The Effect of Normative Feedback on Acquisition and Retention of Throwing Skill in Task and Self Oriented Female Students

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of positive normative feedback on acquisition and retention of throwing skill. The method was quasi-experimental and the population consisted of the 5th grade elementary female students. 60 students were randomly selected from the population and were randomly assigned to four different groups: normative task-orientation, non-normative task-orientation, normative self-orientation and non-normative self-orientation. In a pretest, all subjects attempted 10 throws receiving no feedback. Acquisition phase took 3 days in which each subject attempted a total of 60 throws (20 throws per day). All groups received feedback at this stage; however, only the positive normative group received 20% more feedback. After 48 hours, subjects responded to a retention test. The results showed no significant difference in feedback performance of groups in the acquisition phase. However, this difference was reported significant in retention phase. Tukey post hoc test revealed a significant difference in the mean scores of subjects between normative and non-normative self-orientation groups. No significant differences were observed between task-orientation and self-orientation subjects in their perceived merit