Qualitative Differences in Performing Coordination Tasks

Abstract

Motor research on individual differences views coordination abilities as major determinants of motor achievements in sports. The concept of coordination abilities is based on quantitative models such as factor analyses in which it is assumed that persons possess the same number of abilities as the number of dimensions being analyzed. One criticism of quantitative approaches is that they are unable to distinguish between person and item characteristics. Qualitative formal models such as latent-class analyses are useful to distinguish explicitly between person and item characteristics. In this study 503 participants had to complete 6 gross-motor coordination tasks split into precision and time-pressure tasks. Applying both latent-class analyses and the mixed-Rasch analyses by Rost (1990, 1991), the precision tasks represented 1 strategy, whereas the 2 qualitatively different strategies were needed to represent the time-pressure tasks. The results of this study demonstrate how fruitful the application of latent-class analyses and the mixed-Rasch model can be in detecting strategies that persons can choose to use in executing motor items. The appropriate differentiation of person and item characteristics might be a helpful distinction to further develop the differential motor research.