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. 2023 Oct 5;18(10):e0292133.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0292133. eCollection 2023.

Expertise-dependent differences in mental representation metrics of pas de bourrée

Pia Wittenbrink  1 , Mira Janzen  1 , Antonia Jennert  1 , Benjamin Strenge  1   2
Affiliations

Expertise-dependent differences in mental representation metrics of pas de bourrée

Pia Wittenbrink et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Precise movement control is of prime importance in almost every kind of sport and greatly influences an athlete's performance. In dancing not only motor but also cognitive skills, e.g. in the form of memorized representational structures, are essential components of the performance. This study investigated different metrics related to the long-term memory of ballet dancers with different skill levels regarding the pas de bourrée using the structural-dimensional analysis of mental representations (SDA-M) method. To this end, the Correct Action Selection Probability Analysis (CASPA) algorithm, a recent SDA-M extension that predicts the individual probabilities of correct action selections within a movement sequence, has been applied in the context of dancing for the first time. Significant positive correlations were found between participants' degree of expertise and the proximity of their mental representation structure to the ideal reference structure, as well as between the degree of expertise and the probability of correct action selection within the movement sequence estimated by CASPA. The results indicate that increased training experience in ballet dancing is not only associated with functionally better structured mental representations of the movement sequence but also with a higher probability of correct action selection. These findings provide further evidence for SDA-M with CASPA as an auspicious tool for individualized task-related memory assessments and diagnostics in different action sequences, e.g. as the basis for mental training.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Basic action concepts of the pas de bourrée.
Fig 2
Fig 2. Dendrograms of (a) the ideal reference structure, (b) the advanced group, (c) the beginners group, and (d) the novices group.
The horizontal red line represents the critical Euclidean distance value (dcrit = 3.48957 for a significance level of α = .05). The average pairwise distance of all BACs connected in a cluster under this line corresponds to a correlation between the respective BAC vectors.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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