(Only make implications about what you have found in your study. Do not go on

a tangent about everything related to topic.)

C. Possible research in the future

This section should be at least 1 page

V. References.

A. You need to reference all the material you cite in the paper. You need to have at least five references with three coming from outside the text.

B. Look at how I referenced materials for both journals and books.

Ex. Authors names first, year of publication. Title of article, Title of journal or book, page numbers of article.

C. Only cite the references you used in the text.

Two further notes:

1) All good writing has flow from one paragraph to next. Make sure your paper has flow or your grade will be lower than you like. Although you are writing a research paper, it is really a story you are telling.

2) Do not put AI feel@ or AI think@, instead write Athe research has indicated@

This paper is due Dec 5, 2004

Need to give me a topic by Nov 16, 2004. (Otherwise you will lose 5 points on the paper)

Paper must be typewritten with no spelling errors.

Paper is worth 40 points. Grade will be based on both content and form.

Possible topics for the motor learning research paper:

1. What is the best way to build confidence in players

2. Is Cohesion related to anxiety

3. Is too much feedback bad for the learner?

4. How do you fix bad habits?

5. Feedback differences for novices vs. Experts

6. What teaching strategies promote greatest transfer of learning?

7. What types of modeling would work best?

8. What types of imagery would work best?

9. When is it better to teach whole/part of the skill?

10. How can we decrease social loafing in our players?

11. Is there a home-court advantage? Which sport is best?

12 Do Optimists deal with anxiety better?

13. How can we motivate our athletes better?

14. Competitive outlook and gender differences

15. What type of focus is best to prevent choking?

16. What type of leader is best for a team?

17. What is the best way to get into flow (peak performance)?

18. What types of goals are best to motivate our athletes?

19. Can positive reinforcement be counterproductive?

20. When should competition be introduced into youth sport?

21. Are there critical times a child must learn a sport in order to develop into an expert?

The best way to develop an idea is think about your experiences in a critical fashion.

Think about what worked effectively and what did not?

Also, try and develop an idea that can help you become a better teacher or coach