KPE261 Key Definitions

Defining and Assessing Learning

• Motor learning: A set of internal processes associated with practice or experience leading to relatively permanent changes in movement capability.
• Performance: Executing a skill at a specific time and place.
• Improvement: Enhanced skill level compared to previous performance.
• Consistency: Similar performance across attempts.
• Stability: Consistent performance in differing contexts or environments.
• Adaptability: Successful skill execution in new conditions or environments.
• Persistence: Long-lasting improvement in skill capability.
• Quick learner: Rapid increase in performance.
• Normal learner: Gradual increase in performance.
• Latent learning: Performance change not evident (learning may still be occurring).
• Retention test: Assessing learning by testing after a period without practice.
• Transfer test: Assessing skill generalization from learned to new skills in different contexts.

Sensory Contributions

• Exteroceptive: Sensory information from the environment.
• Proprioceptive: Sensory information about the body's position and movement.
• Intrinsic feedback: Naturally occurring sensory information.
• Augmented feedback: Additional sensory information.
• Tactile receptors: Merkel cells (slow-adapting, pressure & texture), Meissner corpuscles (fast-adapting, stroking), Pacinian corpuscles (deep, pressure), Ruffini corpuscles (deep, stretch).
• Visual receptors: M-pathway (parietal, spatial perception), P-pathway (temporal, object recognition).
• Optical array/flow: Visual information of light reflecting and changing, aiding perception of movement.
• Vestibular/Auditory receptors: Signal body movement and orientation (echolocation).
• Proprioceptors: Muscle spindles (muscle length & speed of change) and Golgi tendon organs (tension).
• Joint receptors: Receptors within the joint capsule.

Motor Programs

• Generalized Motor Program (GMP): Sets of parameters defining a movement.
• Rapid movements: Organized sequences of movements performed quickly (fast).
• Response-chaining hypothesis: First movement in a sequence requires more attention than later movements.
• Drum theory: Experiences of movement are imprinted.
• Reaction time: Time between a cue and a response.
• Open-loop control system: Executing movement instructions without modifications.
• Closed-loop control system: Feedback loop to maintain desired outcome.
• Storage problem: How to store infinite novel movements.
• Novelty problem: Acquiring new motor programs and adapting to novel challenges.
• Invariant features: Aspects of movements remaining the same (GMP form).
• Parameters: Aspects of movements that are changeable.
• Surface features: Aspects of movement that vary (allowable adaptations from GMP).
• Deep features: Aspects of movements that remain constant and determine form (GMP).

Conditions of Practice

• Law of practice: Early improvement in skill proficiency quickly diminishes as practice continues.
• Power Law of Practice: Log of performance is linearly related to logarithm of hours of practice.
• Deliberate practice: Purposeful activities to enhance performance.
• Off-task practice: Learners that are not actively practicing that are not actively engaged in the physical task.
• On-task practice: Methods to alter physical practice engagement to assess its effect on skills/learning.
• Part practice: Breaking down a complex skill into smaller parts for practice.
• Variability of practice: Practicing in different environments/contexts.
• Contextual interference: Interference due to tasks being learned or practiced at the same time.
• Elaborate-Distinctive hypothesis: Learning occurs with comparisons and contrasts of tasks.
• Forgetting-Reconstruction hypothesis: Forgetting a prior task is required for effective learning/accomplishment of a new task.
• Working memory: Temporary storage in memory.
• Blocked Practice: Doing one exercise of practice repeatedly before going to the next one.
• Random practice: Tasks are varied in the order of performance.
• Perceptual learning: Skills learned through observations.

Augmented Feedback

• Augmented feedback: Supplemental information about an action, in addition to inherent feedback.
• Inherent feedback: Naturally occurring sensory information or feedback.
• Concurrent feedback: Feedback during performance.
• Terminal feedback: Feedback after performance.
• Immediate feedback: Feedback immediately after a task/movements.
• Delayed feedback: Feedback provided sometime after a skill is performed (time-delay feedback).
• Nonverbal feedback: Feedback conveyed nonverbally or through observation.
• Distinct feedback: Feedback specific to particular stages of movements.
• Accumulated feedback: Feedback from multiple trial performance.
• Knowledge of result (KR): Provides feedback on the outcome of a movement.
• Knowledge of performance (KP): Provides feedback on the execution of a movement.
• Temporal locus of KR: Time-delay for feedback after movement end.
• Video feedback: Visualization of movement.
• Kinematic feedback: Measures of motion (position, time, velocity).
• Biofeedback: Measuring and providing feedback on bodily functions or performance.
• Kinetic feedback: Measures of forces during movement.

Mental Practice

• Mental practice: Cognitive rehearsal of a physical skill without physical movement.
• Imagery: Visualizing movement performance or mental simulation.
• Aphantasia: Inability to voluntarily create mental images.
• Motivational imagery: Specific or general goal-setting.
• Cognitive imagery: Techniques/strategies to achieve goals and/or skill.
• Neuromuscular hypothesis: Mental practice affects neuromuscular activity akin to actual movement.
• Brain activity hypothesis: Mental imagery and practice activate similar brain regions/areas.
• Cognitive hypothesis: Aspects of mental practice involved in planning, executing, and evaluating strategies.
• Internal imagery: Performed "inside" the body.
• External imagery: Perceived "outside" the body.
• Kinesthetic imagery: Sensory re-creation of performance.

Amount & Distribution of Practice

• Overlearning: Practice beyond the necessary point for proficiency.
• Procedural skills: Motor skills that are learnt and used cognitively.
• Distribution of practice: Spacing practicing sessions to allow for rest between sessions and/or movements.
• Massed practice: Practice sessions performed consecutively with little or no rest.
• Distributed practice: Practice sessions spaced out with rest periods.
• Memory consolidation: Process of strengthening memories over time.
• Continuous skills: Movements with no distinct end point(s).
• Discrete skills: Movements with distinct start and end points.

This quiz explores key concepts related to motor learning, including performance, improvement, consistency, and retention. Assess your understanding of how various factors contribute to skill acquisition and adaptability in different environments. Test your knowledge on learning processes and evaluation methods.