The purpose of the study was to determine if the use of verbal cues and the gender of a demonstrator would affect the cognition and performance of a novel motor task. Sixty male and 60 female college students with no prior juggling experience were randomly assigned to one of four treatment groups (verbal cues with male demonstrator, no verbal cues with male demonstrator, verbal cues with female demonstrator, no verbal cues with female demonstrator). Participants were given four blocks of practice time, each 5 min long. Viewing a videotaped demonstration preceded each practice block. Participants were then given a written test of cognition and evaluated for juggling performance. A 2 x 2 x 2 (Participant Gender x Demonstrator Gender x Cues) ANOVA revealed a significant main effect for verbal cues on cognition, F(1, 112)=33.11, p < .05. Cognition scores (M=4.9) for participants who received verbal cues were significantly higher than cognition scores (M=4.9) for those who did not receive verbal cues. Gender of the demonstrator and gender of the participant had no effect on cognition and there were no interactions. For juggling, there was a significant main effect for participant gender, F(1,112)=4.06, p < .05. Male juggling performance scores (M=1.6) were significantly higher than female juggling performance scores (M=1.4). Gender of the demonstrator and the use of verbal cues had no effect on juggling performance and there were no interactions. It was concluded that the gender of a demonstrator is not a significant factor in the performance and cognition of juggling for college men and women. Demonstrations with verbal cues enhance men’s and women’s cognition of motor skills more so than demonstration with no verbal cues. Although men and women exhibited the same level of cognition, it appeared that college men were better jugglers than college women in the initial stages of skill acquisition.