KPE261 Final - Lecture Notes PDF

Module 1 - Defining and Assessing Learning Difference between Performance and Learning: Motor Performance: (Temporary) vs. Motor learning (Relatively Permanent) ○ Ie. learning to ride a bike, unable to ride it during the winter but still knowing how to ride it com...

Module 1 - Defining and Assessing Learning Difference between Performance and Learning: Motor Performance: (Temporary) vs. Motor learning (Relatively Permanent) ○ Ie. learning to ride a bike, unable to ride it during the winter but still knowing how to ride it come spring - shows permanence and stable learning. Motor Learning: “A set of internal processes associated with practice or experience leading to relatively permanent changes in the capability for movement.” “Internal processes” → CNS activity “Practice or experience” → error detection and correction. : figure out what went wrong - execution, outcome, expectation. “Relatively permanent changes” → memory capacity - able to ride a bike throughout life “Capability for movement” → completing a skilled movement Measuring Motor Learning:want learning→ generalizable*NOT fixed NOT just changes in learning. Difference b/w Stability & Adaptability: - Stability: performing the same motor skill in a different context while handling external constraints. - Adaptability: changing the motor pathway to adapt to the environment. - Involves new motor demands that force a new motor skill to be created - likely has never been performed. Performance Curves: success/error ○ Success Curve → expecting performance to improve - more time on target ○ Error Curve → absolute error - should be decreasing for performance improvement Between-subject variability: People perform at different rates ○ Quick learner → rapid increase in performance - not necessarily rapid learning. ○ Normal learner → slower increase in performance - eventually higher performance. ○ Pop-corn learners → acquire the skill, confidence increases, and greater performance improvements the next time they perform that skill. Latent Learning Not seeing a performance change doesn’t mean you're not learning. Improvement takes time - performance is not measurable; learning cannot be measured directly! A negatively accelerated performance curve is least associated with a pop-corn learner. Bryan & Harter- 1897: - performance does not always improve gradually, people can experience plateaus (due to transition shifts - learning new positions); - performance changes are not always stable as a function of practice.  - People improving at different rates is a function of practice. Within-subject variability: average over many trials (athletes have good/bad trials) Kinematic measures: biomechanically; what went wrong→ can identify errors before they happen. ALL movements are not perfectly fluid. ○ Not all will unfold perfectly as expected. ○ More fluid → more confident (compared to a movement with many corrections) Can Feedback Improve Learning? - A LOT of feedback can improve performance and acquisition but is detrimental to learning - Based on Graphs: - Constant feedback is ideal. - Feedback AFTER completion of trials is good. - Feedback given EVERY 5 trials did the worst. How is Feedback Helpful? - Give feedback on good AND bad trials - Good trials - boost confidence - Bad trials - detect and correct errors to acknowledge and fix mistakes. NOTE: - ​Absolute Error → absolute deviation from a target. - Constant Error → movement bias of the subject. - Variable Error → movement variability. - Root Mean Square Error → average distance between values. - Accounts for CE and VE. What motor performance characteristic is an example of the retention interval? - Persistence. What is a transfer test w/o augmented feedback (KR)? - Driving Tests: - Different car, unfamiliar person not helping you, different area/ roads - Require adaptability, solve problems on the spot, come up with new motor plan if never done before (like angled parking, wide turns, etc.) - High-Performance Sport: - Compete with new people, new setting, coach can’t speak, perform well without being too fatigued, come up with a brand new motor skill you’ve never done before in sport (common). EXTRA: End-Start: Δperformance (difference) vs. End: |performance| (zero error) - Big difference in start vs end performance. Students can perform better or tend to focus on end performance vs. at the start. How do you know how well people are at learning? - Look at the performance changes taking place - If not obvious → further instill changes in motor performance for learning. Module 2 - Sensory Contributions Preview What sensory cues do Goalies have to make a windmill glove save? Goalies do not have reflexes - only a voluntary reaction. To stop the puck, goalies have to have an internal representation of where the net is in their head. Tactile and proprioceptive are useful - vestibular info needed for many sensory cues! Using vision doesn't only figure out where arm is going or where net is relative to the body. What are the perceptual processes of the environment? Has to go through sensory receptors. Internal representation is never perfect or exact. Visual illusions are biased. Information for skilled performance can be categorized into two major types: 1. Exteroceptive → comes from the environment, “extero- means information is provided from outside the body. a. Exteroception: provides information to the processing system about the state of the environment in which one’s body exists i. Vision (most prominent source) 1. Provides information about the movement of objects in the environment in relation to your own movements 2. To detect your own movement within the (stable) environment ii. Hearing (auditory) 2. Proprioceptive → “proprio-” means the information arises from within the body. a. Proprioception: provides information about the state of the body parts in relation to each other and relative to the environment. i. Sense of movements of the joints, tension in muscles, etc. b. Proprioceptive feedback; ‘movement-produced feedback’ Deciding what movements you will make: → Based on the sensory input: - Sensory input is influenced by prior experiences & not limited to one sense alone. What are the 4 types of tactile sensory receptors? Merkel - Superficial and Slow-Adapting  Meissner - Superficial and Fast-Adapting Pacini - Deep and Fast- Adapting Ruffini - Deep and Slow-Adapting Deep Superficial SA FA Merkel N Y Y N Meissner N Y N Y Pacini Y N N Y Ruffini Y N Y N What does Slow-Adapting mean? Something on the skin fires for a long time. i.e. when you don’t feel sunglasses on head after a long period of time. Sensory Receptors for Movement: - Tactile (cutaneous): 4 types a) Merkel Cell (tactile disc) (SA I) - Pressure, texture b) Tactile Corpuscle (Messner’s Corpuscle) (FA I) - Stroking, fluttering c) Lamellated Corpuscle (Pacinian Corpuscle) (FA II) d) Ruffini Corpuscle (SA II) - skin, stretch - Visual: 2 Types ** one can work without the other working a) M-pathway - parietal (rods): i) Magnocellular Rods ii) Travels to dorsal stream to parietal lobe; primary control of voluntary action; engage with objects What if the dorsal pathway is blocked? No longer fully conscious → inhibits proper function → leading to problems grasping and interacting with objects. b) P-pathway - temporal (cones): i) Parvocellular Cones ii) Travels to ventral stream to temporal lobe; useful for recognizing objects. What if the ventral pathway is blocked? Colour is inhibited → people then cannot locate what is in front of them. i.e. swerving in driving. ★ Without Vision: ○ Mixed feelings or vision substitution ○ Legacy of Paul BAcl-y-Rita - Used touch (sensory information to the tongue) that helped the blind man see; which activated his visual cortex. Milner & Goodale, 1995 Dorsal stream remained intact → high degree of accuracy. Dorsal stream is heavily engaged in visuo-motor control. Dorsal stream damaged / not intact - unable to complete voluntary movements / visual motor tasks. Vestibular/Audition: Structures provide signals related to movements, one’s orientation, or both, in one’s environment. ○ Vestibular Apparatus are sensitive to the acceleration of the head & are positioned to detect the head’s orientation with respect to gravity ○ Strongly implicated in preposition & balance ○ No vestibular input/vestibular damage can be debilitating Echolocation - can gather spatial information from auditory cues Temporal Information - auditory cues to time movements ○ Ie. gymnastics, synchronized swimming, rowing. Proprioceptive Receptors Muscle spindles (2 Types): encoding the rate of change in muscle length Golgi Tendon Organs: ○ when collagen fibres stretch they encode tension (encodes acceleration) ○ Sensitive to the level of force in the various parts of the muscle to which they are attached. Joint Receptors: ○ Receptors in the capsule surrounding each of the joints. ○ Guiding techniques → artificially manipulating the learner’s movements during action can affect the proprioceptive sensations ○ Useful at beginning stages → but could easily be overused Q - lowest value that is an acceptable estimate of the visual delay? = 100 ms (between 100-200ms) Processing Feedback: → Ongoing movement can be corrected within 100ms. Sensory Integration - Taking multiple estimates and putting them together - Baye’s Theorem: - 2 distributions; multiply them - Visual & proprioceptive; we will get a more precise estimate - Ex. seeing a bird with it’s beak open - Infer that the chirping is coming from that bird - Adapt learning environments Reference-of-Correctness When we plan a movement we have expected sensory consequences: ○ Things aren’t always unfolding how they’re expected; need to correct them. Wolpert & Hhahramoni (2000): ○ Sensory experiences are tied to an action. Used to compare expected vs actual sensory consequences  ○ Based on previous experience Anchoring (analogies) Guidance (physical, visual) Module 3 - Motor Programs Context/Background/Rationale for MP: Rapid Movements: ○ Organized Sequence of muscle movements that are set to be as fast as possible ○ Faster Times → harder to correct movement (less time); harder to repeat that time. ○ Planning movement → try to generate as much force as possible Organize external representation of movement James (1891): ○ Response-chaining hypothesis ○ When contracting a chain of muscles; the first is believed to require more attention than the subsequent contractions. ○ Anchoring → internalize representation Henry & Rogers (1960): Drum Theory ○ Go through a sensory experience and it imprints ○ Every single movement we can perform cannot all be stored; there isn’t enough space in our memory. ○ Reaction Time Findings: RT increases when additional elements in a series are added to the action. RT increases when more limbs must be coordinated. RT increases when the duration of the movement becomes longer Support for MP: Reaction time: ○ Participants had to finger lift, single-ball grasp, double-ball strike ○ Increased number of muscle contractions → takes longer to plan & conduct the sequence of movements (we organize movements before doing them) ○ Klapp & Erwin, 1976: Duration of muscle contraction → influences how long it will take between the go signal & when the action is completed (RT is longer). Deafferentation: ○ Study removed dorsal roots of monkeys Took away afferent information, no proprioceptive or visual information of their limb. → Had to point to a target in front of them; got water as reward. Trained the monkey to do this without deafferentation Monkeys success rate didn’t change significantly ○ We don’t plan movements; we plan positions. ○ When we plan a voluntary action, we plan joint posture angle & position. Blocked Movement ○ Throwing a dart; but your movement is blocked (someone grabs your wrist) ○ EMG activity used to trigger the break ○ EMG of normal & blocked movements are identical until 100ms  ○ We are planning the sequence of muscle contractions for both antagonist and agonist muscles, whether the movement is blocked or not. Problems/Challenges in MP: Open-loop control occurs mainly to allow the motor system to organize an entire, usually rapid, action without having to rely on the slow information processing involved in a closed-loop control mode. The following must be specified in the programming process to generate skilled movement: ○ Particular muscles that are to participate in the action ○ Order in which the muscles are to be involved ○ Fores of the muscle contractions relative timing and sequencing among these contractions ○ Duration of each contraction Motor Schema Theory: Generalized Motor Program (GMP) ○ Shared by each class of movement ○ Set of parameters (ie. force & angle) specified before each trial. ○ What remains the same in the GMP reflects the invariant features of a MP; features that make the pattern appear the same, time after time. ○ Aspect that allows changes is represented in GMP theory as the relatively superficial, or surface features of the movement ○ Modifying parameters determines how it is executed, representing its surface features → Parameters change only how the GMP is expressed at any given time. Parameters Added to the GMP The GMP needs to be parameterized before it can be executed Movement Time ○ Armstrong & Shapiro studies both provided strong evidence that overall movement time could be varied without affecting the relative timing of the GMP. ○ When movement time is changed the new movement preserves the essential temporal-pattern features of the old movement. ○ Both movements are represented by a common underlying temporal (& sequential) pattern that can be run off at different speeds. Movement Amplitude ○ It is easy to increase the amplitude of the movements by uniformly increasing the accelerations that are applied, while preserving their temporal patterning. Effectors ○ By using different limbs– different muscles – to produce the action ○ A given pattern can be produced even when the effectors – and the muscles that drive them – are different ○ Changing the limb and effector system can preserve the essential features of the movement pattern relatively easily ○ Selection of effectors can be thought of as a king of “parameter” that must be selected prior to action.  ○ Some underlying temporal structure common to these actions wich can be run off with different effector systems while using the same GMP. In chronological order: - Initial conditions, desired outcome - Selection of GMP - Execution of MP - Limbs moving (proprioceptive feedback) - Environment reacts (external feedback) - Measure the outcome Muscle contractions are ordered together; if the duration of one is changed→ the others will follow Stable features of a GMP: (SAD) same patterns changed in amplitude & duration. - Relative sequence - Relative duration - Relative amplitude Richard & Schmidt Model: → Initial conditions & desired outcomes are bound together → Initial conditions are gathered through sensory inputs → Expected proprioceptive feedback differs from actual proprioceptive feedback Causes you to try different parameters Rationale for GMP: Separate motor plans? Storage: a motor program for each throwing velocity & angle Novelty: a new program for each new combination Limitations of MP theory: Failure to account for how novel movements are produced in the first place:  ○ “Novel” - system would need a separate program for every new movement, no movement is the exact same. Lack of efficiency that would be required to store the massive number of MPs that would be required to move: ○ Given movement is represented by a program stored in long-term memory - To solve these problems → led to the idea of a GMP. Module 4 - Conditions of Practice Q - variability of practice is necessarily inherent in what type of skills? A - Open Skills Part vs. Whole Practice Separate drill for the hardest part of the movement ○ “Transfer from part-practice can be greater than 100%” Separate drills for each limb ○ Interactions between effectors cannot be learned (i.e action of one limb affects other’s) Guidance & Specificity Assistance during execution of the movement ○ Verbal ○ Visual ○ Physical Applies to sensory modalities ○ Specificity of practice hypothesis ○ Learning is specific to sources of afferent info available during practice ○ Specificity increases with practice Variability of practice (practicing one skill) Different environment contexts or variations of the movement → Increases chances of success in future performance. Variability of learning experiences during practice of a skills Effect on retention Effects on transfer Include criterion  ○ Last 30 acquisition trails - constant group lower error levels ○ Immediate transfer - constant group higher error levels Based on Motor Schema Theory (Schmidt) ○ Parameters ○ Practice strengthens proprioceptive & exteroceptive Variable practice for learners results in greater learning and generalizability Other factors influencing variability of practice effects ○ Age - children vs adults ○ Nature of task ○ Variable practice schedule - blocked vs random. Hall et al 1994 ○ Contextual Interference effects skilled baseball players ○ Batting - fastball, curveball, change-up Random Blocked Control - retention schedule ○ Random - higher number of “solid hits” at random and blocked transfer test Contextual Interference (CI → practicing different skills) Elaborative - Distinctive (hypothesis) ○ Random practice = more opportunities for contrasting/comparing different tasks ○ Blocked practice = less opportunities due to repetitiveness ○ Task A motor program stored in working memory, Task B motor program stored Comparison between task A and task B happens ○ More contrasting/comparing = more performance ○ More frontal in brain  Forgetting - reconstruction (hypothesis) ○ Task A stored in working memory; in order to do task B – must “forget” motor program for task A; when redoing task A – must remember/reconstruct motor program ○ Random practice = more opportunities to forget/reconstruct motor program ○ Blocked practice = less opportunities for reconstruction due to repetitiveness ○ Working memory - temporary storage. CONTEXTUAL INTERFERENCE (PRACTICING DIFFERENT SKILLS) BLOCKED VS. RANDOM PRACTICE - Blocked - completing all trials of one task consecutively, without interruption from other tasks. - Using same GMP - Modifying GMP between skills - Random - same task is rarely repeated on consecutive trials - Practicing a,b,c,b,a,a,c - Randomizing GMP - Examples: - Golf - Different strokes; Drive, Chip, Put - Blocked: Drive x10 - Chip x10 - Put x10 - Random: Drive, Chip, Drive, Put, Chip, Put,… - Rehabilitation - Tasks - A: Turning a door-knob - B: Pushing the door open - C: Pulling the door close - Practice order - Blocked: AAA-BBB-CCC - Random: ACBABCCABC Shea & Morgan (1979) - Contextual interference effects on the acquisition, retention and transfer of a motor skill - Blocked group, random group, 54 trials - Retention → 10 mins, 10 days Random group - quick improvement after 1 Blocked group - slow steady improvement  - Blocked practice initially leads to better performance during acquisition compared to random. - In retention tests, random group (R-R) significantly outperformed the blocked group (B-R) in both the 10-minute and 10-day tests - Initial advantage seen in blocked practice did not translate to better retention. - Random practice improved learning despite impairing performance during acquisition - Contextual interference - practicing different skills - enhances retention and transfer. Hall et al. 1994 - The study by Hall and colleagues (1994) investigated the effects of practice order on transfer performance - Contextual interference effects with skilled baseball - Tasks–15 pitches each: - Fastball (FB) - Curveball (CB) - Change-up (CU) - Delivered either in a blocked or random order. - Random, Blocked, Control Groups - Control group, which did not receive extra practice, performed worse on transfer tests than both practice groups - Blocked group–better than random during practice session - Random group–better than blocked during transfer order - Performance on transfer tests mirrored their performance during practice sessions: - Random practice enhanced transfer! TWO CURRENT HYPOTHESES – CONTEXTUAL INTERFERENCE: - 2 Hypotheses that explain contextual interference - First hypothesis: Elaborative - Distinctive - Practice variability enhances learning by creating opportunities for contrasting and comparing different tasks - Random practice = more opp. for contrasting diff. tasks - Blocked practice = less opp. Due to repetitiveness - Creating elaborative distinctions when performing - When someone finishes task a, perform task a, then task b  - First task A, it gets stored in working memory - Go to perform task B, still using task a - Opportunity to work on new motor program - W/o changing, less opportunity - Random practice provides more opp. To compare and contrast between motor programs - When you do retention, already trained the brain, easier to decipher more information - Second hypothesis: Forgetting - Reconstruction - Moving between different tasks facilitates learning by allowing learners to forget previously practiced tasks and then reconstruct those memories - Occurs as following: - Perform Task A and store it in working memory - Move to Task B, leading to the forgetting of Task A - Details of Task A fade while focusing on Task B– new motor program for Task B is created - When returning to Task A, the learner must reconstruct the memory, recalling only fragments - Reconstruction strengthens understanding and retention of Task A through active engagement HOW TO ADD CONTEXTUAL INTERFERENCE INTO PRACTICE - Serial → as good as random - Circuits - Basketball examples explaining the difference b/w serial and random practice: - Serial Practice - Task A: Dribble ball across cones - Task B: Defending - Task C: Pass the ball to the 3 point line - Task D: Grab rebound - Perform 4 tasks continually, right after one another - Random Practice: - Task A: Shooting - Task B: Dribbling - Task C: Passing - Random: ACBCBABCAC When to use type of practice - Random is better for learning, but novice players should use blocked. - If I do a circuit, how many tasks should I have? - No exact answer, Still have a limit, Too much is too much, too little is too little Question: Why does Shea & Morgan’s study not represent variable practice? A: Used different generalized motor programs; variable practice. DIFFERENCE B/W VARIABLE PRACTICE (VP) & CONTEXTUAL INTERFERENCE (CI) VP: (Same GMP) Constant vs. Variable - Target presentation: random > serial/sequential CI: (Different GMP) Blocked vs. Random practice - Skill presentation - Random = serial Module 5 - Augmented Feedback Q - What part of the motor learning definition helps explain why it's difficult to determine immediate impact of augmented feedback? → “Permanent” Q - what source of feedback is most difficult to augment Visual Auditory Golgi tendon organs Muscle spindles Vestibular Definitions Augmented feedback - any info that “supplements the info that is naturally available” Inherent feedback - info that is naturally available (i.e proprioception, vestibular, tactile info) Knowledge of Result (KR) - info on the outcome of the movement Knowledge of Performance (KP) - info on execution of the movement Augment - within or between senses Concurrent Feedback - during performance (not always the most useful) Terminal Feedback - after performance Immediate - right after the performance Delayed - with a time delay after end of movement (allows time to process inherent FB) Distinct - based in specific trial Accumulated - based on a number of trials Knowledge of result Bandwidth KR - “Tolerance limits on errors that define when to provide qualitative or quantitative KR” ○ Provide KR only when outside an error bandwidth 0% and 5% BW groups → more error than 10% BW groups both @ 1st practice block and retention test Learner-determined KR - “KR provided after a trial, only if the participant requested it” Erroneous KR - Knowledge of result containing a bias/error ○ Buekers & Magill (1995): +100ms bias on the anticipation task (e.g., if 120 ms early, KR was -20 ms error) ○ Effect stronger if erroneous KR presented on every trial Reduced KR frequency ○ Affects performance ○ Non-KR trials appear to be useless Reduced KR frequency and learning ○ Non-KR trials only make a difference in delayed retention.  Summary KR - “Augmented info about a set of performance trials presented after the set is completed” Average KR - “A type of summary-KR method that presents results of two or more trials as a statistical average” Temporal locus of KR - KR delay ○ Instantaneous KR could prevent inherent feedback utilization Subjective estimation during KR delay How does augmented feedback work? Can enhance learning through: ○ Information (prescribe, corroborate) ○ Motivation (reinforce) ○ Association (parameterization) Can degrade learning through: ○ Block other activities (dependence) ○ Induce maladaptive corrections (actions that interfere with a person's ability to adjust to new situations, i.e. noise) Module 6 - Mental Practice Imagery abilities Imagery entails illumination, definition and colour (Galton, 1880) Aphantasia - Inability to imagine voluntarily (Arcangeli, 2023) Elements can intrude on each other - numbers can be associated with space or colour ○ Synesthesia - 1/2000 (6:1 - F:M) Effects of mental practice Supplementing physical practice with patients Do we rely on imagined visual feedback? ○ Practice walking straight ○ Post test - blindfolded Significant greater amount of error when vision taken away Practice without vision Learn to rely on other systems ○ Proprioception, tactile, vestibular Results similar to full vision ○ Can learn to rely on imagined visual feedback ○ Main effect of visual imagery can be easily replicated Hypotheses Neuromuscular hypothesis - neuromuscular EMG when imagining a movement, similar to muscular activity. Brain activity hypothesis - imagining walking: imagining visual & physical info. Cognitive hypothesis - start to expect things; prepare for certain outcomes; strategize for upcoming performance. Design Pre-test: reciprocal, imagination Execution ○ Reciprocal ○ Discrete Post test: reciprocal, imagination Hypothesis (yoxon, tremblay, welsh 2015) Greater decrease in imagine movement time ○ Similar Mental practice ○ Specific to type of motor skill ○ Motility Q – which hypothesis does the phonograph/turntable analogy support the most? Speed can be altered (faster or slow) Amplitude can be altered (softer or louder) A – neuromuscular hypothesis ○ Speakers can be so low u cant hear something but the song is still playing. ? Model Grush (2004) Emulation theory of representation ○ In physical practice - Real feedback used to compare with expected sensory consequences ○ In mental practice - Feedback is emulated (to replace real feedback) ○ Emulated – come up with something ○ simulated – imagining Model correction ○ Desired outcome ○ Body doesn’t move, to not create error body needs to use image emulator Emulator – gives idea of what is likely to happen Why to implement mental practice ? Positive effect on performance & learning: ○ When combined w/ physical practice ○ When previous experience exists Use to allow more practice time: ○ Without increasing risks of injury Trainers main goal is to midgate, reduce injury, use mental practice ○ Train beyond physiological limits Module 7 - Amount and Distribution of Practice Online Quiz 7 Q1: A practice schedule that includes more time spent resting than practice time is called: Distributed practice schedule Q2: Which of the following was not presented as an explanation for the advantage of distributed practice? Warm-up decrement Q3: In which of the following practical contexts would the concept of "overlearning" be most relevant? High-performance sport settings Q4: The most common type of motor skill used to investigate massed vs. distributed practice is: Discrete skills Q5: Dail and Christina (2004) - Participants in which experimental group were most accurate at predicting their retention test performance? Distributed schedule Overlearning Kwakkel & Wagenaar (2002) Won't see significant differences in benefits with extra practice. Travlos (1999) No significant difference at the end of practice (even though the range is 42 -152 trials) Larger error in transfer tests b/w these trials. ○ Shows too little and too much practice is not good. Question: Which of the following mechanisms could best explain the worse performance of the group with more practice in Travlos (1999)? Physical fatigue Cognitive fatigue Memory demands Cognitive motivation *redundant tasks, don't want to continue them anymore… Sampling error Schmidt & Lee (2005) Log of performance directly related to the log of practice. Distribution of Practice Early research: ○ Distributed: Rest >= Work ○ Massed < Work Performance ~ Learning ○ Giving breaks helps both. Question: What proportion of a training session should be spent practicing (cf. resting) for baseball pitching? 90-100% 70-80% 50-60% 30-40% 10-20% ○ *Swimming - depends what they are specifically training for (i.e. sprints vs. long distance) ○ *Baseball - greater than 50-60% for batters can lead to chronic overuse injury. Snoddy, 1926 Having small breaks or a sufficient amount of sleep helped the swimmers perform significantly better. Want individuals to use inherent feedback. Absolute Error Faults?  Lacks directionality Don’t know whether absolute error reflects performance variability or performance bias. Buch et al., 2021 - within a session Significant activity b/w hippocampus and sensorimotor cortex. Able to replay depending on activity/movement time. Mass practice of repeated trials heavily impacts waking replay. ○ Waking consolidation. A few seconds rest (breaks) b/w trials allow individuals to replay. ○ Talking during that period (like augmented feedback) can be detrimental for learners' ability to replay. ○ So let learners rest, internalize - not talking to coach. Baddeley & Longman, 1978 - between practice sessions. 1 hour a day (1x1) is great for recreational training. 2x1hr is better for task performance (perform task faster in a shorter amount of time). High relevance of sleep to consolidate learning. 1x2h or 2x1hr no significant difference. Tests persistence: ○ 9 months later 2x2 forgot more. 2x1 is favoured - athletes in sports like swimming and baseball can get tired if trained too much with little breaks during or in-between sessions. Explanations of benefits: Physical fatigue ○ Type of motor skill, how much force/exhausting expected Cognitive fatigue ○ Mentally tired or bored from cognitive demands. ○ Can only remember so much Consolidation ○ Micro (between trials/sessions) ○ For performance and learning. ○ Neuro-consolidation during day and night Question: In which type of skills is distributed practice typically inherent? Continuous Sequential Serial Discrete Brain Processes Bosler & Greene (video) Myelination and Muscle Memory. ○ Myelin changes with practice ○ Repetition of motion - increases myelin layers ○ Faster more efficient neural pathways Master - not just hours of practice, but quality of practice  ○ Focus on task ○ Reduce distractions Coordination is built with repetitions (correct or incorrect). Once a physical force is established, it can be re-established just by imagining it. “Muscle memory” - does not exist Importance for spacing in practice of distribution. Karni et al. (1995): see also Maquet (2001) Thumb-fingers opposition task - linear relationship (*log scale). Changes in performance took place in the first 2 weeks of practice. Greater activity in the primary motor cortex for more-practice tasks as opposed to less-practice tasks. If motor performance is not stabilized, can't see a significant change in neuro-related movement. Can only see changes in neuroactivity at 3-4 week mark. Muellbacher et al., 2002 Activity of the primary motor cortex during motor learning is just as important and relevant during practice trials as in between. Interfere w activity of primary motor cortex during breaks → will impair performance. Allowed 6 hr of rest in between movements (zapped brain and participants were fine. ○ (zapped the brain IMMEDIATELY in between the movements prohibited the participants from completing the next movement). ○ EMG field endues current in neurons, increases EMG activity (with a zap) Findings ○ normalized acceleration – impaired if rTMS was applied to primary cortex ○ orbital and occipital - Did not do anything activity of primary motor cortex (M1) is as important as during practice trials and in-between practice trials Mantua et al., 2015 Changed when people slept relative to when they completed acquisition/retention phase of tasks. What is the impact of sleep on motor learning? ○ Use change in error proportion (delta not absolute). ○ Error reduction was larger during sleep period then awake. ○ Young adults learned more; reduced error more? Slow-wave sleep was negatively related to performance. Non-REM sleep was positively related to changes in error time. Complex stages of sleep are strongly associated with motor learning. Point! Quality of sleep is associated with motor learning. (not necessarily quantity) Questions How would you organize the timing within a session in your Integration Post-Test? Expanding on your Integration Post-Test, how would you distribute/schedule 6 hours of practice per week. How will you assess whether learning has occurred? (Because of you?)  ○ How to predict → power of practice, law of practice The log of performance is linearly related to the log of hours of practice (amount). → POWER LAW OF PRACTICE Module 8 - Case Studies 1. In the Checklist for Diagnosing a Learning Situation (Table 11.1), which of the following elements requires that you consider the macro-cycle of the training context? Goals of the learning Stage of learning Information-processing demands Target context 2. In the Checklist for Designing the Learning Experience (Table 11.2), which of the following requires that you integrate knowledge from the Sport Psychology literature (e.g., motivation)? Goal-setting Mental practice Managing arousal All of the above 3. In which of the presented cases would providing too much feedback be most detrimental to learning? Joe - Walking upstairs Maria - Tennis Tracy - Diving Lin - Firefighter 4. Which of the following practitioner's duties does this reading globally emphasizes? Planning of lessons Integration of different research fields Focus on the learner's needs Individual differences 5. How can a practitioner assess if their motor learning interventions are effective? Assess the learner's progress Ask the learner Ask another practitioner Ask themselves What else should we discuss? What will you do to make each person's learning experience efficient, interesting and productive? How will you organize practice sessions?  How and when will you provide feedback? How will you assess whether learning has occurred? Checklist for Diagnosing a Learning Situation: Who? Learner characteristics: ○ Age ○ Previous experience ○ Motivation ○ Attention ○ Arousal Goal(s) of learning: ○ Error detection and correction ○ Generalization What? Task (target skill) characteristics: ○ Discrete, serial, or continuous ○ Motor or cognitive ○ Closed-loop control ○ Open-loop control ○ Information-processing demands Where? Target context: ○ Recreational ○ Competitive (athletic) Checklist for Designing the Learning Experience Practice Preparation: ○ Goal setting Outcome goals Performance goals ○ Target skills ○ Target context ○ Performance measures Outcome Process Practice Structure: ○ Varied practice ○ Random practice Practice Presentation: ○ Managing arousal ○ Focusing attention ○ Providing demonstrations ○ Providing physical practice Simulations  Part practice Slow-motion practice Error detection practice Practice Feedback: ○ Extrinsic feedback KR KP ○ Type of feedback Program or parameter Visual, verbal, or manual Descriptive or prescriptive ○ Amount of feedback Average feedback Summary feedback What is Proximal Zone of Development? What is beneficial about the Novice model? Detect and correct errors. What is beneficial about the Expert model? Provide good technique. But may de-motivate the learner. Case Study 1 Diagnosing the Learning Situation: Average to above average tennis ability. Situation: 50 year old, 25 years of experience in tennis Unhappy with the effectiveness of backhand, avoids during matches Goal of Learning: To learn a skill that can generalize to a game setting and to develop error detection and error correction capabilities. When working with more experienced learner: “Unpack” their skills Make them do things they don’t want to do *** convince learners to trust you are doing the right thing The Learning Program: Instructions & skill demo (PWP) Focusing of attention Increase in difficulty (VP) + reduction of feedback (KP) Mix with other strokes (CI) Case Study 2 Situation: Tracy 17 years old, competitive level (10 dives) Needs to improve reverse 2 1/2, especially in competition (ok in practice) What would you do? ○ Stimulate competition environment Have spectators, speakers (noise) Provide scores What kind of feedback do they receive in competition? ○ Score could be affecting performance? ○ Are they allowed to receive as much feedback during competition compared to practice? Why detect and correct errors in competition? Variability of practice. ○ Use blocked > random practice. ○ How would you do variability of practice for a dive? Change the dive height? Not practical. Do different dives? Is CI, not VP. Position of body / body angle when entering the water! (under/over rotating) Tends to be an under/overshoot. Place maladaptive corrections. Mental practice. ○ Use visual imagery. Imagine succeeding and failing in competition. ○ Learn to refocus Regulate/modulate state of arousal during competition. ○ Different levels of arousal across different skills being formed. Program Highlights: ○ Alternates with other dives (CI), ○ Focus on sensations after dives and do KR estimation, ○ Arousal management and mental practice ○ Give feedback? Case Study 3 *Don’t have enough prior experience - mental practice is not effective! Situation: Joe, 8 yrs old, cerebral palsy Does not like going up stairs; Prefers crawling to walking. What would you do? ○ Anchoring Find what joe lobes, incorporate into task. Shit analogy.  Intrinsic motivation ○ Use a reward to get joe to go upstairs. ○ Use a token reward to stimulate intrinsic value (not extrinsic value). Something joe can internalize…. Part practice ○ Break up the skill. Start with 2-3 steps, implement progressions… Do not immediately start on stairs Some sides have greater flexibility, strength, mobility than other - so train weaker sides more… Mental practice ○ None; too young/not enough experience Physical fatigue ○ Mix up tasks to prevent fatigue (going up stairs 5 times in a row can be tiring for joe). CI / Practice distribution. ○ Mixing with other activities. ○ Implement breaks. Program highlights ○ Physical guidance. ○ Reinforcement & encouragement. ○ Focus on increasing intrinsic motivation ○ Mix with other activities Case Study 4 Situation: Wants to improve hose advancing skills, both when empty and charged. What would you do? ○ Similar practice and target context ○ Feedback is adapted (reduced frequency, summary KR) ○ Skills are RANDOMIZED. ○ Mental practice. ○ How about time pressure? Efficiency* Contextual Interference ○ Elaborative-Distinctive ○ Forgetting-Restructing Variability of Practice / GMP  ○ Change force parameters (weight of hose) helps facilitate motor learning. Distribution of Practice. ○ Provide breaks. Transferability / Adaptability. ○ Change environment. Augmented Feedback. ○ Measure Efficiency. Relationship b/w completion of task and time. ○ KP. ○ Mental practice. Critical Assessment: Which conditions will you most likely meet in practice but were not covered in these cases? ○ Failure / Success. ○ Performance variability. ○ Group setting (phys. ed, sport) 1 on 1 / single-cases - uncommon to just work with one person at a time as 1 on 1 may not be the most effective route. What weaknesses can we find in the proposed solutions? ○ Lack of VP with t-ball approach. ○ Augmented FB limited to verbal, qualifies summary feedback as 'one feedback statement for each dive'. ○ Session does not allow breaks (re: distribution). ○ Expert demonstration. Build a Program Scheduling ○ Variability of Practice ○ Contextual Interference Feedback ○ Reduce KR frequency How to measure if the program was effective? How could you assess the impact of your learning program? ○ Run pre-test. ○ Take attendance. ○ Run post-test. ○ Correlate pre-post with attendance.