Specificity vs. Generality in Learning and Performing Two Large Muscle Motor Tasks

Abstract The initial and final skill, and amount of learning, were studied on two 10-trial large muscle motor learning tasks. Both males and females were tested (N = 320). The reliability coefficients for individual differences in initial and in final skill were fairly high (.90 to .96). Learning was less reliable (.69 to .87), although even small subgroups showed statistically significant amounts of learning during the ten trials. Even when fully corrected for attenuation, the correlation between individual abilities for performance and for learning, as between the two tasks, was very low and in general nonsignificant. It was concluded that such abilities were highly task-specific, eliminating the possibility of general ability in motor learning or motor coordination in the types of skills that were studied.