The Effect of Analogy, Explicit, and Combination Learning on Acquisition, Retention, and Transfer of Complex Motor Skill

The aim of this study was to compare the effects of analogy, explicit, and combination learning on acquisition, retention, and transfer of basketball free throw skill. For this purpose, 48 students, 15–17 years of age, were selected based on corrected flexed-arm hang test scores and were randomly divided into four equal groups of 12 people: explicit, analogy, analogy-explicit, and explicit-analogy learning. After two familiarization sessions and the pre-test, the participants practiced basketball free throw for 4 days. The explicit learning group was given a sheet of eight instructions and the analogy learning group was given "stick" analogy instruction. The other groups, i.e. analogy-explicit and explicit-analogy learning groups, practiced the skill in a combination mode. After acquisition stage, an acquisition test was administered, and a week later retention, transfer and verbal tests were performed. To analyze throw accuracy in acquisition phase, a mixed analysis of variance (4*4) (group*day) was used. Post training data were also analyzed using mixed analysis of variance (4*4) (group*test), with P≤0.05 considered significant. The results showed that there were significant differences at different stages of learning between analogy and explicit groups and combined groups and analogy-explicit groups, explicit-analogy groups (P≤0.05). Therefore, it can be concluded that the use of "wood stick" analogy and analogy-explicit training method leads to better learning of basketball free throw.