Motor Learning Chapter 2 Flashcards

Skill Classification

• Skills involve learned abilities to achieve specific results with high certainty and minimal effort.
• Skillfulness is defined by maintaining excellence in performance most of the time.

Classifications of a Motor Skill

• Skills are goal-oriented, focusing on completing a movement to achieve a specific purpose.
• Body and limb movements are essential to accomplish sport-specific skills.
• Skills are voluntary and must be learned or relearned.

Developmental Taxonomies

• Taxonomies classify motor skills into three groups:
  • Nonlocomotor stability: Maintaining body position against gravity.
  • Locomotor skills: Gross motor skills primarily for body transport.
  • Manipulative skills: Fine motor skills using smaller muscle groups.
• Many skills require a combination of locomotor and manipulative abilities simultaneously.

Progression for Kicking a Ball

• Kicking development progresses from stationary to dynamic scenarios, involving:
  • Kicking a stationary ball into a goal while standing.
  • Kicking after taking a step.
  • Running and kicking a stationary ball.
  • Dribbling and kicking the ball into a goal.
  • Dribbling and kicking into a guarded goal.

Single-Dimensional Classifications

• Key classifications include:
  • Movement precision (fine vs. gross motor skills).
  • Environmental predictability (open vs. closed skills).
  • Time constraints (externally vs. self-paced motor skills).
  • Nature of the skill (discrete, serial, continuous).

Precision of Movement

• Fine motor skills require precise movements using smaller muscles.
• Gross motor skills involve broader movements with less emphasis on precision.

Environmental Predictability: Open Skills

• Open skills occur in dynamic, changing environments (e.g., team sports).
• Players must adapt rapidly to environmental changes.

Environmental Predictability: Closed Skills

• Closed skills are performed in predictable environments (e.g., bowling).
• Require consistent and stable conditions for execution.

Time Constraint Taxonomy

• Externally paced skills are dictated by external factors (e.g., responding to a ball).
• Self-paced skills allow the performer to initiate movements at their discretion.

Nature of Movement Organization

• Discrete skills have clear beginning and end points.
• Serial skills combine multiple discrete movements in a specific order for effectiveness.
• Continuous skills have arbitrary beginning and ending points.

Gentile's Multidimensional Classification System: Regulatory Conditions

• Regulatory conditions specify the necessary movement characteristics for skill success.
• Stability or motion of conditions affects skill execution (e.g., stationary vs. moving targets).

Gentile's Multidimensional Classification System: Action Requirements

• Analyzes whether a performer needs to change location or maintain position during a skill (body orientation).
• Considers if manipulation of an object or opponent is involved.

Abilities vs. Skills

• Abilities are genetically influenced traits that affect movement performance.
• Skills are learned through experience and practice, merging learned abilities and genetic predispositions.

Motor Ability Debate

• General motor ability posits a high correlation between overall ability and proficiency across various tasks.
• Specificity hypothesis suggests abilities operate independently.

Categorizing Motor Abilities

• Fleischman identified motor abilities predictive of high skill levels and created a two-category taxonomy:
  • Perceptual motor abilities.
  • Physical proficiency abilities.

Reaction Time

• Reaction time is the ability to quickly respond to a stimulus, crucial in many motor tasks.

Practical Implications of Specificity Hypotheses

• Individuals possess unique abilities shaping their skill acquisition potential.
• Engaging children in varied, developmentally appropriate movement experiences supports overall skill development.

Kinematic Measures

• Key kinematic components include displacement, velocity, and acceleration, essential for analyzing movement performance.

Timing Measures

• Movement time refers to the duration from movement initiation to completion.
• Response time combines reaction time and movement time, starting from signal onset.

Error Measurements

• Absolute error assesses distance from the target without direction consideration.
• Constant error reflects the direction and amount of deviation from a target.
• Variable error measures performance consistency and variability.

Performance Outcome Measures

• These measures indicate the results of motor skill performance, such as distance, success rate, or angles.

Performance Production Measures

• These assess specific aspects of motor control during skill execution, including force and electrical activity (EEG, EMG).

Imaging Techniques

• fMRI (functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging): Used for brain activity observation.
• EMG (Electromyography): Analyzes muscle response and action timing.
• EEG (Electroencephalography): Records electrical activity in the brain, providing insight into cognitive and motor processes.