Current status of observational learning research and the role of demonstrations in sport

When teaching sports skills, most coaches rely heavily on demonstrations as a method of conveying information to learners. Yet, despite widespread use, their effectiveness in facilitating the learning process has not been adequately determined. On a more positive note, as a result of recent improvements in measurement sensitivity (e.g. threedimensional motion analysis, eye gaze tracking and fMRI), and enhanced opportunities to employ novel interventions and display manipulations, the field has moved on considerably from its original roots in social learning theory. While social learning theory has been instrumental in enhancing our knowledge of the learning process, relevant questions have started to emerge that have their foundations in the area of visual perception. In this special issue, we provide an overview of research from the sports sciences, psychology, and the neurosciences. Our aim is to provide a brief taster of what is fast becoming a vibrant area of study. Altogether, eight papers are presented that highlight current and pertinent issues with respect to the nature of the observational learning process and its implications for the teaching and learning of sports skills. A mixture of review papers and empirical contributions is presented. In the first two papers, attempts to understand how processes related to action execution are involved in observational learning and imitation are discussed. The first paper by Vogt and Thomaschke provides an overview of behavioural and neurocognitive research on imitation learning. The authors conclude that the neural processes involved in observational learning are influenced by instructions and prior experience, and that there is a strong overlap between structures involved in motor execution, observation, and imitation. This latter conclusion is supported by empirical research from Bouque and colleagues, who present data showing that observation of incongruent actions during movements interferes with motor production. This interference is reported regardless of whether the observed actions were performed by a live model or presented as a two-dimensional video display, or whether the observed actions represented biological or non-biological motion. The authors conclude that the perception of action goals and not just biological motion perception interferes with action execution. The importance of action goals on the accuracy of observational learning is a recurring theme in the review by Hodges and colleagues. These authors provide an overview of experimental research focusing on the nature of the information that learners perceive during the observational learning process. Several methods are presented, typically using whole-body, sports tasks, to answer this question, including comparisons between video and point-light displays, manipulations to the amount and type of information presented in the display, analysis of visual search, and manipulations to the task context in terms of outcome goals. The authors conclude that actions are primarily constrained by information pertaining to the end-effector and that the task context, such as feedback and target attainment, significantly influences how demonstrations are employed. The role of developmental age as a mediator in observational learning is the theme for the next two articles. Ashford and colleagues present a metaanalysis involving empirical research published over the last 65 years to determine how demonstrations differentially affect child and adult populations in terms of both outcome attainment and the quality of the reproduced movement. Their analyses show that demonstrations aid children in attaining outcome goals, more so than adults, whereas adults show benefits from demonstrations in terms of the quality of movement form. The authors discuss this distinction in terms of Newell’s (1985) phases of skill development. In contrast to children who are more likely to be at the early coordination stage of learning, adults are more able to use a demonstration to refine (i.e. control) the quality of an existing action. In the following paper by Hayes and colleagues, comparisons across child and adult populations are made to determine how the task context and presentation format affect the quality of observational learning. Specifically, three experiments are Journal of Sports Sciences, March 2007; 25(5): 495 – 496