Journal of Sports and Motor Development and Learning
Year:2019 | Volume:10 | Issue:4|Papers Count:8

Attitude plays an important role in success and is one of the aspects that affect students’ learning. The aim of the present study was to investigate the validity and reliability of Persian version of Student’ s Attitude Toward Physical Education Scale (SATPES). This study was descriptive-correlation and the statistical population consisted of all 12-14-year-old students of 1st grade of middle schools in Tehran city. Student’ s Attitude Toward Physical Education Scale (SATPES) was used in this study and Subramaniam and Silverman (2000) had validated it. It included two subscales and 20 items with 5-point Likert responses and 415 questionnaires of this scale were completed by students. Test-retest method was applied in order to calculate the temporal reliability and Cronbach’ s alpha was used to determine internal consistency. To determine construct validity, confirmatory and exploratory factor analyses were applied. The results showed that Persian version of SATPES supported two dimensional approach of attitude in enjoyment and benefit with 20 items; thus validity (fit indexes were above the acceptable level of 0. 9) and reliability (above the acceptable level of 0. 7) of the scale were confirmed. In conclusion, Persian version of Student’ s Attitude Toward Physical Education Scale is recommended to measure students’ attitude.

The aim of this study was to compare the effectiveness of perceptual motor training and cognitive games on cognitive development in mentally retarded children. In this experimental study, 45 mentally retarded children aged between 8 and 12 in Kermanshah province were randomly divided into 3 groups: perceptual motor training, cognitive training and control. The perceptual motor program included the protocol of Salari et al. (2014) and Kashi et al. (2015) and cognitive games included a collection of cognitive games of my brain that was run as software. The groups participated in the program for 8 weeks, 2 sessions per week and 45 minutes per session. Before and after the training, they participated in London Tower computer test and the Stroop color-word test as pretest and posttest. Data were analyzed with Mancova and Ancova tests. The findings of the study showed a significant difference among perceptual motor training, cognitive games and control in London Tower computer test and Stroop color-word test. Perceptual motor training had a greater effect on the improvement of cognitive functions in mentally retarded children than cognitive games. Therefore, it can be concluded that although both types of games play an effective role in improving cognitive development and can be used to improve children's well-being, perceptual motor training is a better tool to create more development effects than cognitive training.

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of 8 weeks of proprioceptive training on motor coordination in children with autism spectrum disorder in Shiraz schools. The method was quasi-experimental and a pretest/posttest design with a control group. 16 participants (5 to 12 years old, 8. 62 ± 2. 21) were randomly homogenized in experimental and control groups according to the results of Bruininks-Oseretsky subtests. Experimental subjects individually performed proprioceptive training in 24 sessions while the control group individually performed the similar number of sessions of regular occupational therapy. After the completion of the training course, posttest was conducted for both groups. Results demonstrated a significant difference between the two groups in all subscales of eye, hand and bimanual coordination (P≤ 0. 05). Regarding the evaluations in this study and the significance of motor coordination due to changes in processing and sensory-motor systems, it can be concluded that proprioceptive training improved motor coordination in children with autism.

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of visual illusion on the learning of a targeting motor skill in children. The research method was semi-experimental with repeated measurement design and retention test. The statistical sample consisted of 36 children (10 years old) who were selected by convenience sampling method. They were divided into 3 groups: larger circle perception, smaller circle perception and control after the goal size had been estimated. The Ebbinghaus illusion displayed on the ground and the tennis ball to throw from top of the shoulder towards goal were used in this study. Firstly, the participants performed 10 trials at the pretest stage. Then, they performed six 10-trial blocks in the acquisition phase. 48 hours after the last acquisition session, a retention test was performed in 10 trials. To analyze the data, mixed analysis of variance with repeated measures, one-way analysis of variance and Tukey post hoc test were used. The results showed a significant difference among the groups both in the acquisition and retention phases and this difference was in favor of the smaller circle perception group. In general, the results of this study indicated the beneficial effect of visual illusion on learning a sport skill. Therefore, coaches and sport authorities are suggested to use this variable to improve performances and training sessions.

Introduction and aims: Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF) as one of the factors associated with neuromuscular performance and cognitive function is reduced with increasing age. The objective of the present study was to investigate the effects of aerobic and cognitive training on the dynamic balance, attention and serum BDNF levels in elderly men. Methods: In a quasi-experimental study, 60 healthy elderly men were selected through the purposeful sampling and were randomly divided into 4 groups including aerobic training, cognitive training, combinational training (cognitive aerobics) (cognitive training), and control. Training was performed during eight weeks at three sessions per week. T-test and one way ANOVA were used to analyze the data (P≤ 0. 05). Results: at the end of the period, a significant increase was observed in BDNF serum in the intervention group compared to the control group (P ≥ 0. 001). Also, there was a significant increase in the ratio of the correct response on the target and non-target stimuli. In addition, a significant decrease was observed in commission errors and omission errors, and reaction time in intervention groups compared to control groups (P<0. 05). It can be added that the significant improvement was observed in dynamic balance in aerobic and combination groups compared to the control (P<0. 001) and cognitive training (P<0. 05). Conclusion: Cognitive and aerobic training lead to improving the attention and balance performance in the elderly with increasing BDNF, and it is better to use a combination of physical and cognitive training for the elderly.

The aim of the present study was to compare competitive anxiety and perceived overtraining in athletes with and without anabolic steroids consumption. The statistical population included all athletes of team and individual sport fields in Tehran city in 2016. 251 male athletes with and without anabolic steroids consumption were selected using multi-stage cluster sampling method. Athletes had mean age (24 ± 6) years and exercise history (3 ± 1) years. Data were collected using competitive anxiety and perceived overtraining questionnaires. The findings were analyzed by multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) and independent t test and showed that athletes without the consumption of anabolic steroids had higher cognitive and physical anxiety than those athletes who consumed anabolic steroids, but there was no significant difference between the two groups in self-confidence. Also, given the perceived overtraining variable, the group who did not use anabolic steroids had a higher level of overtraining. The results indicated that one of the main reasons why athletes use anabolic steroids is their benefits which reduce the negative states and improve the mental and physical performance. That is why these steroids prevail among athletes every day.

The aim of this study was to determine the interactive effect of caffeine and attention focus on the postural stability in subjects with different levels of physical activity. 20 male students were divided into two equal groups (physically active and inactive) by the international physical activity questionnaire. Their postural sways were gathered from a force plate system during two 30-second trials with a 1-minute rest interval with no interventions in the pretest and in internal attention focus (attention to the lower extremity) and external attention focus (attention to a point on the front wall) conditions. On the second day of the experiment, subjects in both groups received 5 mg of caffeine per kg of body weight and the postural stability test was conducted under internal and external attention focus conditions after 30 minutes. The results of ANOVA with repeated measures at α =0. 05 showed significant increases in the postural sways of both groups in internal and external conditions. Also, the caffeine intervention significantly increased the postural sways of both groups in internal and external conditions. Furthermore, active subjects showed less postural sways in different conditions than the inactive group. Regardless of the focus of attention, caffeine causes more postural sways in both groups with different levels of physical activity through affecting the sympathetic system and increased muscle contractions and tremor. In future studies, other factors such as individual differences in response to caffeine intake or its effect on tasks along with postural disturbances should be considered.

tDCS is a neuromodulatory technique that induces a low intensity direct current into brain cells that stimulates or inhibits spontaneous neural activity. In recent decades, electrical stimulation has been used as an effective method to improve balance in different individuals. The aim of this study was to investigate the improvement of postural control kinetic parameters in martial art athletes after applying tDCS. Participants were 20 male martial art athletes aged between 18 and 25. 10 subjects in the experimental group were exposed to electrical stimulation for 1-3 mA for 15-20 minutes and 10 subjects in the control group were exposed to sham tDCS. Then, both groups were evaluated by SOT postural control to exposed variables in sensory organizing test. Data were analyzed using covariance analysis test to differentiate the effect of training interventions on postural control of the two groups (P<0. 05). The findings showed that tDCS had a significant effect on the postural control of male martial art athletes in 3 values of equilibrium: the exclusion of information in proprioceptive systems, the exclusion of information in proprioceptive and visual systems and the provision of incorrect visual inputs. Finally, this study showed that tDCS could improve and enhance postural control kinetic parameters in martial art athletes.