Abstract

The present study aims to determine whether mental or physical practice is more beneficial immediately prior to a hand-eye coordination task. In order to test this the present experiment uses a game similar to beer/water pong, a common party game among college students, and records the amount of cups made. The study uses a pre-test post-test design to account for individual differences on pong playing ability. In between the two tests, participants underwent either mental or physical practice. Two hypotheses are present for this study: first that all participant’s post-test scores will be higher than their pre-test scores, and second, that participants in the mental practice condition will have higher post-test scores than those in the physical practice condition. Using a 2 (practice) X 2 (trial) ANOVA, it was concluded that there was no statistically significant difference between the two trials, nor between the two different practice conditions. The present study concludes that future research should utilize more trials in both the post and pre-test as well as having a longer practice period.

Recommended Citation

Dyck, Ryan M. (2016) "Mental and Physical Practice: Comparing their Effects on Hand-Eye Coordination Tasks," Undergraduate Psychology Research Methods Journal: Vol. 1: Iss. 19, Article 11.
Available at: https://digitalcommons.lindenwood.edu/psych_journals/vol1/iss19/11