Abstract

This study assessed kinaesthetic and imagery ability along with several other measures of motor skill in an attempt to clarify which variables contributed to skill differentiation in a sample of children (N=53). Two skill categories were designated on the basis of the BRUININKS-OSERETSKY Motor Proficiency Test and while correlational analysis within groups revealed that two imagery questionnaires were well-correlated, few other relationships achieved significance. A multivariate discriminant analysis revealed that although group classification on the basis of the BRUININKS score produced highly distinguishable categories, no other variables added significantly to the distinction. Regression analysis showed that the only significant predictor of the BRUININKS score was the ability to transfer from one hand to the other on mirror tracing task. Despite the attempt to obtain a broad range of motor ability, the present study did not reveal any discriminatory power. The expectation that imagery and kinaesthetic ability would play important roles in distinguishing skill groups was not supported and when analysed in combination with other tests of motor performance, this finding remained firm. In contrast to expectations based on generalised schema theory, the findings were in accordance with the hypothesis of skill specificity. Verf.-Referat (gekuerzt)