Motor Learning & Control Concepts

• The interaction of the learner, task, and environment is vital for understanding and facilitating motor skill learning and performance.

Definitions of Motor Learning & Control

• Motor learning is studying the processes of acquiring and refining motor skills, including variables that either help or hurt this acquisition.
• Motor control encompasses the neural, physical, and behavioral aspects of human movement.

Motor Behavior Concepts

• Learning is a relatively permanent change in a person's capability to execute a motor skill due to practice or experience.
• Learning involves acquiring the capability for skilled actions.
• Learning occurs through practice or experience, can't be observed directly, and results in relatively permanent changes in skilled behavior.
• Performance is the act of executing a skill.
• A motor skill is a goal-directed action requiring voluntary body and/or limb movement, which must be learned.
• Increases in capability from growth, maturation, or training programs such as cardiovascular endurance and strength are not part of our definition of motor skills.

Performance Proficiency Perspective

• Skill is the ability to achieve end results with maximum certainty, minimum energy expenditure, and minimum movement time.
• Maximum Certainty of Goal Achievement
• Minimum Energy Expenditure
• Minimum Movement Time

Skill Classification

• Skills can be classified using one-dimensional or multidimensional systems.

One-Dimensional Skill Classification

• Single Dimensional System categories are based on:
• Size of the muscles: fine vs. gross
• Nature of movement organization: discrete, serial, continuous
• Predictability of the environment: closed vs. open
• Motor and cognitive importance: motor skill vs. cognitive skill

Skills Classified by Muscle Size

• Gross motor skills use large musculature, where precision isn't as important; examples include walking and jumping.
• Fine motor skills require controlling small muscles with high precision and eye-hand coordination, such as writing and drawing.

Skills Classified by Movement Organization

• A discrete skill has a defined beginning and end, usually with brief movement, like throwing or kicking a ball.
• Serial skills are sequences of discrete skills combined into a complex action like shifting gears in a car or performing a gymnastics routine.
• Continuous skills have no distinct beginning or end and last for an extended time, such as swimming or pedaling a bicycle.

Skills Classified by Environmental Predictability

• Open skills occur in variable and unpredictable environments, like catching a ball or walking through the woods.
• Closed skills occur in stable and predictable environments, allowing for advanced planning, such as bowling or typing.

Skills Classified by Motor & Cognitive Importance

• Motor skills emphasize the quality of movement over perception and cognition, like high jumping or weight lifting.
• Cognitive skills rely on decision-making with less emphasis on movement, like playing chess or cooking a meal.

Multidimensional Skill Classification

• Regulatory conditions are environmental factors that specify necessary movement characteristics.
• Conditions are stationary
• Inter-trial response variability
• Action requirements include body movement and object manipulation.
• The performer moves locations
• Object manipulation

Gentile’s Multidimensional Skill Classification System

• (Refer to the 2x2 table in content above)

Individual Differences

• Group differences compare averages between groups.
• Individual differences highlight variations within a group, relating to stable and enduring characteristics that make individuals unique.

Factors Contributing to Individual Differences

• Include abilities, attitudes, body type, cultural background, emotional makeup, fitness level, learning style, maturational level, motivational level, previous social experiences, and prior movement experiences.

Multiple Intelligence

• Multiple intelligences include linguistic, logical-mathematical, spatial, musical, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and emotional abilities.

Ability Defined

• Ability is a genetic trait prerequisite to developing skill proficiency; it's a general trait determining a person's achievement potential in specific skills.'

Motor Ability

• Motor ability is related explicitly to motor-skill performance.
• Motor skills vary greatly from person to person

Categorizing Motor Abilities

• Perceptual motor abilities: processing information and implementing movement.
• Physical proficiency abilities: linked to fitness and movement.

Perceptual Motor Abilities

• Perceptual motor abilities include multilimb coordination, control precision, response orientation, reaction time, rate control, manual dexterity, finger dexterity, arm-hand steadiness, wrist-finger speed, and aiming.
• These abilities are related to receiving, recognizing, selecting, and organizing sensory information.

Physical Proficiency Abilities

• Physical proficiency abilities include explosive strength, static strength, dynamic strength, trunk strength, extent flexibility, dynamic flexibility, gross body equilibrium, balance with visual cues, speed of limb movement, gross body coordination, and stamina.
• These abilities are congenital, inherent traits.

Fleishman's Taxonomy of Motor Abilities

• (Refer to the tables in content above)

General Coordination

• General coordination factors: movement rate, motor timing, perceptual timing, and force control.

Applications of Understanding Motor Abilities

• Helps design PE curriculums to develop all motor abilities, overcome skill deficiencies through early identification, and predict success in sports.

Motor Abilities as a Foundation

• Motor abilities form a foundation for performing skills; individuals possess different amounts of each ability.
• It is difficult to measure motor abilities

Skill Classification & Task Analysis

• Studying individual differences and abilities allows more precise skill classifications with practical applications.
• Task analysis breaks down a skill into its component parts and underlying abilities.

Effective Classification

• Effective classification allows instructors to apply learning principles, assist learners with effective movement control, and select individuals for advanced training based on related abilities.

Predicting Performance

• Prediction involves understanding the abilities underlying the task, estimating the strength of those abilities in applicants, and estimating future skill level.

Algısal motor yetenekler (This section is translated from language of origin)

• Multi-limb coordination: requires coordination of multiple limbs
• Control precision: requires precise controlled muscle adjustments with large muscle groups
• Response time: selecting one of multiple stimuli
• Reaction time: speed of responding when there is a stimulus
• Rate control: changing speed and direction
• Manipulation skill: directing the object using hand-arm
• Finger skill: ability to direct fine objects
• Hand-arm balance: ability to make precise hand-arm position movements where force and speed are low
• Finger-wrist speed
• Targeting

UNDERSTANDING MOVEMENT PREPARATION

• Chapter Two

Theoretical Approaches to Movement Preparation

• Perception is the process by which meaning is attached to information.
• Two approaches: information processing model and affordances.

Information Processing

• Perceptual processes create a symbolic representation of environmental and task information.
• That information goes through mental processes, including comparison with memory.
• Leading to a decision of what action is needed in response to the situation
• Perception is indirect because sensory input must be processed to give the receiver a meaningful world description.

Information Processing Model

• There are stages which information passes through from input to output
• Stages are Input, Perception, Decision Making, Execution, Output, Feedback
• Stimuli is a change in the environment that evokes a response
• Intrinsic Feedback: response produced information that is available to learners from their sensory system both during & as a consequence of performance

Ecological Model

• The environment and task are perceived directly in terms of affordances, which are action possibilities related to the perceiver’s capabilities.
• The environment is perceived in terms of the actions that the receiver can exert on it
• Ecological approach to perception and Dynamic System Theory

Reaction Time

• Reaction time indicated the speed and effectiveness of decisions

Preparing a Response

• Reaction time (RT) is the interval between stimulus presentation and response initiation.
• RT indicates the speed and effectiveness of decision-making.

Factors Influencing Reaction Time

• Number of response choices (Hick’s Law)
• simple RT, choice RT, discriminate RT
• Response Time
• movement time
• Anticipation
• event (spatial) anticipation, temporal anticipation
• Psychological Refractory Period
• Stimulus-Response Compatibility

Number of Stimulus Response Alternatives

• Simple RT (SRT) involves one stimulus and one response.
• Choice RT (CRT) involves selecting one response from multiple possibilities; more choices increase RT (Hick’s Law).

Response Time Components

• Response time is the total time from stimulus presentation to response completion, including RT and movement time (MT).
• Movement time is the interval between movement initiation and completion.

Anticipation Types

• Spatial or Event Anticipation: to predict what will happen in the environment
• Temporal Accuracy: to predict when it will occur
• Precue: clues in the environment that if detected can assist a learner in anticipating

Psychological Refractory Period (PRP)

• The delay in processing a second stimulus when it closely follows the first, as the system is still processing the initial stimulus.

Stimulus Response Compatibility

• Stimulus-Response Compatibility is the extent to which the stimulus and response are connected in a "natural" way.
• alternative options
• compatibility
• choice RT
• occurs in response-selection

Neural Mechanisms: CNS

• The Central Nervous System (CNS) brain and spinal cord
• Sensory information is integrated, decisions are made, and signals are generated and sent to muscles and glands to carry out responses.

Neural Mechanisms: PNS

• The Peripheral Nervous System (PNS) has nerves that extend from brain and spinal cord, linking body and CNS
• Afferent division detects changes in the environment and sends nerve impulses from sensory receptors to CNS
• Efferent division transmits nerve impulses away from the CNS

Sensory Receptors - Exteroceptors

• Exteroceptors detect stimuli outside the body and provide information about the external environment.

Sensory Receptors - Interoceptors

• Interoceptors detect stimuli from internal viscera and provide information about the internal environment.

Sensory Receptors - Proprioceptors

• Proprioceptors provide information on body position and movement, detecting changes in muscle tension, joint position, and equilibrium.

Vision

• (Vision) is the predominant sensory receptor
• 70% of all the body’s sensory receptors are located in the eyes
• 40% of the cerebral cortex is thought to be involved in some aspect of processing visual information
• Sport vision focuses on investigating visual contributions to performance

Focal System

• Functions to identify objects located primarily in the center of the visual field
• Linked to consciousness
• Operates under voluntary control

Ambient System

• Thought to be responsible for spatial localization and orientation
• Functions at a subconscious level
• Serves both central and peripheral visual fields

Proprioception Defined

• The continuous flow of sensory information received from receptors in muscles, tendons, joints, and inner ear regarding movement and body position.
• Golgi tendon organs
• Muscle spindles
• Joint kinesthetic receptors
• Vestibular apparatus

Proprioception & Performance

• Makes the motor control system more efficient and flexible
• Provides information about initial body and limb position, which serves as the basis of programming of motor commands
• Evaluates movement for correctness
• Compares proprioceptive feedback to the intended goal
• Makes adjustments

Multiple Degrees of Freedom

• Human body has numerous independent elements, or degrees of freedom, afford abundant action possibilities.
• Coordinating and controlling available degrees of freedom to produce a movement is known as the degrees of freedom problem.

Coordination Defined

• Coordination is organizing a system's available degrees of freedom into an efficient movement pattern to achieve a specific goal effectively.
• Motor coordination is the ability to use multiple body parts for a particular action, like dribbling a basketball using the arm and hand to bounce the ball while the feet and legs move you around the court.
• Control involves manipulating variables within a movement to meet the demands of a given situation.

THE ROLE OF ATTENTION, AROUSAL, & VISUAL SEARCH IN MOVEMENT PREPARATION

• Chapter Three

What is Attention in Human Performance?

• Attention is the limited capacity to process information from the environment.
• Attention is a resource that is available and that can be used for various purposes.
• Attention is the process of concentrating on specific features of the environment, or on certain thoughts or activities while excluding other features of the environment
• Attention might be directed to sensory events & focused on internal mental operations or sensory information.

Attentional Capacity

• Limited due to structural and capacity interference.

Theoretical Models of Attention

• Filter theories
• Attention filters out unnecessary information so that only the relevant stuff gets through to consciousness
• Bottleneck theories are similar to filter theories, instead of a filter, there is a bottleneck in the information stream where information gets through based on prioritization.
• Attentional resource theory
• We have a limited amount of cognitive processing capabilities. Different tasks draw on this differently.
• Once it’s used up, performance starts to suffer.

Factors Influencing Attentional Demands

• Environment and Task Complexity
• As the environment or task increases in complexity, the attentional demands will undergo a corresponding increase, reducing the amount of attentional space available for additional tasks.
• Skill Level of Performer
• Beginners, characteristically, have difficulty attending to more than one task at a time when learning a new skill
• Numbers of Cues
• Attentional limitations are exceeded when a performer tries to think about too many things when learning or refining a motor skill

Tips for Practitioners (Consider)

-Beginner needs limited attention in complex environment -Beginner is unable to use the full capacity & needs relevant cues

Arousal Defined

• Arousal is the level of excitement or activation generated in the CNS.
• Anxiety is an emotion resulting from an individual’s perception of a situation as threatening.

Arousal Theories

• The Inverted-U Principle says that performance enhances performance, but after a point performance deteriorates as the arousal level rises further.

Inverted-U Principle Explained

• Too high & too low level of arousal is ineffective.
  • assess the skills to be performed in terms of fine control and decision making
  • to generate the optimal level of arousal level for each skill.

Perceptual Narrowing

• Arousal also narrows cues relative to what is relevant and irrelevant.

Arousal & Movement Preparation

• The cue utilization hypothesis helps to explain why performance could be poor in situations of low arousal and high arousal.
• low arousal - too much attention to all environmental cues and no discrimination between useful and useless cues
• too high arousal - attention to only a few environmental cues
• The key skill is the ability to find the right level of arousal for the task and to maintain it.

Selective Attention Types

• Attentional Focus
• Direction - (Internal – External)
• Width - (Broad – Narrow)

Selective Attention Information

• The ability to attend to relevant cues and ignore irrelevant information.

Focus of Attention Types

• Internal vs external.

Locus of Attention - Internal

• Internal is focusing attention to concentrate on a specific body movement in order to develop proprioception.
• Cognitve/early associative stage (closed skills)

Locus of Attention - External

• External is focusing attention to the effects of his or her actions on the environment for skill refinement.
• Associative stage

Stages of Learning

• Chapter Six

Stages of Learning Considerations

-It isn’t easy to clearly define the transitions between different stages of learning. -One stage blends into the next. -A learner can be in different stages for learning different skills. -Stages of learning are not dependent on age.

Fitts & Posner

-Stages of Learning are Relatively distinct and sequential phases of the learning process. -There are three distinct learning stages, Cognitive stage Associative stage Autonomous stage

Cognitive Stage Defined

-High degree of cognitive activity -Attentional demands high, limited to movement production -Movements lack synchronization and appear choppy and deliberate -Numerous errors, typically gross in nature -Lacks capability to determine cause of errors or correct them -Improvements & gain in performance are rapid & large. -Need for instruction & demonstration is high

Associative Stage Defined

-More consistent -Attentional demands for movement production decrease -Fewer, less gross errors -Better at detecting cause of errors -Begin to develop appropriate error correction strategies -This stage lasts somewhat longer and feedback become somewhat less important.

Autonomous Stage Defined

-Highest level of proficiency -Not all learners will reach this stage -Attention reallocated to strategic decision-making -Consistent -Confident -Make few errors and can generally detect and correct those errors that do occur -Gain in skill is relatively slow.

Gentile’s Two-Stage Model Perspective

• Identified the stages from the learner’s perspective rather than simply describing the characteristics of the learner in each phase.
• Her model emphasizes the goal of the learner and the influence of the task and the environmental characteristics on obtaining that goal.
• getting the idea of the movement,
• fixation/diversification.

Getting the Idea of the Movement Defined

-The goal of the learner is to develop an understanding of the movement requirements necessary to meet the demands imposed by the task and the environment. -Success depends on the ability of performers’ discrimination between the regulatory and non-regulatory conditions. -Selectively attend and ignore irrelevant info.

Fixation/Diversification Defined

-FIXATION: EMPHASIZES THE CONSISTENCY OF MOVEMENT AND IS THE OBJECTIVE FOR CLOSED SKILL. -DIVERSIFICATION: EMPHASIZES THE DIVERSIFICATION OF MOVEMENT PATTERNS TO MEET UNPREDICTABLE, EVER-CHANGING ENVIRONMENTS – OPEN SKILL.

Learner and Performance Changes Information Below Applies

-Movement Pattern -Increase in Coordination and Control -More Fluid Muscle Activity -More Efficient Energy Expenditure -Increased Consistency -Attention -Attention to Skill Execution -Allocation of Visual Attention -Knowledge and Memory -Error Detection and Correction -Self-Confidence

Improvements

-Increased Coordination and Control which freezes the degrees of freedom -Muscle activity reduced to only those needed -Energy expenditure is reduced as movement becomes more efficient and coordinated -Consistency is dependent on consistently correct or incorrect motion

Attention on Skill

-As skill proficiency develops, the need to attend consciously to each aspect of the movement decreases and performance becomes virtually automatic. -Skilled performers direct attention to relevant areas whereas beginners have difficulty discriminating between relevant and irrelevant cues.

Knowledge & Memory

• Knowledge & memory provides quicker access to information for quicker problem solving with fewer errors -Declarative knowledge (e.g., rules) -Procedural knowledge (e.g., what to do in a given situation)

Error Detection and Correction

-Error Detection and Correction have a better ability to interpret sensory receptor information in recognition schema & may stop a performance to avoid an inefficient movement -Self-Confidence needs motivation and more success to breed more motivation to continue & shoot for 80% success`

How to Measure Progress

-Performance curves: -Negatively accelerating curve -Positively accelerating curve -Linear curve -S-shaped curve -Retention tests -Transfer tests

Performance Curves Typical Characteristics

-Progress is fast at first, but more gradual later, called the law of practice. -Improvement -Consistency

Characteristics & Types of Curves

• Proportional increase in performance over time (linear)
• Slight gain early but great improvement later (Positively accelerating)
• Early improvement but slows during latter practice (Negatively accelerating)
• Mixed combination of performance curve attributes (S-shaped)

Practice performance

-May overestimate or underestimate learning due to temporary effects & measurements from mean of several trials Transfer and retention tests should be given.

Performance Plateaus

-Period during the learning process in which no obvious changes in performance occur which may be a transitional period in the learning process -Not necessarily an indication that learner has stopped learning -Possible reasons are fatigue, anxiety, lack of motivation, limitations in the type of performance measurement being used

Retention and Transfer Tests Measure Skill

-Retention Test: Skill performance test give following a period of no practice -Transfer Test: Measurement of the adaptability of a response determined by testing learner’s ability to use a skill in a novel context or manner -Performance and learning is not the same! -To asses learning use retention and/or transfer tests

Retention and Transfer Tests - Common Traits

• Assesses the performance characteristic of improvement
• Typical administration of a retention test where you perform the skill in practice followed by period of no practice where the retention test is administered to determine amount retained.

Performance of Skills With Transfer Tests

-Assess the performance characteristics of adaptability -Performing a practiced skill in novel context that changes without augmented feedback, plus physical environment or personal characteristics -Performing the novel skill variations

THE LEARNER: PRE -INSTRUCTION CONSIDERATIONS

-Chapter Seven

Communication

• Effective communication occurs when messages are Clear, Concise (brief) and Match the level of receiver.
• However they are different in how receive new information.

Effective Communication With Practitioners

• Must provide meaningful instructions that take into account: -Learning styles -Individual differences -Level of motivation

Learning Styles

-Individual preferences for receiving and processing information (instructional and learning styles match for greater achievement. -Gardner’s multiple intelligence (93) -Kolb’s learning styles inventory (86) -Gregorc’s mind styles model (85) -Learning styles inventory of Dunn, Dunn & Price (89) (used in motor skill acquisition)

Learning styles inventory of Dunn, Dunn and Price (89)

-Instructional environment preferences regarding sound, light, temperature & class design -Emotional preferences including motivation, persistence, responsibility and structure -Sociological preferences for individual, pair, peer, team, adult or varied relations -Physiological preferences regarding perception, intake, time and mobility -Psychological preferences derived from analytic mode, hemisphericity and action.

Dunn and Dunn’s model (1975), processing preference

-Global vs. analytical learners Global learners learn more easily when they are first presented with the big picture and are asked to concentrate on details, plus humor, anecdotes and graphics are helpful Analytical learners prefer to have new information presented in a step-by step, sequential manner that builds towards the main concept & rules, guidelines and procedures are helpful

Gender

-Boys & girls, and men & women, tend to learn differently from each other -Perceptual strengths of males are often visual, tactile, and kinesthetic; plus they tend to need more mobility than females, and function better in an informal environment -Females tend to be more auditory, need quiet while studying, work best in a formal setting, and need less mobility, plus are more conforming, authority-oriented, and parent- and self-motivated than males

Perceptual Mode Explained

-Visual: visual cue words are incorporated in explanations. -Kinesthetic: learners strive to understand what the desired movement feels like. -Analytical: learners approach the desired movement in problem-solving fashion. -Auditory: sounds and rhythms are preference as well as verbal descriptions

Instructional Mode

-Utilizing only one presentation style denies some learners the opportunities to understand the information presented.

The Learner Traits

-The learner is the central focus for the practitioner, therefore the practitioner must consider: -Present stage of learning -Learning style -Past experiences -Motivation -Abilities

Transfer of Learning

• Transfer is when the learning of new skill or its performance under novel conditions is influenced by past experience with another skill or skills.
• The gain or loss in proficiency on one task as a result of previous practice or experience on another task.

Types of Transfer

-Positive Transfer (facilitates): When the learning of a new skill or its performance under novel conditions is positively influenced by past experience with another skill or skills. -Negative Transfer (hinders): When the learning of a new skill or its performance under novel conditions is negatively influenced by past experience with another skill or skills -Zero Transfer (no effect): When past experience with another skill or skills has no influence on the learning of a new skill or its performance under novel conditions.

Types of Transfer - Near vs Far

-Near transfer: a type of transfer of learning that occurs from one task to another very similar task or situation also referred to as generalization. -Far transfer: a type of transfer of learning that occurs from one task to another very different task or situation.

Theories of Transfer

-Identical Elements Theory: transfer was based on the number of common elements shared by two skills (Thorndike, 1914) Osgoode (1949) similarities between the stimulus and response conditions of the two tasks were fundamental. -Transfer Appropriate Processing Theory: cognitive processing similarities that occur between practice conditions and the performance criterion.

Transfer and Instructional Design

-Simplified version of the skill, drills and games are developed to serve as foundation to more complex forms that will be introduced in the future -Modifications are made when the skill involves a potential risk of injury, practicing the skill are expensive, there is a lack of practice facilities or practice in a real-life setting is not possible

Fostering Positive Transfer Information

:

Analyze The Skill

• Fundamental movement pattern Strategic and conceptual aspects of the game

Perceptual elements:

-What visual search strategies are similar? Walking down a busy street vs. walking down a clinic hallway

Temporal and spatial elements:

• similarities in how skills are done through time and space

List of considerations for Fostering Positive Transfer

-Determine cost benefit trade-off where unless similarity between skills, no sense doing the activity -Get to know the learner -Point out similarities and differences such as how is a volleyball serve similar to a tennis serve? -Make sure that skills you refer to have been well learned because transfer won’t occur if the analogy isn’t well learned -Use analogies such as resemblance to create a mental image -Maximize similarities between practice & performance / competition -Consider the skill level of the learner because beginners transfer more readily than intermediate or advanced learners

Assessing Transfer

After instruction, design a transfer test that allows learner to apply the content taught: -Experience with one skill to learning another skill; e.g. Bench press on Cybex machine to Dumbbell Bench press -Performing a skill in one situation to performing it in another context; e.g. practice setting to game setting

Causes of Negative Transfer

When an old stimulus requires a new but similar response -Change in spatial location of movement such as Heat/AC switch in different location on a new car -Change in timing characteritics of the movement such as learning how to hit from one coach and then having another coach tell you to hit a different way and then changing the rhythmic pattern of the skill.

Traits of Negative Transfer

-Negative transfer effects are temporary & more often seen in early stages of learning

Why Negative Transfer

-Practice develops a specific memory representation -This representation is the preferred way to perform -When a familiar situation requires a slightly different movement, problems occur -Another reason is cognitive confusion

Motivation

-Motivation is an internal condition that incites and directs action or behavior Highly motivated learners: -devote greater effort to learning a task are more hard-working during learning sessions are more willing to practice for longer periods even outside of the learning setting

Orientation to Goals

-Most motor learning situations have an achievement orientation towards goals where success is judged by improvements to performance or improvements in performance when compared to performance of others

Increased Motivation Techniques

-Explain why it is important to learn the skill & How is this skill relevant in daily life -Create a positive, supportive learning environment that is challenging yet realistic & provide opportunities for success -Involve learner in the goal-setting process by constructing goals that are relevant and process oriented

Abilities & Learning

-Underlying abilities inherited by the learner will predispose to success or difficulty in various learning situations plus high levels of underlying abilities will predispose to better chance of success Performance goals should be realistic & perhaps less rigorous or more specific practice opportunities towards a goal should be provided if they do not have underlying abilities.