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. 2022 Apr 12:13:799316.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.799316. eCollection 2022.

Effects of Age and Expertise on Mental Representation of the Throwing Movement Among 6- to 16-Year-Olds

Michael Gromeier  1 , Thomas Schack  1   2   3 , Dirk Koester  1   2   4
Affiliations

Effects of Age and Expertise on Mental Representation of the Throwing Movement Among 6- to 16-Year-Olds

Michael Gromeier et al. Front Psychol. .

Abstract

The aim of this article was to assess the development of mental representation of the overhead throwing movement as a function of age and expertise. The mental representational structure of the overhead throwing movement was measured using the Structural Dimensional Analysis-Motoric (SDA-M) method that reflects the organization of basic action concepts (BACs). BACs are fundamental building blocks of mental representations, which comprise functional, sensory, spatiotemporal, and biomechanical characteristics of a movement (Schack, 2010). In this study, novices and handball athletes (N = 199) each were grouped according to the level of development in motor ontogenesis (in childhood, pubescence, and adolescents). Male and female handball athletes played in the highest leagues of their age groups. As a result, novices of all age groups showed the same unstructured mental representation. Athletes in the earliest age band resemble all novices' groups and showed similar unstructured mental representation, whereas athletes within pubescence and adolescents showed functionally well-structured representations, which were similar to the structure of the reference group (N = 8). These results are consistent with a previous investigation of related quantitative and qualitative performance parameters of the overhead throwing movement (Gromeier et al., 2017). Without an increased training, neither the throwing performance nor the associated mental representation is unlikely to improve further by itself or automatically.

Keywords: SDA-M; cognitive performance; mental representation; motor skill development; movement expertise; overarm throwing motion; throwing movement.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Outcome of the hierarchical cluster analysis for the reference group (N = 8, Mage = 18 years) displayed as a dendrogram (p = 5%; dcrit = 3.51). The basic action concepts (BACs) are marked with numbers below the dendrogram. The resulting clusters are highlighted with the gray solid bar (pictures 1–5, technically correct BACs) and diagonally striped bar (pictures 6–10, faulty BACs).
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Outcome of the hierarchical cluster analysis of novices within childhood (N = 75) displayed as a dendrogram. The dashed line clarifies the critical value of dcrit = 3.51, which corresponds to a significance level of 5%. The BACs are marked with numbers among the dendrogram and highlighted with the gray solid bar (technically correct BAC) and diagonally striped bar (faulty BAC).
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
Outcome of the hierarchical cluster analysis of novices within pubescence (N = 17) displayed as a dendrogram. The dashed line clarifies the critical value of dcrit = 3.51, which corresponds to a significance level of 5%. The BACs are marked with numbers among dendrogram and highlighted with the gray solid bar (technically correct BAC) and diagonally striped bar (faulty BAC).
FIGURE 4
FIGURE 4
Outcome of the hierarchical cluster analysis of novices within adolescents (N = 18) displayed as a dendrogram. The dashed line clarifies the critical value of dcrit = 3.51, which corresponds to a significance level of 5%. The BACs are marked with numbers among the dendrogram and highlighted with the gray solid bar (technically correct BAC) and diagonally striped bar (faulty BAC).
FIGURE 5
FIGURE 5
Outcome of the hierarchical cluster analysis of athletes within childhood (N = 45) displayed as a dendrogram. The dashed line clarifies the critical value of dcrit = 3.51, which corresponds to a significance level of 5%. The BACs are marked with numbers among a dendrogram and highlighted with the gray solid bar (technically correct BAC) and diagonally striped bar (faulty BAC).
FIGURE 6
FIGURE 6
Outcome of the hierarchical cluster analysis of athletes within pubescence (N = 24) displayed as a dendrogram. The dashed line clarifies the critical value of dcrit = 3.51, which corresponds to a significance level of 5%. The BACs are marked with numbers among the dendrogram and highlighted with the gray solid bar (technically correct BAC) and diagonally striped bar (faulty BAC).
FIGURE 7
FIGURE 7
Outcome of the hierarchical cluster analysis of athletes within adolescents (N = 20) displayed as a dendrogram. The dashed line clarifies the critical value of dcrit = 3.51, which corresponds to a significance level of 5%. The BACs are marked with numbers among the dendrogram and highlighted with the gray solid bar (technically correct BAC) and diagonally striped bar (faulty BAC).
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