A combination of physical and observational practice in gymnastics improves mental rotation of children as effective as physical practice

Cognitive abilities are neural processes which deal with acquisition, processing, and maintenance of information. Scientists believe that practicing motor skills are an important part of the cognitive development cycle of children. However, searching for an ideal practice method is to be concerned.Goal: The present study aimed to compare the effectiveness of physical and mixed (observational + physical) practice on mental rotation ability of children.Forty-eight elementary girl students (۸-۹ years old) who voluntarily participated in the study were randomly categorized into three groups: physical practice, mixed practice, and control. All participants took part in a three-step research process. In pretest, the child-specific online mental rotation test was carried out on all three groups. Then, in acquisition phase, the physical practice group carried out a ۱۴-session training program (۴۵-min each; twice a week) consisting of gymnastics basic skills. However, participants of the mixed group were divided into pairs, so that one of them did the physical practice in the first half of the session and observed her pair in the second half and vice versa. The control group had no practice (observational or physical) in this phase. One day after the acquisition phase, a post-test (similar to pretest) was performed for all groups. Repeated measures ANOVA was used to analyze the data.Data analysis illustrated that the performance of all groups, except the control group, were better in post-test than in pretest. Moreover, the physical and mixed practice groups outperformed the control group in post-test, while there was no significant deference between the two groups.These results suggest that a combination of physical and observational practice in gymnastics improves mental rotation of children as effectively as physical practice does.

کلیدواژه ها:

Mental rotation ، Gymnastics ، Observational learning ، Physical Practice ، Motor skill