Condition of Practice in Skill Learning

Condition of Practice

• Power law of practice describes how practice leads to performance improvement, but at a diminishing rate over time.
• Early in practice, performance improves rapidly.
• As practice continues, the rate of improvement slows down.
• Part-whole practice: Separating the hardest parts for separate drills initially is better than trying everything at once. Separating drills for each limb can be more effective. However, interference between parts can hinder learning certain skills. This method is less effective when movements are highly interdependent, such as swimming or running.
• Guidance: Verbal, visual and physical assistance during the execution of a movement can be helpful for learners. Guidance helps build confidence, especially in beginners and prevents errors during early stages. Learning complex skills is also enhanced. Overuse can lead to dependence and hinder autonomous learning.

Visual-Motor and Somatic-Motor Pathways

• Visual pathway involves feedback from the posterior parietal cortex, to the premotor cortex and then motor cortex, processing visual information in these regions to plan and execute movements
• This pathway is essential for precision movements that require alignment with external cues.
• Somatic-motor pathway: sensory input information from muscles, joints and skin is processed by the somatosensory cortex, premotor cortex and finally motor cortex, planning/executing movements based on sensory input.
• This pathway is crucial for tasks that require knowledge of body position and movement.

Aspects of Specificity

• Practice environment should mimic the real-world scenario as closely as possible.
• Sensory information (visual and auditory) should also mimic real-life performance conditions.
• The movements practiced should be exactly the same as those required in the actual performance.
• Benefits: Improved skill transfer, enhanced real-world performance, and better muscle memory.
• Limitations: Difficulty in recreating exact conditions and potentially limiting creativity and adaptability.

Avoid Reliance on Repetition & Contextual Interference

• Modify task parameters to make practice more generalizable to different situations.
• Combine practice sessions, making learners switch between different tasks quickly.
• Simulate game-like scenarios.
• Gradually increase complexity.
• Provide feedback strategically.

Augmented Feedback

• Augmented feedback: Any information supplementing naturally available information.
• Inherent feedback: Naturally available information.
• Knowledge of Result (KR): Information pertaining to the outcome of the movement.
• Knowledge of Performance (KP): Information on how the movement was executed.
• Concurrent Feedback: Feedback given during a task.
• Terminal Feedback: Feedback given after a task is completed.

Research on Augmented Feedback

• Continuous feedback (immediate feedback provided after every attempt) is beneficial in practice but not for long-term learning and retention. Retention is better with intermittent feedback.
• Feedback dependency develops when learners become overly reliant on external cues and lose the ability to correct errors by themselves.
• The optimal frequency of feedback relies on the learner's stage of learning: learners who are just starting out will benefit from more frequent feedback, while those who are more advanced will benefit from less frequent feedback.

Timing of Augmented Feedback

• Immediate feedback: Immediate feedback after a movement is made is very helpful in initial learning stages to make quick adjustments to technique.
• Delayed feedback is helpful when learners need time to reflect on their performance to improve their error detection and self-correction abilities.

Performance vs. Learning

• Feedback can significantly improve motor performance in the short term by allowing learners to correct errors. But, over-reliance on feedback can reduce abilities in the long term which may limit skill transfer to more complex, unfamiliar or unpredictable scenarios.

Knowledge of Performance (KP)

• Feedback on the quality of the movement or technique, not just the outcome.
• KP is crucial for refining technique and correctness in a movement even if it doesn't achieve the desired outcome.
• Narrow bandwidth KP gives feedback only if there is a significant deviation from a pre-specified range of performance.

Learner-determined KR

• Knowledge of results is provided only when requested by the participant.
• Erroneous KR (knowledge of results that contain biases or errors): The impact is greater when presented on every trial as opposed to just a few.

How to apply KP and KR in practical settings

• Applying KP focuses on the aspects that require adjustment, providing real-time feedback to help the learner refine in earlier stages of learning.
• Applying KR helps the learner connect movement and outcome.

Cognitive Stage, Associative Stage and Autonomous Stage of Learning

• Cognitive stage (early learners): Gaining an understanding of the movement by learning patterns, which requires frequent and detailed feedback.
• Associative stage (intermediate learners): Focus on performance consistency, refining technique and learning how to correct mistakes on their own, less frequent feedback.
• Autonomous stage (advanced learners): Learners are able to self-correct and rely on implicit feedback, minimal or no external feedback needed.

Mental Practice

• Differences in imagery abilities can exist (ability to visualize is not consistent across individuals).
• How imagery ability is assessed through questionnaires, objective behavioral tests and physiological data.
• Types of mental practice: visual or 1st or 3rd person perspective.
• Mental practice benefits learning and skill preparation, as well as error correction.

The Three Hypotheses and One Model Associated with Mental Practice.

• Neuromuscular hypothesis: Mental practice activates similar neural pathways to physical practice, enhancing motor skill development.
• Brain Activity hypothesis: Mental practice stimulates brain regions related to skill learning, execution and control, enhancing brain readiness.
• Cognitive hypothesis: Mental practice helps learners understand the cognitive aspects of a task, including decision making, and sequence planning.
• Crush (2004) Emulation Theory of Representation: the brain constructs internal emulators of the environment, allowing better prediction of sensory consequences of movements to facilitate smooth and coordinated movements.

Amount and Distribution of Practice

• Overlearning refers to continuing practice beyond mastering a skill for better retention, stronger pathways and avoiding overload.
• Benefits: better retention, reduced cognitive load, more efficient technique.
• Distributed practice involves spacing out practice sessions over time to improve retention and skill transfer. Distributed practice has benefits over massed practice

How to balance practice and rest periods

• Use spaced repetition for practice.
• Incorporate rest periods, which helps reduce fatigue, improving mental focus on practicing for a balanced period of time.
• Active recovery during rest periods, helps keep the brain and body relaxed and focused.
• Better cognitive load and practice sessions with reflection.
• Alternate skill levels to avoid cognitive overload, which promotes skill transfer.

Effects of practice on performance and brain activity

• Initial improvement in task performance during practice, further refinement and stabilization happen during and after sleep.
• Initial learning involves motor cortex and associative regions, sleep plays a crucial role in optimizing synaptic consolidation.
• Error rate and time decrease, task accuracy increases after sleep.
• High quality sleep is crucial, as sleep deprivation negatively affects skills retention.

Case Studies

• Assess learning situations by looking at learning goals, learner characteristics, learning environment, feedback methods and assessment, opportunities for practice and consolidation, and emotional and social factors.
• Optimize motor learning programs: set clear and achievable goals, use distributed practice, emphasis on variability, mental rehearsal and intrinsic motivation.
• Assess the program effectiveness: measure skill acquisition (accuracy, speed, consistency) and retention (maintenance of skills), transferability (ability to adapt), error reduction (reduced mistakes), and learner feedback (gather feedback about clarity and engagement).

Motor Programs

• Automation of repetitive movements: skill execution occurs without conscious control, enabling focus on more complex and novel tasks.
• Speed of repetitive movements: fast processing and execution allowing quicker reaction time than planning time.
• Coordination/precision: programs enable smooth, precise and complex movements through pre-defined muscle groups coordination.
• Learning/adaptability: motor programs become more adaptable and efficient with practise, reducing errors and improving overall technique.
• Cognitive offloading: motor programs reduce the use of cognitive resources for movement and release them for other tasks.
• Hierarchical organization of motor control: hierarchy where higher levels specify goals and lower levels implement specific movements.
• Evidence of Motor Programs: pre-programmed action patterns when observed, even when execution is halted, suggesting pre-determined plans that operate independent of immediate feedback.

This quiz explores key concepts related to the condition of practice, including the power law of practice and the effectiveness of part-whole practice. It also discusses the role of guidance in skill acquisition and how different pathways can affect learning outcomes. Test your understanding of these critical learning theories.