Motor and Cognitive Skills Overview

Study Notes

Motor Skills

Defined as "doing it right" with less emphasis on decision-making.
Quality of movement is crucial for successful execution.

Cognitive Skills

Referred to as "knowing what to do," involving significant decision-making.
Decision-making and strategy are essential for achieving success.

Dimensions of Performance

Encompasses stability of environment, temporal/organizational features of skill, and precision of movement.

Stability of Environment

Context and objects influence skill execution.
Closed environments remain constant and are self-paced.
Open environments are unstable and unpredictable, requiring reactive motor skills.
Predictable changes occur where parameters are anticipatory, like jumping rope or using escalators.

Temporal/Organizational Features

Refers to the type of task and its features:
- Discrete tasks have a defined beginning and end, completed quickly.
- Continuous tasks have arbitrary beginnings and ends, are repetitive, and allow the performer to decide when to stop.
- Serial tasks combine linked discrete skills toward a single outcome, such as a gymnastics routine.

Precision of Movement

Distinguishes between fine and gross motor skills:
- Fine motor skills require high precision.
- Gross motor skills involve significant muscular effort and whole-body movement.

Gentile's Taxonomy for Classifying Motor Skills

Classifies skills based on environmental demands and action requirements:
- Environmental demands include regulatory conditions and intertrial variability.
- Action requirements assess the goal of the task, focusing on body transport and object manipulation.

Environmental Demands

Regulatory conditions are the features of the environment that impact skill performance, such as color, hoop height, and width.
Intertrial variability pertains to whether conditions remain consistent or change from one performance to the next, relevant in closed environments.

Action Requirements: Goal of the Task

Evaluates whether body transport is necessary during the task and if object manipulation occurs, including actions with both hands and feet.
Both body transport and object manipulation can be classified as present or absent.

Gentile's Taxonomy

Illustrates progressive increases in task difficulty, useful for assessing and comparing skills or variations.
Helps evaluate movement proficiency and plan instructional progressions for teaching motor skills.

Description

This quiz explores the key concepts of motor and cognitive skills, highlighting the importance of execution quality and decision-making processes. It also examines the dimensions of performance, including environment stability, task features, and precision in movement. Test your understanding of these critical elements in skill acquisition.