<p> This study was designed to examine three issues concerning the learning of a new coordination pattern. The first issue examined was the root of the conflicting findings of previous work concerning the effect of learning a novel coordination pattern on the performance an intrinsically stable antiphase pattern (Fontaine, Lee, & Swinnen, 1997; Lee, Verschueren & Swinnen, 1995; Zanone & Kelso, 1992). Consideration of these experiments revealed that different metronomes were used, and that this metronome difference is critical because it may have influenced the learners' attentional focus during learning. Therefore, the present experiment sought to examine whether a difference of attentional focus was the cause of this conflict. The second issue was whether the superiority of an external focus over internal focus of attention during learning would be evident in the learning of a new coordination pattern. And last, this study set out to examine the issue of prior learning of a bimanual coordination pattern on the learning of a new coordination pattern. Two groups of participants (one with an. internal focus of attention, and the other with an external focus of attention) learned to perform a 90° relative phase (RP) coordination pattern over two practice sessions, and were then asked to perform a 135° RP pattern in a third session. An additional two groups of participants (one with an internal focus of attention, and the other with an external focus of attention), served as controls, and learned to perform the 135° RP pattern over all three sessions. Results of this experiment did not support the hypothesis that a difference in attentional focus during learning is responsible for the conflicting findings concerning the effect of learning on intrinsic pattern performance. Although the results seem to indicate that an external focus of attention is more beneficial than an internal focus of attention during learning of a new coordination pattern, further work without feedback as a confounding factor is required. Finally, results show that prior learning does influence the learning of a new coordination pattern in that positive transfer of learning was evident (prior learning of the 90° pattern facilitated performance of the 135° pattern), and findings provide evidence for the creation of a new attractor with learning. </p> / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:mcmaster.ca/oai:macsphere.mcmaster.ca:11375/22615 |
| Date | 09 1900 |
| Creators | Kurtz, Sarah |
| Contributors | Lee, Tim, Human Biodynamics |
| Source Sets | McMaster University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
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