Challenges to Cognitive Bases for an Especial Motor Skill at the Regulation Baseball Pitching Distance |
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| Authors: | Jeffery P Simons Jacob M Wilson Gabriel J Wilson Stephen Theall |
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| Institution: | 1. Department of Kinesiology and Physical Education , California State University–East Bay;2. Department of Nutrition, Food and Exercise Sciences , Florida State University;3. Division of Nutritional Sciences , University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign |
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| Abstract: | We tested expert baseball pitchers for evidence of especial skills at the regulation pitching distance. Seven college pitchers threw indoors to a target placed at 60.5 feet (18.44 m) and four closer and four further distances away. Accuracy at the regulation distance was significantly better than predicted by regression on the nonregulation distances (p < .02), indicating an especial skill effect emerged despite the absence of normal contextual cues. Self-efficacy data failed to support confidence as a mediating factor in especial skill effect. We concluded that cognitive theories fail to fully account for the patterns of observed data, and therefore theoretical explanations of the especial skills must address noncognitive aspects of motor learning and control. |
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| Keywords: | motor control practice specificity schema theory self-efficacy |
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