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The present study was designed to investigate the effects of positive social-comparative feedback on motor learning and self-efficacy of a throwing motor skill in individuals with ADHD. The subjects were 44 adolescents with ADHD in the age range of 15 to 18 years old and were randomly and equally divided into two groups: positive social-comparative feedback and control group. Motor task consisted of throwing bean bags with the non-dominant arm at a target on the ground. The participants completed the pretest (10 trials), an acquisition phase including 6 blocks of 10 trials, and a retention test consisting of 10 trials. The participants in the positive social comparison feedback group were informed that their throws on the previous block were, on average, better than the throws of the other participants in this group. Prior to pretest, each block, and before the retention test, all participants completed the self-efficacy scale. Dependent measures were throwing accuracy scores and self-efficacy. Independent t-test and analysis of variance (ANOVA) with repeated measures were employed to analyze the data. Positive social comparison feedback group throwed the bean bags significantly better in the acquisition phase and the retention test compared to the control group. In addition, positive social comparison feedback group reported significantly higher self-efficacy scores in the acquisition phase and the retention test in comparison to the control group. Our findings indicated that enhanced expectancies benefited individuals with ADHD to enhance their performance and learn a novel motor skill

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of autonomy support (i.e., in the form of self-controlled feedback) on learning and self-efficacy in a throwing skill in adolescents with ADHD. The subjects were 40 adolescents with ADHD (14 to 17 years old) and were randomly and equally divided into two groups: self-controlled and yoked. Motor task consisted of throwing bean bags with the non-dominant arm at a target on the ground. The participants completed the pretest (10 trials), an acquisition phase including 6 blocks of 10 trials, and a retention test consisting of 10 trials. The participants in the self-controlled group received knowledge of result (KR) anytime the requested. The yoked group was matched with self-controlled group, but without having a choice to request for feedback. Prior to pretest, each block, and before the retention test, all participants completed the self-efficacy scale. Dependent measures were throwing accuracy scores and self-efficacy. Independent t-test and analysis of variance (ANOVA) with repeated measures were used to analyze the data. The results showed that participants in the self-controlled group had significantly higher throwing accuracy scores in the acquisition phase and the retention test than those in yoked group. Moreover, participants in the self-controlled group reported significantly higher self-efficacy scores in the acquisition phase and the retention test than those in yoked group. The results of this study show that people with ADHD benefit from autonomy support to learn a novel motor skill.