Conscious awareness of others’ actions during observational learning does not benefit motor skill performance
Consciousness and Cognition. 2023-08-01; 113: 103553
DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2023.103553
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Badets A(1), Jeunet C(2), Dellu-Hagedorn F(2), Ployart M(2), Chanraud S(3), Boutin A(4).
Author information:
(1)Univ. Bordeaux, CNRS, INCIA, UMR 5287, F-33000 Bordeaux, France. Electronic
address: .
(2)Univ. Bordeaux, CNRS, INCIA, UMR 5287, F-33000 Bordeaux, France.
(3)Univ. Bordeaux, CNRS, INCIA, UMR 5287, F-33000 Bordeaux, France; Section of
Life and Earth Sciences, Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, PSL Research
University, 75014 Paris, France.
(4)Université Paris-Saclay, CIAMS, 91405 Orsay, France; Université d’Orléans,
CIAMS, 45067, Orléans, France.
The conscious awareness of motor success during motor learning has recently been
revealed as a learning factor. In these studies, participants had to learn a
motor sequence and to detect when they assumed the execution had reached a
maximal fluidity. The consciousness groups showed better motor performance
during a delayed post-training test than the non-consciousness control groups.
Based on the “similar mechanism” hypothesis between observational and physical
practice, we tested this beneficial effect of the conscious awareness of action
in an observational learning context. In the present study, two groups learned a
motor sequence task by observing a videotaped human model performing the task.
However, only the consciousness group had to detect the maximal fluidity of the
learning human model during observational practice. Unpredictably, no difference
was detected between groups during the post-training test. However, the
consciousness group outperformed the non-consciousness control group for tests
that assessed the motor knowledges.
Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2023.103553
PMID: 37454403
Conflict of interest statement: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors
declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal
relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this
paper.