The effects of sport skill type (open-closed) on observational learning use in male and female elite athletes

The purpose of present study was to examine the effects of gender and sport skill type (open and closed) on observational learning (OL) use in elite athletes. For this reason، 240 athletes of Iranian national teams (21. 79±4. 78 years) completed the Functions of Observational Learning Use Questionnaire (FOLQ; Cumming et. al، 2005) to assess their use of three skill، strategy and performance functions of OL. Repeated measures ANOVA indicated that athletes used skill function of OL the most، followed by the strategy and the performance functions، respectively. A 2 (gender) ×2 (sport type) MANOVA also indicated that there were gender differences in the performance function، in the other words، females used the performance function significantly more than males. In contrast، the use of the skill and strategy functions of OL in females and males were the same extent. Finally، the results revealed that there were significant differences in use of OL functions in open and closed sport. In the other words، athletes in open skill sports used the strategy function significantly more than athletes in closed. These findings suggest that understanding and usage of the cognitive and psychological functions of observational learning may improve the learning process.