Effect of Observing Different Kinds of Information during Observational Learning

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of observing different kinds of information during observational learning. The population of this research were all male student in Shahid Beheshti University (2010- 2011) that 24 right handed of them were selected as available sample that had no formal experience in the throwing tasks. This study was quasi-experimental and participants were divided randomly into three groups according to the films they observed. The first group observed the full body, the second group observed the throwing arm, and the third group just observed the wrist of the hand. Participant completed 20 trials as acquisition and 24 hours after that were recruited to laboratory again and completed 5 trials as retention. After this period there was a period as re-acquisition that all participants observed the full body information. Movement accuracy, intra- limb coordination and the difference of maximum speed of wrist from the model was calculated. The results of this study showed that the Full body group was better than two other groups in movement accuracy but in learning of movement pattern it was weaker than two other groups. However, there was not a difference between throwing arm group and wrist group. Also, there was not a significant difference between groups in maximum speed difference. Generally, the results showed that in some situation observing the relative information of full body is not useful, and even in relation to other kinds of information (restricted relative information or absolute information) will result in a fewer learning. It may be showing the relative information of full body results in that observer ignores the movement pattern.