THE MANIPULATION OF VISION DURING THE POWERLIFT SQUAT - EXPLORING THEBOUNDARIES OF THE SPECIFICITY OF LEARNING HYPOTHESIS

The available information for controlling a multidegree-of-freedom spo rt action was manipulated in 2 experiments. In the first, 10 intermedi ate lifters were participants; for the second, 8 skilled and 8 less sk illed lifters were observed. Three single repetitions of a powerlift s quat were performed under 3 vision conditions (i.e., full, ambient, no vision). The less skilled and intermediate lifters' technical perform ance decreased significantly with the removal of visual information. T here was not detrimental effect in the skilled group. Despite the diff ering information constraints, skilled lifters exhibited a high level of positioning accuracy and timing consistency across conditions. Thes e data fail to support the theoretical predictions of the specificity of learning hypothesis. The differences between the task constraints i n this study and those in manual aiming investigations may represent a boundary to the current propositions of the specificity of learning h ypothesis.