More Evidence You Can't Do a Don't
One of my graduate students is just now wrapping up the finishing touches on a study regarding the impact of different types of instructions on a closed motor skill (in this case Dart Throwing). A brief explanation of the experiment is in order. Participants were given two sets of three practice throws which were recorded. After finishing the practice trials participants either read or listened to a set of instructions for dart-throwing that either emphasized Positive instructions (what to do or focus on, e.g. "hold the dart gently between ..."), Negative (what not to do or focus on, e.g. "do not hold the dart too tightly"), or Neutral ("hold the dart"). Participants then threw four more sets of three darts each. The preliminary results showed an interesting pattern. There was no difference (what scientists call a main effect) for the Media, meaning that statistically there was not a difference in the performance of the group that read their instructions compared to those who listen to a CD recording of the instructions. There also was no main effect for Direction, meaning that when comparing the three different types of instructions (positive, negative, neutral) across all of the experimental trials (throws 7-18), the scores were not statistically different. However, when the trials were looked at in sequence a dramatic effect surfaced.
There was a very large difference in the performance of the negative group and the positive group on the third block (3 darts to a block), which was the first block after the instructions were given. The graph shows what is a typical "learning curve" for the first two blocks of trials as all three groups showed some improvement during the practice trials. The gradual improvement continues for the the Positive group (Blue Line) in Block 3 and there is a bit of a plateau for the Control Group (Gray Line). The Negative Group (Green Line) however, has a precipitous drop-off in performance. There is a noticeable rebound in performance between Block 3 and Block 4, but the Negative group never quite recovers back to their pre-instruct performance.A couple of conclusions that can be drawn are: a) negative instructions have an immediate performance reducing impact that is not seen with positive instruction, and b) when performers have access to feedback (in our case they could see where the darts hit the target) and they are left alone for a while they can recover from negative instructions. While these findings are interesting from a general teaching and learning standpoint, they possibly have dramatic implications for coaches.
First and foremost is the impact of giving negative instructions in a game situation. While this study does not necessarily support the idea that people tend to do the last thing they heard (so don't foul" does not necessarily lead to a foul), but the study does support the notion that they don't know what to replace the "don't" with. This confusion leads to lower performance. So to break my own rule "Don't leave a time out huddle telling them what not to do."
Secondly, our result were the participants in the negative group managed to rebound to end up at basically the same level as the other two groups by the end of the trials comes into play in practice situations. In our study, the instructions were only given once and the participants had access to their results. This however, is not typically the case in a sport practice setting. Imagine a volleyball practice where the team is practicing serves. The coach wanders around watching as the players take 5-10 trials. She sees a player who is stepping with the wrong foot and says (it would be worse if she yells) "Don't step with your right foot." If the player's results mirror our results, the next couple of trials would have problems. Do coaches tend to give an instruction and walk away? Not usually. If the performance is not instantly improved by the instruction, most coaches will added on more instruction. If this new instruction is also negative you can see the potential for a very frustrating (for both player and coach) downward spiral of performance.
So to help your players be successful in the shortest period of time, focus on what you want them to do and give them some space and time to work through things on their own before making further corrections. While not covered specifically in this study, otherstudies report that you can always reinforce what see them doing correctly. Read more!
posted by R. A. King @ 2:50 PM
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