INFLUENCES OF GENDER ON ATTENTION AND LEARNING OF MOTOR SKILLS

ABSTRACT The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of focus of attention in learning of boys and girls, in a balance task. Seventy-four children (38 girls and 36 boys) with a mean age of 8,03 years participated in the study. The task involved participants to ride a Pedalo, without suppo...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Fábio Saraiva Flôres, Karla Mendonça Menezes, Juliana Izabel Katzer
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Universidade Estadual de Maringá
Series:Journal of Physical Education
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2448-24552016000100106&lng=en&tlng=en
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Summary:ABSTRACT The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of focus of attention in learning of boys and girls, in a balance task. Seventy-four children (38 girls and 36 boys) with a mean age of 8,03 years participated in the study. The task involved participants to ride a Pedalo, without support. The participants were divided in six groups, three for each sex, in relation to the instruction: Proximal External Focus (FP); Distal External Focus (FD); Control (C). The results showed that, in acquisition phase, boys outperformed girls (p=0,022). In transfers tests, only T2 showed a significant difference (p=0,014), with better performance of boys and, for the focus of attention, the distant external focus was higher than the control group in both transfers tests (p=0,034; p=0,018). Thus, directing the focus of attention externally, at a greater distance from the body, can enhance learning of boys.
ISSN:2448-2455