LAB #7 – Individual Differences

Name: _______________________ Group Members Names:

Date: ________________________ ______________________________

Section/Instructor: ______________ _____________________________

______________________________

Purpose
The primary purpose of this lab is to evaluate how individual differences,
related to various biological factors or previous experiences, influence movement
performance.

Background
Individual differences play a critical role in how people perform movements
and learn skills. Several of these factors are associated to biological factors, many
of which are ultimately produced by our genetic coding – the term traits is often
used to refer to these inherited factors. For example, bone length and ultimately,
height are two clear examples of traits related to our genetics that influence
human biology, and ultimately can contribute to advantages and disadvantages
when performing or learning a skill. Here are examples of different types of traits
that are associated with cognitive, physical, emotional and even personality:
 In addition to our biology and genetics underlying traits, environment and
experiences also have a considerable influence on individual differences. For
example, several biological factors can be changed, such as muscle mass or
aerobic capacity with training, but our genetics will still limit the upper limits (or
ceiling). Therefore, both biological factors and environmental experiences can
independently or in combination contribute to differences in how you perform
and learn movements – this is analogous to the classic ‘nature’ vs. ‘nurture’
debate.
Individual’s traits will help form individuals motor abilities – similar to
traits, these are genetically predisposed and represent the ‘ceiling effects’ (or
upper limits) for individuals. Researchers have suggested that 3-5 motor abilities
form the ‘building blocks’ for any given motor skill (see Tables 8.2 and 8.3 of your
textbook, pages 301-03 for several examples of motor abilities). Different skills
can have different motor abilities as their building blocks, and several skills can
have overlapping motor abilities (see figure below).

The idea that some motor abilities can overlap between different skills has
led to the notion that there is a high association between performance and
learning on some skills. Correlational analyses are the statistical method to
measure the association between any two variables. High positive correlations
(usually 0.41 up to +1, see Figure below) between learning or performance of an
individual on two different skills would suggest a high degree of association. In
contrast, zero or negative correlations would suggest that there is no or even
negative relationship.
 It is extremely important to consider that an association does not equal
causality! In other words, just because any two items are highly correlated it does
not mean that the first item caused the second or vice-versa. This is highlighted
by the fact that motor skill performance or learning can be influenced by a variety
of other factors outside of motor ability (see Table below)
 In this lab, we will explore how different variables may contribute to
individual differences in performance of some of the skills and movements that
you were previously tested on in our labs.

EXPERIMENTS

Material Needed - 1 Computer

Group Data

Experimental Procedures
1. The whole lab group will work together with the instructor to look at data collected during
Lab #6 Dual-task and Automaticity. With several specific goals:
 Experiment 1 from Lab #6

a) How did typing change amongst the 3 different conditions in Experiment 1 of Lab #6 –
typing alone, serial 7’s dual-task and kicking dual-task? What was the group variability?

b) Did the amount of kicks during the kicking dual-task differ between people with
previous history of organized soccer? What about people that were non-athletes,
recreational athletes, compared to collegiate athletes?

c) Was experience with typing (amount of words typed per week) associated with how
many words people could type in any of the 3 different conditions of Experiment 1 in
Lab #6?

Experiment 2 from Lab #6

a) How did walking change amongst the 3 different conditions in Experiment 2 of Lab #6
– walking alone, texting dual-task and category naming dual-task? What was the group
variability?

b) Was the amount of texts during dual-task associated to people’s experience with
texting (estimated amount of minutes texting per week)?

c) Was performance on category naming or texting associated with age or gender?

2. Within your groups of 4, determine if:

a) Gender or age had an influence on the amount of words typed in the 3 different
conditions of Experiment #1 of Lab #6 - typing alone, serial 7’s dual-task and kicking
dual-task (INSTRUCTOR WILL PROVIDE DATA).

b) Does experience with walking or athletic classification (non-athlete, recreational

athlete or collegiate athlete) influence the ability to walk during any of the 3 different
conditions of Experiment #2 – walking alone, texting dual-task and category naming
dual-task?

3. As a whole lab, let’s work to see if your lab section was any different than other lab groups!

GROUP WORK/QUESTIONS
1) What is the different between individual variability and group variability?
2) What other factors could we have collected from individuals that may have been important
for us to consider for the various conditions in Experiment 1 of Lab #6?

3) What other factors could we have collected from individuals that may have been important
for us to consider for the various conditions in Experiment 2 of Lab #6?

4) What are the ‘building block’ motor abilities for typing?

5) What are the ‘building block’ motor abilities for walking?