SPS 606 LAB MANUAL

FACULTY OF SPORTS SCIENCE AND RECREATION

MOTOR CONTROL AND LEARNING

LAB MANUAL

Mental Practice and Motor Skill Learning

Introduction

Objective: To demonstrate the effectiveness of mental practice to aid the learning of a

new skill. Mental practice consistently has been demonstrated to benefit skill learning
when used appropriately. In this lab, a combination of mental and physical practice is
compared to physical practice only and to mental practice only. The goal is to look at
these three types of practice to determine how engaging in only one form of each type
compares to doing a combination of both types in which the amount of total practice is
the same for all situations.

Task and Equipment

The task is to bounce a ball from the floor to a target drawn on the wall using the non
preferred hand.

Laboratory Requirements

1. basketball (or similar sized ball)

2. target drawn on wall

To Make the Target: Draw three concentric squares on the wall with 1 ft (18 cm)
between squares. The outer square should be 5 ft x 5 ft (of 1.5 m x 1.5 m). Mark the
center square with a 3, the next square with a 2, and the outer square with a 1. These
numbers indicate the point values of each target square.
 SPS 606 LAB MANUAL

Procedures

To prepare the testing area, draw a 5 ft (1.5 m) line on the floor parallel to the wall and
15 ft (or, 4 m) from the wall. This mark is the restraining line for the participant.

One trial consists of 10 bounces to the target. To begin a trial, the participant should
hold the ball and stand in a comfortable position at the restraining line. He or she
should then bounce the ball toward the target with the non-preferred hand (the hand the
person does not use for signing his or her name). The score for an attempt is the point
value of the square hit by that ball after one bounce. Any ball hitting an area outside the
outer square or hitting a target area after one bounce gets a 0 for a score. Balls hitting
a line should get the higher score. The score for a trial is the total number of points
accumulated for the 10 bounces.

The first trial is a pretest and should be performed by all subjects. Following this trial,
participants should engage in the type of practice activity required by their experimental
group. There are six practice trials following the pretest. The practice trials are followed
by a posttest, which is the same as the pretest and is performed by all participants. The
posttest trial should be given 5-10 min after the last practice trial, during which time the
participants should rest.

To expedite doing the testing for this lab, it is recommended that more than one testing
station be developed and that two students work at each station. One student should
serve as the scorer and the other as the ball retriever. The scorer and ball retriever
should not serve as participants because they would be influenced by their observation
of the subject.

Organize the lab into three groups of equal numbers: the Physical Practice Group (PP),
the Mental Practice Group (MP), and the Physical Practice - Mental Practice Group
(PP-MP).

During the practice trials (the two trials following the pretest), the three groups perform
as follows:
PP Group: Participants perform two trials just like the pretest trial.
SPS 606 LAB MANUAL

MP Group: Participants perform two trials of mental practice and do not do any physical
performing of the task The mental practice consists of sitting in a quiet area and
mentally imaging doing two trials of 10 bounces each. These participants should have
their Individual Data Sheet with them and record the score they mentally imagined for
each bounce for each trial.

MP-PP Group: Participants alternate physically performing a trial with mentally

performing a trial. Thus, Trial 1 is physical trials, and Trial 2 is mental practice trials.
Participants should follow the same procedures for their mental practice trials as
participants in the MP Group.

Lab Report
Mental Practice

Results

1. The data recorder should record your scores for all trials on the Individual Data
Sheet of this lab report.

2. On your Individual Data Sheet, calculate the totals for each trial and record them on
the sheet. Then, record only the Pretest and Posttest totals on the following summary
table. Also record these Pretest and Posttest results on your Group Data Sheet.

Pretest Posttest

Total Score

3. From the data on the Group Data Sheet, calculate the mean pretest and posttest
scores for each of the three groups. Graphically present these results by drawing a
bar graph in which there are bars showing the pretest score and the posttest score
 for each of the three groups (that is, there should be two bars for each group: one
labeled Pretest, one labeled Posttest). Top of Form
SPS 606 LAB MANUAL

Discussion

1. (a) Describe how the three groups compared in terms of their improvement from
the pretest to the posttest. (b) What observations can you make about the
improvement characteristics of each group and how they compared?

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2. Describe how the three groups compared in terms of their performance on the
posttest?

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3. Discuss why you think the results described in number 2 turned out as they did.

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4. Discuss a motor skill learning or performance situation in which you would

expect mental practice to benefit the individual. In this discussion, indicate (a)
what you would instruct people to do to mentally practice this skill; (b) how you
would incorporate mental practice into the practice routine; and (c) why you
would expect mental practice to be beneficial in this situation.

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SPS 606 LAB MANUAL

SCORE SHEET

NAME : …………………………………
MATRIX NO. : …………………………………
I.C NO. : …………………………………
AGE : …………………………………

Lab Report
Mental Practice

Pretest Trial
Attem 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Total
pt
No.

Score

Practice Trials 1
Attem 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Total
pt
No.

Score

Practice Trials 2
 Attem 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Total
pt
No.

Score

Posttest Trial
Attem 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Total
pt
No.

Score