تاثیر امیدواری تقویت شده بر یادگیری حرکتی، انگیزش درونی و خودکارآمدی: مقایسه معیار موفقیت نسبتاً آسان و دشوار

هدف: هدف این مطالعه بررسی تاثیر امیدواری تقویت شده از طریق دست‌کاری معیارهای موفقیت (آسان در مقابل دشوار) در مهارت ضربه شوت فوتبال بر یادگیری حرکتی، انگیزش درونی و خودکارآمدی بود. مواد و روش ها: شرکت‌کنندگان شامل 60 زن بزرگسال مبتدی (میانگین سن = 21.22 سال، انحراف معیار = 1.54) بودند که پس از 12 کوشش پیش‌آزمون، بصورت تصادفی به یکی از سه گروه آزمایشی تخصیص یافتند: 1) معیار نسبتاً آسان برای موفقیت، 2) معیار نسبتاً دشوار برای موفقیت، و 3) گروه کنترل. هر گروه در روز نخست مهارت‌های شوت فوتبال را در پنج بلوک 12 کوششی تمرین کرد. در روز دوم، یک آزمون یادداری شامل 12 کوشش انجام شد. علاوه بر این، تمامی شرکت‌کنندگان پرسشنامه انگیزش درونی و مقیاس خودکارآمدی را تکمیل کردند. یافته ها: نتایج نشان داد که هم در مرحله تمرین و هم در آزمون یادداری، تمرین با معیارهای نسبتاً آسان موفقیت بهبود یادگیری حرکتی و عملکرد را در مقایسه با معیارهای نسبتاً دشوار و شرایط کنترل به همراه داشت. به هرحال، تفاوت معناداری در انگیزش درونی و خودکارآمدی بین گروه‌ها مشاهده نشد.نتیجه گیری: بطورکلی میتوان نتیجه گرفت که بهبود مشاهده‌شده در یادگیری حرکتی، همراه با عدم افزایش انگیزش درونی و خودکارآمدی، پیش‌بینی‌های ارائه‌شده توسط نظریه یادگیری حرکتی بهینه را به چالش می‌کشد و بر ضرورت انجام پژوهش‌های آتی با روش‌شناسی دقیق‌تر و حجم نمونه بزرگ‌تر در جمعیت‌های متنوع تاکید دارد.

the effect of enhanced expectancy on motor learning, intrinsic motivation, and self-efficacy: a comparison of relatively easy and difficult success criteria

background and purposeaccording to the optimal theory, creating a rich learning environment requires three fundamental factors that coaches should incorporate into their training sessions (wulf &lewthwaite, 2016). the first factor, external focus of attention (wulf, 2013), suggests that coaches should direct athletes’ attention to external cues during practice (wulf, 2013). for example, in the soccer kicking skill, an athlete can focus on the ball’s trajectory or the goal. the second factor, autonomy support (wulf et al., 2018), improves motor learning by granting learners choice (e.g., selecting the number of feedback or even the color of the ball during practice). the third factor, enhanced expectancies (parma et al., 2024; simpson et al., 2020), is another motivational component, involving the reinforcement of positive performance expectations in learners.enhanced expectancies have been implemented in various ways in different studies (parma et al., 2024; simpson et al., 2020). for example, enhanced expectancies can be provided as feedback following successful attempts (goudini et al., 2018) or through large versus small visual illusions (shahbaz et al., 2024). moreover, it has been examined by using easier criteria for success (iwatsuki & regis, 2020; parma et al., 2023). research has also investigated the effects of manipulating success criteria (easy versus difficult) on motor learning and performance across various tasks, including golf putting (ziv et al., 2019, 2021), visuomotor adaptation (trempe et al., 2012), timing tasks (chiviacowsky & harter, 2015), overarm throws (iwatsuki & regis, 2020), soccer kicking task (mousavi & iwatsuki, 2021), dart throwing (ong et al., 2015), and shuffleboard (parma et al., 2023).furthermore, while some studies used a control group in their experimental designs when manipulating enhanced expectancies (mousavi & iwatsuki, 2021), others did not (iwatsuki & regis, 2020). given the importance of a control group in experimental study designs to determine the effects of training interventions (pithon, 2013), it is essential to include a control group when examining enhanced expectancies as an easy success criterion for a task. therefore, researchers need to investigate this motivational variable in various sports tasks, skill levels, and types of enhanced expectancy manipulations, using control groups, rigorous methodology, and adequate sample sizes, to better understand and generalize the optimal motor learning theory across diverse sports contexts. in summary, the present study aimed to examine the effects of enhanced expectancies through manipulating success criteria (easy versus difficult) in the soccer kicking skill on motor learning, intrinsic motivation, and self-efficacy among novice adult women. this study, which included two success criterion conditions (easy and difficult) along with a control group, sought to determine whether the effect of enhanced expectancies on motor learning is positive or negative. based on the optimal theory and previous research (palmer et al., 2016; mousavi & iwatsuki, 2021; mousavi et al., 2022), it was hypothesized that practice under easy success criteria would improve motor learning, intrinsic motivation and self-efficacy.materials and methodsparticipantsin this study, 60 novice adult female (mean age = 21.22 years, sd = 1.54 years) were recruited. the study was approved by the motor behavior and sport psychology group at shahid chamran university of ahvaz and conducted in accordance with the principles of the helsinki declaration. prior to the study, all participants signed an informed consent form. inclusion criteria were: 1- being a beginner in soccer kicking skill (no prior participation in soccer competitions); 2- physical and mental health at the time of participation (self-reported); 3- right-footedness, determined by the dominant foot for kicking a soccer ball. exclusion criteria included: 1- occurrence of any injury during the study; 2- expressing a desire to discontinue participation at any time.soccer kicking taska standard leather soccer ball (size 4, circumference: 64 cm, weight: 400 g) was used indoors for this study. participants were required to kick the ball from 8 meters toward designated target areas on the wall. targets were divided into three zones with the following dimensions: zone 1: 150 × 50 cm; zone 2: 100 × 50 cm; zone 3: 50 × 50 cm. scoring was based on accuracy: hitting zone 3 equaled 3 points, zone 2 equaled 2 points, zone 1 equaled 1 point, and a miss (hitting no zone) equaled 0 points. all scores were recorded based on visual assessment by the researchers.questionnairesintrinsic motivation scaleto measure participants’ intrinsic motivation, the intrinsic motivation scale developed by mcauley et al. (1989) was used. based on the aim of the present study, three subscales were examined: interest/enjoyment, perceived competence, and effort/importance.self-efficacy scalethe self-efficacy measure, initially introduced by bandura (2006), is adaptable to various tasks and measures an individual’s confidence in performing skills under specified conditions. participants rated their confidence for each task on a scale from 0 (not at all confident) to 100 (completely confident).procedureparticipants were first informed that they could earn 0–3 points for each attempt. in the pre-test phase, participants performed 12 soccer kicking attempts. they were then randomly assigned to three groups: 1- relatively easy success criterion; 2- relatively difficult success criterion; 3- control group. during the practice phase, participants performed 60 attempts organized into 5 blocks of 12 attempts each, with a 2-minute rest after each block. the pre-test and practice phases were conducted on the first day, and the retention test, consisting of 12 attempts, was conducted on the second day. in the pre-test and retention phases, all participants received no specific instructions or feedback and were only asked to try to perform the soccer shooting task accurately toward the wall targets. during the practice phase, participants received different instructions depending on their experimental group: in the relatively easy success criterion group, participants were told before each block that scoring above 2 equaled a successful attempt. in the relatively difficult success criterion group, participants were told that only scoring 3 equaled a successful attempt. in other words, scoring above 2 was considered the easy criterion, whereas scoring 3 was considered the difficult criterion (iwatsuki & regis, 2020). in the control group, no specific instructions were given; participants were only asked to kick the ball toward the wall targets according to the task protocol. at the end of day one, all participants completed the intrinsic motivation scale. the self-efficacy scale was completed three times: before the first practice block, before the last practice block, and before the retention test.findingssoccer kicking accuracypractice phasea mixed anova (3 experimental groups × 5 practice blocks) with repeated measures on the dependent variable soccer kikcing accuracy during practice showed a significant main effect of blocks (f(4, 228) = 3.59, p = 0.007, partial η² = 0.059). the main effect of groups was also significant (f(2, 57) = 11.22, p = 0.0001, partial η² = 0.28). however, no significant interaction effect was observed (p > 0.05). bonferroni post-hoc tests indicated that all three experimental groups significantly improved performance during the practice phase (all p < 0.05). however, the relatively easy success criterion group performed significantly better than both the relatively difficult success criterion (mean difference = 3.60; p = 0.0001) and control groups (mean difference = 2.76; p = 0.003). no significant difference was observed between the relatively difficult success criterion and control groups (p > 0.05).retention phasea one-way anova showed a significant difference between the three groups in soccer shooting accuracy during the retention test (f(2, 57) = 5.16, p = 0.009, partial η² = 0.15). bonferroni post-hoc tests indicated that the relatively easy success criterion group showed significantly greater motor learning improvement compared to the relatively difficult success criterion (mean difference = 3.95; p = 0.01) and control groups (mean difference = 3.45; p = 0.03). no significant difference was observed between the relatively difficult success criterion and control groups (p > 0.05).intrinsic motivationkruskal-wallis tests indicated no significant differences between groups on any of the three subscales (interest/enjoyment: h(2) = 0.19, p = 0.91; perceived competence: h(2) = 0.31, p = 0.85; effort/importance: h(2) = 2.88, p = 0.23).self-efficacya mixed 3 (group) × 3 (time) ancova, with pre-test scores as a covariate, revealed a significant effect of the covariate (f(1, 56) = 32.47, p = 0.0001, partial η² = 0.36). the effect of time was significant (f(1, 56) = 10.92, p = 0.002, partial η² = 0.16). however, the main effect of groups was not significant (f(2, 56) = 2.30, p = 0.10, partial η² = 0.07), and the group × time interaction was also not significant (f(2, 56) = 1.19, p = 0.31, partial η² = 0.04). in other words, all three experimental groups reported similar levels of self-efficacy.conclusionthe aim of this study was to examine the effects of manipulating enhanced expectancies through relatively easy and relatively difficult success criteria on motor learning in novice adult women during the soccer kicking skill. the study also examined how these motivational variable influences learner’s intrinsic motivation and self-efficacy. results indicated that in both practice and retention phases, training under a relatively easy success criterion, compared to the relatively difficult success criterion and control group, led to improved motor learning and performance. however, manipulating enhanced expectancies did not significantly increase intrinsic motivation or self-efficacy among learners. in conclusion, results indicated that in both practice and retention phases, training with a relatively easy success criterion led to improved motor learning and performance, compared to training with a relatively difficult criterion and control group. however, no significant differences were observed between groups in intrinsic motivation or self-efficacy. these findings may have practical implications for coaches in both sports and educational settings. coaches, particularly in soccer skills, can provide instructions that simplify skill criteria, thereby creating a better learning environment for learners and facilitating the process of learning and performing motor skills.