Psychological modeling and adaptations in cognitive representations with increased resistance during motor skill...

It was hypothesized that subjects receiving increased resistance in the squat exercise would demonstrate better technique and better understanding of how to perform the skill than subjects performing the exercise with no increase in resistance. Scores were recorded on the following analyses: the questionnaire analysis, which measured cognitive representation; the video analysis, which measured squat performance technique; and the 3-dimensional figure analysis, which measured the degree of similarity between the position of the model and the position of the subjects during the performance task. Ten undergraduate students were sampled, half of whom received increased resistance in the squat exercise. Admission requirements were that the subjects be men, be matched for age, body weight, and height, and have no experience in resistance training or formal instruction in proper squat technique. After measuring subjects' cognitive representation with the questionnaire, subsequent analyses were conducted to further clarify treatment effects. The second analysis involved measuring differences between the videotaped performance of the model and the videotaped performance of naive subjects. The third analysis consisted of subjects assembling a 3-dimensional wooden figure to duplicate the proper biomechanics of the expert model, which was then photographed and compared with the model's template assembly of the wooden figure. It was concluded that subjects performing the squat with increased resistance showed significant (p < 0.05) improvement in cognitive representation accuracy and performance technique compared with subjects who performed the squat with no increase in resistance. The directional hypothesis was supported. Namely, the scores of subjects receiving the treatment were predicted to be significantly greater than the scores of those who received no treatment. These data suggest that increasing the resistance in subsequent trials of the squat exercise may be a positive factor in enhancing the performance and improving the biomechanical technique of novice lifters.