Discovery Learning in Sports: Implicit or Explicit Processes?

Discovery learning is believed to be an effective method for learning motor, anticipation, and cognitive skills, but the mechanisms leading to improvements are not well understood in the context of real‐life decisions in sports. There is no agreement on whether implicit or explicit learning processes underlie discovery learning. We compared the performances of four groups of participants in a basketball decision situation: Two groups received training in perceptual or cognitive discovery learning, respectively; a third group received rule‐instructed guidance, and the fourth group was used as a control and received no specific training. We evaluated the relative effectiveness of these approaches and their common or distinct mechanisms. The rule‐instructed group was superior in decision quality to the other groups. In addition, we found that cognitive discovery learning is based more on explicit processes but perceptual discovery learning relies more on implicit processes. These results indicate that in sports the concept of discovery learning should be differentiated according to its perceptual and cognitive components.