The Effect of Visual Illusion on Motor Learning of Golf Putting and Self-efficacy in Older Adults

Research on the effect of visual illusion on motor learning and the self-efficacy of children and adults has shown positive results. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of visual illusion on learning of golf putting and self-efficacy in older adults. In this semi-experimental study, 22 older adults with mean age of 62.72 ± 1.77 years were selected through convenience sampling and randomly divided into two groups: large visual illusion (11) and small visual illusion (11). The participants completed a 2-meter distance golf putting task at pre-test stages (10 trials), acquisition (50 trials; 5 blocks of 10 trials), retention (10 trials), and transfer (10 trials; from a new 2.5 meter) they did. Participants' motor learning was recorded as a radial error in golf putting task. The Bandura self-efficacy questionnaire was used to measure self-efficacy. The results of Mixed ANOVA and t-test showed that although there is no difference between the two types of vision illusion in the acquisition and transfer phase, however, in the retention phase, there is a significant difference between tow visual illusion groups, and the large visual illusion group rather than the small visual illusion group (p≤0.05) resulted in improved motor learning. Also, the results of Mixed ANOVA showed an improvement in self-efficacy in both groups, however, no significant difference was found between the self-efficacy of the two groups. According to the findings of the present study, it can be concluded that older adults, like other age groups, show more motor learning in skills such as golf putting task in large visual illusion conditions. The probable cause of this improvement is an increase in enhanced expectancies in large visual illusion condition.