Psychology 2012. Vol.3, No.5, 406-409 Published Online May 2012 in SciRes (http://www.SciRP.org/journal/psych) DOI:10.4236/psych.2012.35057 Self-Controlled Feedback and Trait Anxiety in Motor Skill Acquisition Raquel Maia Bokums, Cassio M. Meira Jr., Jaqueline F. O. Neiva, Thaynara Oliveira, Jusselma Ferreira Maia University of Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil Email: cmj@usp.br Received February 22 nd , 2012; revised March 27 th , 2012; accepted April 28 th , 2012 This study examined the relationship between trait anxiety (TA) and self-controlled (SC) frequency of feedback in the acquisition of the overhead volleyball serve. Forty-eight adolescent girls performed 240 acquisition trials, with the provision of knowledge of results (KR). After 48 h, they performed 16 transfer no-KR trials. Although no interactions were found on either acquisition or transfer, the high-anxious girls requested more feedback than the low-anxious ones. Also, feedback was requested more after accurate than after inaccurate trials. Keywords: Self-Control; Feedback; Knowledge of Results; Anxiety; Motor Learning Introduction With the purpose of reconciling counterintuitive findings in motor learning (ML), Guadagnoli and Lee (2004) proposed a challenge-point framework (CPF) based on the idea that learn- ing is directly related to the level of challenge imposed by a practice or feedback condition. These authors argued that learning is maximized when a person faces an optimal level of challenge during the process of motor skill acquisition. In con- trast, learning will be compromised if the challenge imposed is either too high or too low. The challenge-point created by any given ML situation is determined by the functional difficulty of the task, which results from an interaction between nominal task difficulty, the learner’s skill level, and the conditions of practice and/or feedback. The nominal difficulty of a task is a fixed characteristic based on specific perceptual and motor requirements. For example, an underarm volleyball serve has a lower nominal task difficulty than an overhead serve. Thus, the higher the nominal task difficulty, the higher the functional task difficulty and, in turn, the higher the challenge-point of learning. CPF has gained support in the learning of sport (Brady, 2008; Guadagnoli & Lindquist, 2007) and surgical (Cristancho, Moussa & Dubrowski, 2010; Gofton, 2006; Hodges, Kuper, & Phil, 2012; Moulton, Dubrowski, MacRae, Graham, Grober, & Reznick, 2006) skills, handwriting (Asher, 2006), walking (Domingo & Ferris, 2009), and in physical therapy (Descar- reaux, Passmore, & Cantin, 2010; Maas, Robin, Hula, Freed- man, Wulf, Ballard, & Schmidt, 2008; Onla-or & Winstein, 2008). Given that, in the CPF, practice variables have been examined across different types of participants, we believe that investigating people with different levels of trait anxiety (TA) could help to better understand ML processes. TA, defined as a predisposition of an individual to perceive a wide range of situations that, objectively, are not actually dan- gerous as threatening (Weinberg & Gould, 2011), has been pointed out as a personal characteristic that influences motor performance and learning (Schmidt & Wrisberg, 2008; Wris- berg, 2007). Individuals who have high levels of TA respond to perceived threatening situations with reactions that are dispro- portionate to the objective danger when compared to low TA individuals (Spielberger, 1972). Although high TA is often associated with negative performance on cognitive tasks (Ey- senck, 1992; Eysenck & Calvo, 1992), there is no evidence of deleterious effects of high TA on motor performance (Calvo & Ramos, 1989, Experiment 2). Negative effects of high TA on the efficiency of processing are generally greater in concurrent cognitive tasks (Eysenck, Derakshan, Santos, & Calvo, 2007). Knowledge of results (KR) is a form of augmented feedback which provides information on the outcome of the movement (Magill, 2011). Self-controlled (SC) frequency of KR gives the learner the opportunity of receiving information only when he or she requests it. Several studies have shown that SC-KR fa- cilitates ML when compared to externally controlled KR schedules (Chiviacowsky & Wulf, 2002, 2007, 2009; Chiviacowsky et al., 2005, 2008; Janelle et al., 1995, 1997). It has been argued that SC-KR, when compared to yoked (YK) KR (when KR is presented at a frequency yoked to a SC par- ticipant’s KR requests), engages the leaner in the process of learning more, on account of the freedom it provides to make decisions about some of its aspects. More specifically, SC-KR allows engagement in problem-solving strategies as well as acts as a source of motivation to continue to practice. Self-control is thought to facilitate ML because it enables subjects to test movement strategies (Wulf & Toole, 1999), to manage practice according to their needs (Chiviacowsky & Wulf, 2002, 2005), and to perceive themselves more autonomous and thus more motivated during the learning process (Lewthwaite & Wulf, 2010). The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between TA and SC-KR in the acquisition and transfer of the overhead volleyball serve. Grounded upon CPF and on litera- ture about TA and SC-KR, we hypothesize that low-anxious individuals who self-control their feedbacks will show superior motor learning than their YK and high-anxious counterparts. Copyright © 2012 SciRes. 406