The impact of practice condition on the perception of target size

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine self-reported target size perception as a function of task based on three different practice conditions (errorless, errorful, and self-control) during a golf-putting task. We predicted participants in the self-control condition (i.e. choosing their putting distance order) and the errorless group (putting from the closest to farthest putting hole distance) would self-report the largest perception of putting hole size compared to the participants in the errorful practice condition (putting from the farthest to the closest putting hole distance) during acquisition and retention. All three experimental conditions were required to self-report their perceived putting hole size upon completion of 20 practice trials at each distance during the acquisition period (25 cm to 200 cm, in increments of 25 cm) and the retention period (100 cm and 200 cm). A repeated measures ANOVA showed the participants in the self-control and errorful conditions perceived the putting hole to be larger than the participants in the errorless condition during acquisition (p < .001). However, only the participants in the self-control condition perceived the putting hole to be larger than the participants in the errorless condition in the retention test (p = .022). The results of the present partially supported our experimental prediction. Our results suggest perceived putting hole size was influenced by practice condition, rather than exclusively task success, challenging the existing action-specific literature.