European Journal of Physical Education and Sport Science ISSN: 2501 - 1235 ISSN-L: 2501 - 1235 Available on-line at: www.oapub.org/edu 10.5281/zenodo.159247 Volume 2│Issue 3│2016 IMPACT OF MENTAL SKILLS ON MOTOR LEARNING IN MOROCCAN HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS A. Eloirdi1i, A. Arfaoui2, A.O.T. Ahami1 Team Clinical Neuroscience, Cognitive and Health, Laboratory of Biology and Health, 1 Faculty of Science, IbnTofail University, BP. 133, Kenitra, Morocco Executive Training Royal Institute of Youth and Sports, 2 KM 12 Route de Meknes, Salé, Morocco Abstract: The issue of motor learning and underlying factors are widely debated. This work has a double aim, to bring out the profile of mental skills and to evaluate their correlation with performance in sport and physical education in Moroccan secondary school students. The study was based on a sample of 202 Moroccan students. We used the test Mental Skills Assessment Tool (OMSAT-3) to assess mental skills. According to the results, the OMSAT-3 displayed a very satisfactory internal consistency, which confirms the reliability of the measurement tool. Moreover, students displayed low to moderate levels of mental skills. The statistical analysis showed that the profile of mental skills is significantly different between males and females. Also, the students of more than 17 years old had profiles different from those of 17 years old and less. Furthermore, the sport performance was positively associated with goal setting, commitment, relaxation, activation, mental imagery, mental practice and planning. In conclusion, this work showed that mental skills influence significantly the performance of students and consequently their learning. Hard work should be done to improve these skills in high school students. Keywords: mental skills, motor learning, high school, students, Morocco Copyright © The Author(s). All Rights Reserved Published by Open Access Publishing Group ©2015. 55 A. Eloirdi, A. Arfaoui, A.O.T. Ahami IMPACT OF MENTAL SKILLS ON MOTOR LEARNING IN MOROCCAN HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS Introduction Mental skills are a set of processes that allow to control and direct thoughts, feelings and learning-required emotions (Smith, 1993).Durand-Bush and al. classified mental skills in 2001 as follows: Basic skills contain:  Goal setting: involves the development of an action plan designed to motivate and guide a person or group toward a goal (Burton, 1993; Locke and Latham,  1985).  student devotes to carry out his goals (Orlick, 1992). Commitment: related to determination, perseverance and task intensity that the Self-confidence: is one’s belief that he is capable to carry out his goals Orlick, 1992; Vealey, 1986). Psychosomatic skills contain:   Stress reactions: are the physiological responses to different kinds of pressure environmental, internal… Martens, 7). Fear control: is the ability to get used to situations or performance elements  which cause fear or anxiety (Rotellaand Lerner, 1993).  (Zaichkowsky and Takenaka, 1993). Relaxation: is a technique often used by people to reduce excitation Activation: is the ability to increase the level of energy (Zaichkowsky and Takenaka, 1993). Cognitive skills contain:   Concentration: is the ability to direct and maintain one’s attention to the pertinent elements of performance (Orlick, 1992). Distraction control: is the ability to concentrate again after being confronted with  external or internal distractions (Orlick, 1992).  Joudy 1992)  associate the different meanings (Murphy and Joudy 1992). Imagery: consists in creating using clear images of the performance (Murphy and Mental practice: consists in practicing a physical skill using mental images which Competition planning: conceive and use plans to guide thoughts, emotions and acts before, during and after the competitions (Orlick and Partington 1988). Learning could not be observed directly but analysed from the observation of behaviour Magill . Indeed, learning is the process of one’s internal state change European Journal of Physical Education and Sport Science - Volume 2 │ Issue 3 │ 2016 56 A. Eloirdi, A. Arfaoui, A.O.T. Ahami IMPACT OF MENTAL SKILLS ON MOTOR LEARNING IN MOROCCAN HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS that results from practice or experience and that could be interpreted by the analysis of performance (Halletand al; 1996). In this context, the present work aimed to find out the level of mental skills and to evaluate their correlation with motor learning in a group of Moroccan high school students. Methodology The study was carried out in January and February 2015 in a Moroccan high school situated in Sidi Slimane province that belongs to Gharb-Chrarda-Bnihsen region in the centre of Morocco. The studied classes were chosen at random. The sample contained 202 high school students (100 boys and 102 girls) whose mean age is 16.82 ± 1.25 years old. Measure of mental skills We used the fresh version 3 of the Ottawa Mental Skills Assessment Tool (OMSAT-3) (Durand-Bush and al. 2001). It evaluates twelve mental skills ranked by the authors (Durand-Bush and al. 2001) as follows: basic skills (goal setting, self-confidence and commitment), psychosomatic skills (stress reaction, fear control, relaxation and activation) and cognitive skills (concentration, distractions control, imagery, mental practice, competition planning). The scores of the 12 scales correspond to the means of self-evaluation of 4 affirmations, in a Likert scale of 7 choices (from totally disagree to completely agree). Measure of sport performance In order to evaluate the performance, we chose an individual sport discipline which is the high jump. Students were subjected to 12 learning sessions during which they learn the technique for carrying out the high. Having all the same chance to do this exercise, students should individually carry out a jump in public. Statistical analysis   Internal consistency: it was assessed using the alpha Cronbach coefficient.  mean ± standard deviation. Descriptive statistics: the results related to the scales scores were presented as Analytic statistics: in order to compare the means of scores according to the sex and according to the age, we used the t-student test. Moreover, the Pearson correlation coefficient allowed us to evaluate the association between the mental skills and the sport performance. European Journal of Physical Education and Sport Science - Volume 2 │ Issue 3 │ 2016 57 A. Eloirdi, A. Arfaoui, A.O.T. Ahami IMPACT OF MENTAL SKILLS ON MOTOR LEARNING IN MOROCCAN HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS Results Preliminary analysis The calculation of Cronbach’s alpha for the three families of mental skills: basic skills, psychosomatic skills and cognitive skills, gave 0.83, 0.61 and 0.76 respectively. The Cronbach’s alpha of the whole OMSAT-3 test was 0.87. These results imply that the internal consistency is very satisfactory (Nunally, 1978). Profile of metal skills and sport performance Mental skills The results of the evaluation of the twelve mental skills, using OMSAT-3, are displayed in figure 1. Furthermore, the evaluation of goal setting, commitment and self-confidence showed that the mean scores were 4.7, 4.22 and 5.32 respectively. This result indicates that the studied group tend rather to goal setting and commitment during learning sessions, whereas it displays a quite high level of self-confidence. Concerning psychosomatic skills, notably reaction to stress, fear control and activation, students showed low to moderate scores. The evaluation of cognitive skills showed that our subjects express low levels of concentration and distraction control but moderate levels of imagery, mental practice and planning. European Journal of Physical Education and Sport Science - Volume 2 │ Issue 3 │ 2016 58 A. Eloirdi, A. Arfaoui, A.O.T. Ahami IMPACT OF MENTAL SKILLS ON MOTOR LEARNING IN MOROCCAN HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS Sport performance As for the sport performance in the studied group, we registered an average score of 11.93±1.41, with a variation coefficient of 11.82%. Analytic study of mental skills and sport performance Mental skills So as to compare means of mental skills according to the sex and according to the age, we used the t-test. Tables 1 and 2 display the results. According to the sex We notice significant differences between males and females for the following mental skills: goal setting, commitment, self-confidence, relaxation, mental imagery, mental practice and planning (table 1). Indeed, boys display significantly higher scores than females for these mental skills. Table 1: Comparison of mental skills means between males and females Scales Sex Goal setting Commitment Self-confidence Stress reaction Fear control Relaxation Activation Concentration Distractions control Mental imagery Mental practice Planning Mean Standard deviation Male 5.08 1.13 Female 4.33 1.37 Male 4.71 1.22 Female 3.74 1.18 Male 5.52 1.01 Female 5.12 1.22 Male 3.89 1.06 Female 3.92 1.09 Male 4.00 1.19 Female 4.09 1.21 Male 4.75 1.17 Female 4.24 1.28 Male 4.88 1.04 Female 4.68 1.23 Male 3.93 1.25 Female 4.15 1.18 Male 3.96 1.23 Female 4.10 1.26 Male 5.21 1.01 Female 4.69 1.42 Male 5.06 1.14 Female 4.27 1.43 Male 4.68 1.22 Female 4.10 1.36 European Journal of Physical Education and Sport Science - Volume 2 │ Issue 3 │ 2016 t p 4.231 <0.001 5.745 <0.001 2.515 0.013 0.192 0.848 0.566 0.572 2.969 0.003 1.252 0.212 1.282 0.201 0.802 0.424 3.001 0.003 4.335 <0.001 3.152 0.002 59 A. Eloirdi, A. Arfaoui, A.O.T. Ahami IMPACT OF MENTAL SKILLS ON MOTOR LEARNING IN MOROCCAN HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS According to the age We got the students into two groups, those who are less than 17 years old and those who are 17 and more. The table 2 gives the repartition of mental skills according to these two groups. Table 2: Comparison of mental skills according to the age Scales Age group Less than 17 years 17 years and more t p Goal setting 4.38±1.38 4.99±1.16 3.43 <0.001 Commitment 3.98±1.36 4.44±1.20 2.54 0.01 Self-confidence 5.26±1.20 5.38±1.08 0.75 0.45 Stress reaction 3.88±1.05 3.93±1.09 0.38 0.70 Fear control 4.13±1.23 3.98±1.17 0.87 0.38 Relaxation 4.30±1.25 4.66±1.24 2.01 0.04 Activation 4.72±1.18 4.82±1.11 0.64 0.52 Concentration 3.83±1.165 4.22±1.24 2.32 0.02 Distractions control 3.91±1.18 4.14±1.30 1.35 0.18 Mental imagery 4.81±1.38 5.08±1.13 1.50 0.13 Mental practice 4.43±1.43 4.86±1.24 2.29 0.02 Planning 4.32±1.39 4.45±1.27 0.69 0.49 The results displayed in table 2 show that the mean difference between the two age groups are significant for some mental skills. Indeed, students who are more than 17 years old present significantly higher means than those of student who are less than17, for the following skills: goal setting, commitment, relaxation, concentration and mental practice. Sport performance According to the sex The repartition of sport performance scores according to the sex shows that boys present higher performance than girls with score means of 12.34 ± 1.35 and 11.53 ± 1.36 respectively. The means comparison using the t-test showed that this difference is significant (t = 4.24, p<0.01). According to the age The study showed that the means of sport performance were 12.50 ± 1.55 in the group of 17 years and more and 11.73 ± 1.35 in the group of less than17 years. The statistical analysis using the t-test confirmed a significant difference making the older group more performant than the younger one (t = 3.46; p<0.01). On the other hand, we carried out correlation tests in order to investigate the association between mental skills and sport performance. The results are presented in table 3. European Journal of Physical Education and Sport Science - Volume 2 │ Issue 3 │ 2016 60 A. Eloirdi, A. Arfaoui, A.O.T. Ahami IMPACT OF MENTAL SKILLS ON MOTOR LEARNING IN MOROCCAN HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS Table 3: Correlation analysis between mental skills and sport performance Scales 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 1. Goal setting 1 2. Commitment ,631** 1 3. Self-confidence ,584** ,530** 1 4. Stress reaction -,103 -,044 -,095 1 5. Fear control ,090 ,052 ,137 ,232** 1 6. Relaxation ,374** ,382** ,456** -,024 ,076 1 7. Activation ,458** ,351** ,417** ,025 ,148* ,565** 1 8. Concentration -,013 -,039 -,007 ,340** ,365** ,006 ,017 1 9. Distractions control ,110 ,104 ,058 ,310** ,325** ,056 ,097 ,423** 1 10. Mental imagery ,575** ,458** ,596** -,080 ,124 ,447** ,433** -,009 -,009 1 11. Mental practice ,727** ,577** ,567** -,178* ,045 ,504** ,507** -,126 ,053 ,682** 1 12. Planning ,675** ,485** ,552** -,197** -,012 ,321** ,342** -,137 -,068 ,612** ,658** 1 13. Performance ,238** ,265** ,088 ,023 ,136 ,141* ,209** ,005 ,046 ,141* ,165* ,141* **. Significant correlation at 1% (bilateral). *. Significant correlation at 5% (bilateral). European Journal of Physical Education and Sport Science - Volume 2 │ Issue 3 │ 2016 61 13 1 A. Eloirdi, A. Arfaoui, A.O.T. Ahami IMPACT OF MENTAL SKILLS ON MOTOR LEARNING IN MOROCCAN HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS The analysis of correlation showed that the sport performance is positively associated with the following mental skills: goal setting, commitment, relaxation, mental imagery, mental practice and planning. Discussion The present work aimed to make an assessment of mental skills and evaluate their association with sport performance in Moroccan high school students. Several studies have shown that the Ottawa Mental Skills Assessment Tool (OMSAT-3) proved a satisfactory internal consistency (Durand-Bush and al. 2001; Fournier, 2006; Hamrouniand al, 2011), this was also demonstrated in the present work. According to the results of the present study, the subjects displayed low to moderate levels of mental skills. In fact, the Moroccan education system does not give importance to these components essential for learning, and the education program lacking in courses intended for the mental development of students. Moreover, we found that some mental skills differ according to the sex and the age of students. Indeed the highest scores were registered in males and in more than 17 years age group. This result implies that boys, in the absence of mental training, develop some mental skills better than girls, namely goal setting, commitment, selfconfidence, relaxation, mental imagery, mental practice and planning. Also, students of more than 17years old are better than younger ones for goal setting, commitment, relaxation, concentration and mental practice. On the other hand, we demonstrated through the present work that goal setting, commitment, relaxation, activation, mental imagery, mental practice and planning influence significantly students’ learning in sport and physical education. In fact, mastery goal has positive consequences such as difficult tasks, high perseverance, use of deep strategies and important self-regulation; also, it furthers learning (Elliott and Dweck, 1988; Harackiewicz and al, 2002), through appropriate strategies: organization, listening and commitment in self-regulation activities (Bouffardand et al. 1995; Meeceand et al. 1988; Riveiroand et al. 2001; Smith and al. 2002). Furthermore, students who set mastery goals value the effort (Ames et Archer, 1988), persevere faced with obstacles (Elliot et Dweck, 1988) and present higher level of commitment. Besides, we demonstrated the role of psychosomatic and cognitive skills in the development of sport performance, which confirms what was reported by several studies (Bernierand et al, 2009; Gardner and Moore, 2004). European Journal of Physical Education and Sport Science - Volume 2 │ Issue 3 │ 2016 62 A. Eloirdi, A. Arfaoui, A.O.T. Ahami IMPACT OF MENTAL SKILLS ON MOTOR LEARNING IN MOROCCAN HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS Conclusion Learning in sport and physical education depends on several factors including mental skills. More advanced studies using cerebral exploration should be carried out to bring more light to this issue. Moreover, the education system in Morocco should bring mental skills into consideration through trainings that aim to develop these abilities among students, in order to improve learning in high school sport and physical education. References 1. Ames, C., & Archer, J. . Achievement goals in the classroom: student’s learning strategies and motivation process. Journal of Educational Psychology, 80, 260-267. 2. Bernier, M., Thienot, E., Codron, R., Fournier, J.F. (2009). Preliminary study of a psychological skills program based on mindfulness and acceptance approaches. 12ième Congrès international de psychologie du sport. Marrakech, 17-21 juin 2009. 3. 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Ahami IMPACT OF MENTAL SKILLS ON MOTOR LEARNING IN MOROCCAN HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS 24. Smith, M. (1993). Développement des aptitudes mentales pour les athlètes de haut niveau. Science du Sport, 13, 1-12. 25. Vealey, R.S. (1986). Conceptualization of sport-confidence and competitive orientation: Preliminary investigation and instrumentation development. Journal of Sport Psychology, 8,221- 246. 26. Zaichkowsky, L. and K. Takenaka, 1993. Optimizing arousal level. Handbook of Research on Sport Psychol., pp: 511-527. New York: Macmillan. Creative Commons licensing terms Authors will retain the copyright of their published articles agreeing that a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0) terms will be applied to their work. 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