KPE261 Final - Readings PDF

Reading 1 - Defining / Assessing Learning Performance vs. Learning Performance: the behavioural act of executing a skill at a specific time in a specific situation. Learning: change (increase) in the capability/potential of a person to perform a skill; it must be inferred fro...

Reading 1 - Defining / Assessing Learning Performance vs. Learning Performance: the behavioural act of executing a skill at a specific time in a specific situation. Learning: change (increase) in the capability/potential of a person to perform a skill; it must be inferred from a relatively permanent improvement in performance as a result of practice or experience. Performance Learning ○ Observable behaviour ○ Inferred from performance ○ Temporary characteristics ○ May not be due to practice ○ Relatively permanent ○ May be influenced by ○ Due to practice performance variables ○ Not influenced by performance variables Performance Variables: ○ Alertness of the person ○ Anxiety created by the situation ○ Uniqueness of the setting ○ Fatigue 5 Performance Characteristics for Skill Learning: 1. Improvement Performs at a higher skill level over time. 2. Consistency From one performance attempt to another, a person's performance characteristics should become more similar. As learning progresses, performance becomes increasingly more consistent. The earlier in learning, performance is more variable. 3. Stability Influence of perturbations (internal or external conditions) on skill performance. Internal perturbation - Stress. i.e. the ability to perform a skill under pressure (same level during practice AND in competition) External perturbation - Obstacle, Inclement weather. With learning, one increases the capability to perform the skill despite the perturbations that exist. 4. Persistence As one progresses in learning the skill, the improved performance capability lasts for a long period of time. Should be able to demonstrate the improved level of performance today, tomorrow, next week, etc. Forgetting or other factors may deter the same performance level being reached on every occasion.  5. Adaptability As one progresses in learning a skill, their capability to perform the skill successfully in changed circumstances increases. Similar to generalizability - being adaptable to a variety of performance context characteristics. Something is different every time a skill is performed - having to adapt to changes in personal, task-oriented, or environmental characteristics. i.e. different emotional state, skill characteristics itself, environment, place skill is performed etc. Assessing Learning By Observing Practice Performance Performance Curves ○ Performance / Outcome Measure - Y-AXIS Root Mean Squared Error ○ Time - X-AXIS Trials Helpful to depict outcome measures of performance. Two Performance Characteristics Observed: ○ Improvement General direction of curve. Showing a downward trend, indicating lower errors near the end of practice. ○ Consistency Performance on adjacent trials toward the end of practice.  Expectation would be an increase in consistency with additional practice trials. General Types of Performance Curves In contrast to figure 11.1, these curves show better performance when they slope upward. ○ Linear Proportional performance increases over time. ○ Negatively Accelerated A large improvement occurs early in practice with smaller improvements as time goes on. *Most prominent type of performance curve for motor skill learning. *Represents the classic power law of skill learning. ○ Positively Accelerated Slight performance gain early in practice with a substantial increase later in practice. Inverse of NA. ○ Ogive or S-Shaped → Combination of all three curves. Performance Curves for Kinematic Measures Kinematic measures involve performance for a period of time within a trial. To determine improvement in performance: ○ Compare the shape of the person's produced pattern to the criterion pattern. ○ Trial 751-760: As the person practiced more, the produced pattern became more like the criterion pattern. To assess changes in consistency: ○ Compare how far SD lines are from the mean pattern for each trial block. ○ Trial 1-10: large trial-to-trial variability. ○ Trial 751-760: more consistently produced the same pattern (lines closer to mean). Retention Tests vs. Transfer Tests Retention Test: test of a practiced skill that a learner performs following an interval of time they have not practiced the skill. *should demonstrate persistence characteristic; not deviate too much from performance at end of practice. Transfer Test: test in which a person performs a skill that is different from the practiced skill (different context or situation). *should demonstrate increased capability to adapt to novel situations. Assessing Learning by Retention Tests ○ Examines the persistence characteristic of improved performance due to practicing a skill. ○ i.e. school tests are retention tests that determines how much students know or have retained from studying ○ Determines the degree of permanence or persistence of performance level achieved during practice of motor skill learning. Assessing Learning by Transfer Tests ○ Examines the adaptability aspect of performance changes related to learning. ○ Where one adapts the practiced skill to characteristics of a new situation. Either a new context in which the people perform the skill, or a new variation of the skill itself. ○ i.e. changes in: Augmented Feedback - with vs. without verbal info during practice. Physical Environment - capability to adapt to a different practice location/situation. Performing well in the world more important than in a clinic. Personal Characteristics - capability to adapt to a stressful situation. Performing skill while emotionally stressed. *physical environment and personal characteristics also assess STABILITY. Assessing Learning from Coordination Dynamics Stability and Consistency - determine which coordination state (initial transition or new)characterizes the person's performance. Practice Performance May Misrepresent Learning 2 reasons: ○ Performance Variables. Retention and transfer tests determine if practice performance represents learning. ○ Involvement of Performance Plateaus - individual's performance. Indicates a temporary performance artifact NOT a learning phenomenon - Don’t need to plateau in performance to learn a motor skill. i.e. a period of transition b/w acquiring certain aspects of a skill i.e. poor motivation, fatigue, lack of attention to important aspect of skill.  i.e. limitations imposed by performance measure - ceiling or floor effects. 4 Methods to Assess Motor Skill Learning 1. Performance Curves 2. Retention Tests 3. Transfer Tests 4. Graphical Representations of Movement Coordination Patterns Closed Skills vs. Open Skills Closed Skills: take place in a predictable and static environment. ○ i.e. pitcher, walking, shooting free throws, hitting a sand wedge in golf Open Skills: performed in a dynamic and changing environment. ○ i.e. batter, driving a car, catching a ball, hitting a baseball Reading 2 - Sensory Contributions What are the two major sources of sensory information / intrinsic feedback? Exteroception ○ Provides info to processing system about the state of environment in which the body exists. Proprioception ○ Provides info about state of body itself. ○ Senses movements of joints, tension in muscles etc. What causes feedback? Sensations during movement that produce info which is 'fed back'. What is the difference between intrinsic feedback and augmented feedback? Intrinsic: info is directly available to person - naturally through their senses. Augmented: info person is not normally aware - through external sources. Exteroception What is the most prominent exteroceptive information source? Vision. ○ Defines physical structure. ○ Provides info about object movement. ○ Detect own movement within stable environment. What is the second most prominent exteroceptive information source? Audition. ○ Sounds of a musical instrument. ○ Sailboat's hull to cue boat speed. ○ Sound of a power tool or engine. Proprioception What helps provide proprioceptive information? Several receptors. What is the role of the vestibular apparatus? *inner ear Provides signals related to movements, one's orientation, or both in their environment. Sensitive to acceleration of the head - positioned to detect the head's orientation w/ respect to gravity. Strongly implicated in posture and balance. What is the role of joint receptors? *capsule surrounding each joint Give information about extreme positions of the joints. What is the role of the muscle spindles? *belly of skeletal muscle Provide indirect information about joint position and length of muscle. What is the role of the golgi tendon organs? *junction b/w skeletal muscle and tendon Sensitive to level of force in various parts of attached muscle. What is the role of cutaneous receptors? *most skin areas Detect pressure, temperature, touch etc. Critical for haptic sense - sense of touch. Closed-Loop What is a Closed-Loop Control System? Feedback loop continues until desired equals expected state. i.e. reaching to pick up a cup ○ Differences b/w hand's location and desired location = errors. What are the 4 distinct parts of closed-loop control systems? An executive for decision making about errors. An effector system for carrying out the decisions. An ROC against the compared feedback to define the error. An error signal, which is the info acted on by the executive. What is the role of the comparator in closed-loop feedback? Maintain the desired relative positions of the various limbs as well as general orientation in space. What is a common limitation of Closed loop? Less effective for guiding movement. Vision Parvocellular CONES travel through __ to __ to allow ___? Ventral system -> temporal cortex -> identification of objects. What is the role of the Ventral system? Contributes to conscious perception of objects. Crucial role in movement planning before initiation. i.e. different cups/ objects require different grips. What type of vision does Ventral system use? Sensitive to only central vision. How can the ventral system be inhibited? System accuracy degraded by dim lighting conditions. i.e. reading or handwork is difficult without adequate light, or night-driving -> potentially impairing decision-making process for action. Magnocellular RODS travel through __ to __ to allow ___? Dorsal system -> parietal cortex -> control of movements. What is the role of the dorsal system? Contributes to fine control of movements w/o our awareness. Dorsal system operates non-consciously! What type of vision does the dorsal system use? Sensitive to both central and peripheral vision. What is optical array? Visible feature reflects rays of light - which enters the eyes at specific angles. What is optical flow? Change in info provided by optical array - flow of light across the retina. Provides lots of info of movement through an environment including: ○ Time before collision ○ Direction of movement relative to objects in environment ○ Movement of environmental objects ○ Stability and balance ○ Velocity of movement through environment How does optical flow use the dorsal stream? Optical flow uses dorsal stream to specify time-to-contact. Changes in optical flow are picked up by dorsal stream: ○ Control of movements that happen non-consciously! Visual Agnosia = ventral stream! Optic Ataxia = dorsal stream! What happens if you are unable to use dorsal pathway? Loose proper function - might have problems grasping objects. Can recognize objects as ventral stream is working fine but have problem interacting with objects! Why can individuals have ataxia (dorsal) but no agnosia (ventral) ? People cannot recognize what's in front of them but CAN engage with it. i.e. able to drive - swerved - couldn’t tell what they saw. Why do we rely on dorsal stream? It operates non-consciously! Have to trust it! Reading 3 - Motor Programs **look at loop system in readings!!! (question from midterm) What are the 4 characteristics of an open-loop control system? 1. Instructions specify operations, sequencing and timing. 2. System executes instructions w/o modifications. 3. No capability to detect / correct errors as feedback is NOT involved. 4. Most effective in stable, predictable environments (need for modification commands are low). *not much conscious control once the movement is under way! Relationship between Control-Loop and Open-Loop Systems? Open-Loop has two of the main features used in closed-loop (executive and effector). Missing feedback and comparator mechanisms for determining system errors. How does Open-Loop function without Feedback? Not sensitive to whether or not the actions generated in environment were effective in meeting the goal. Modifications to action cannot be made while action is in progress. Open-Loop justs: ○ Specify muscle producing the action. ○ Specify force of various muscle contractions. ○ Specify sequencing of muscle contractions. ○ Specify absolute duration of contractions. Examples of Open-Loop? Most traffic signals - sequence timing of red, yellow, and green. ○ System continues to sequence lights even if an accident were to happen. ○ System would be ineffective in handling unexpected traffic flow. Microwave - performs specific operations at a specified timing. ○ Not sensitive to temp of item being cooked. ○ Follows instructions without regard for reaching desired state = cooked/edible food. Where is the Open-Loop effective then? As long as things go as expected! Inflexible in face of unpredicted changes. Movements as Open-Loop Systems? Rapid, brief, forceful movements, like kicking or key pressing. Performers do not have time to process info about the movement errors and MUST plan movement entirely before initiation. When environmental situation is predictable and stable, human movements are usually carried out w/o need for modifications. Movement execution is NOT controlled by the conscious decision-making stages. ○ Shows that movement is carried out not under conscious control! Practicing movements allows a greater capability of controlling behaviour and even reflexes. With practice the program is stored in long-term memory ○ Must be retrieved for preparing initiation during response-programming. If movement is very slow or of long duration, control is dominated by feedback processes.  If movement is very fast or brief, open-loop portions tend to dominate. IN MOST TASKS -> motor behaviour is a blend of open and closed (not either!) Fast or brief actions -> carried out w/o much modification from sensory feedback -> these movement details determined by CNS (not controlled by peripheral processes involving feedback) Evidence for MP - RT RT in Humans ○ Duration of RT slowed when more info needs to be processed or processing as not natural. How was RT determined? ○ Slowness of stimulus identification and response selection stages. ○ Also influenced by factors affecting movement programming. What did Henry and Rogers find? ○ RT is affected by several features of movement to be performed, specifically by influencing complexity of movement programming stage. ○ Simple RT was elevated with increases in movement complexity to occur after response was initiated. The movements, designed to be different in complexity, were (a) a simple finger lift, (b) a simple finger lift plus a reach to slap a suspended ball. and (c) a movement requiring a finger lift followed by slapping the most-distant ball with the back of the hand, then moving to the push button, and then grasping the near ball (see Fischman, Christina, & Anson, 2008, for details; see also figure 5.3) They found that the time to initiate the movement increased with added movement complexity. The finger-lift movement (a) had an RT of 150 ms; the intermediate- complexity movement (b) had an RT of 195 ms; and the movement with two reversals in direction (c) had an RT of 208 ms. What were the findings of RT supported by Klapp? ○ RT increases when additional elements in a series are added to the action. i.e. a unidirectional forward stroke in table tennis would likely be initiated with a shorter RT than a backswing plus a forward stroke. ○ RT increases when more limbs must be coordinated. i.e. a one-handed piano chord would be initiated with a shorter RT than a two-handed chord. ○ RT increases when the duration of the movement becomes longer i.e. a 100 ms bat swing would be initiated with a shorter RT than a 300 ms bat swing. ○ **When the to-be-produced movement is complex -> RT will be longer -> more time is req to organize the motor system before the action is initiated. Other evidence for MP: Feedback removed from animals and humans  Impact on performance from blocked movement Analysis of behaviours when humans try to stop/change an action Movements initiated by startling stimuli What must be specified in the programming process in order to generate skilled movements? The particular muscles that are to participate in the action The order in which these muscles are to be involved The forces of the muscle contractions The relative timing and sequencing among these contractions The duration of each contraction What are the severe limitations of the MP Theory? 1. failure to account for how novel movements are produced in the first place 2. lack of the efficiency that would be required to store the massive number of motor programs that would be required in order to move. What is the Storage Problem? Concerns how every separate motor program can be stored in memory. Raises the question: How (or where) do humans store the nearly countless number of motor programs needed for future use? What is the Novelty Problem? Uncertainty of coming up with a brand new motor plan that we could never do before Raises the question: How do performers produce truly novel behavior such as performing a variant of a tennis swing that you have never performed previously? ○ *The program for such an action cannot be represented in an already stored motor program. What does this statement show: "When I make the stroke, I do not... produce something absolutely new, and I never repeat something old" (p. 202)? even though a movement is in some sense novel, it is never totally brand new. every movement is novel in that it has never been performed exactly that way before. How did the problems propose alternative ways to understand motor control? Movements programs can be generalized. (GMP) ○ Includes a stored pattern. ○ Program can be adjusted at the time of movement execution, allowing the action to be changed slightly to meet the current environmental demands. What are the 'Invariant' features of a GMP? Features that makes the pattern remain the same - determine the form. i.e. our unique writing style appears the same every time no matter what. What are other examples of invariant feature of a GMP? Relative timing  ○ Temporal structure of a movement pattern that is independent of overall speed and amplitude. What are the 'Parameters' of a GMP? Change only how the GMP is expressed / executed at a given time - Does NOT alter the invariant characteristics. i.e. writing slow or fast, big or small, with hand or toe, on paper or sand etc. *occurs in movement programming stage - prepares program for initiation. Parameters are also decided based on the environmental information available before action. Difference b/w Surface Features vs. Deep Features? Surface: Aspect that allows changes from action to action (stroke to stroke) ○ i.e. easily modified alterations in movements. Deep: Aspect that doesn't allow changes - Invariant. ○ i.e. Relative timing - even when action is produced at different speed / amplitude. What does a 'Class' of movements mean? Consists of an infinite number of particular movements. ○ i.e. can throw a ball MANY ways. Entire class is represented by a GMP, with a rigidly defined relative-timing structure. What causes the infinite number of movements? Parameters in several dimension.  ○ Allowing a limitless number of movement combinations - each contain same relative timing. What about relative timing in locomotion? Two separate GMPS for gait each with unique relative timings - walking and running! Can speed up / slow down walking or running gait selectively without abandoning the GMP (gait itself). What are some parameters added to the GMP? Movement time ○ Overall movement time could be varied without affecting the relative timing of the GMP. i.e. varied speeds of walking and running without disrupting the relative timing of the step cycle. ○ 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 (and sequential) pattern that can be run off at different speeds - indicating movement time as a parameter of GMp. Movement amplitude ○ It is easy to increase the amplitude of the movements by uniformly increasing the accelerations (forces) that are applied, while preserving their temporal patterning. ○ temporal patterns of acceleration over time are almost identical for the two words. Effectors - using a different limb. ○ 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. Summary of GMP A GMP underlies a class of movements and is structured in memory with a rigidly defined temporal organization. This structure is characterized by its relative timing, which can be measured by a set of ratios among the duration of various events in the movement. Variations in movement time, movement amplitude, and the limb used represent the movement's surface structure, achieved by executing the action with different parameters, whereas relative timing represents its deep, fundamental structure. Even though a movement may be carried out with different surface features (e.g., duration, amplitude), the relative timing remains invariant. Whereas surface features are very easy to alter by parameter adjustment, the deeper relative-timing structure is very difficult to alter. Reading 4 - Conditions of Practice What is the Law of Practice? - Improvements in average performance are large / rapid at first → become systematically smaller as practice continues. - Whether measure of performance increases or decreases w/ practice → performance curves are negatively accelerated functions of practice. What is Deliberate Practice? - "Activities that have been specially designed to improve the current level of performance…require effort and are not inherently enjoyable…individuals are motivated to practice as practice improves performance”. - Off-task practice? - Factors that generally apply when learner is not actively engaged in physical performance, such as the effects of modelling (or observation). - On-task practice? - Methods which physical engagement in practice can be altered and how alterations can affect performance and learning. - Remember: There is a distinction between factors that influence temporary improvements in performance and those that have relatively permanent effects (i.e., on learning). Motivation for Learning: Goal Setting? - Locke and Latham (1985) suggested that specific, difficult goals produce stronger performance than either no goals or vague, ambiguous goals such as do your best - 4 advantages of setting specific, difficult goals, which: - (1) focus one’s activities - (2) help regulate the effort directed towards these activities - (3) help maintain vigilance in attempting to reach the goals - (4) serve as a referent against which achievement can be compared  - Recent studies show that specific, difficult goals may not be most effective for performance. - The authors found that specific, absolute goals of moderate "difficulty" were beneficial to the performance of sport and exercise tasks. - Evidence that setting short-term goals and setting a combination of short-term and long-term goals facilitated performance as compared to setting long-term goals only. - The results revealed that the "do your best" group performed slightly better than the other groups on the first practice day, but worse on the other days. These differences were maintained in a retention test, suggesting that the specific goal-setting procedures had beneficial effects on both performance and learning. Verbal Information: Focus of Attention? - Words alone are relatively crude descriptions of the complex kinds of movements that a learner is attempting to achieve. - Only the most global, general aspects of the intended movement are going to be transmitted through verbal instructions. - Memory limitations suggest that a learner can remember only so many instructions, and few of these are assimilated on the first trials of practice. - More critical when dealing with children, whose attentional skills and memory capacities are much weaker than those of adults. - Analogy instructions can aid the effects of attentional focus and help in transferring performance more strongly.  Learning without Awareness? - Some research suggests that learning of some tasks can occur even though the subject is oblivious to the perceptual regularities of the task. - It seems that the enhanced learning of the middle had occurred even though the subjects were unaware that any part of the task had been different from the others. What is Perceptual Learning? - Temporal and spatial regularities, performance of tasks with actual stimuli. - Subjects who had experienced the perceptual pretraining were more accurate in tracking than were subjects who had not had this experience. - Perceptual training techniques represent a good off-task training option when physical practice is either not possible or not practical. - These studies indicate that there is potential for learning from perceptual inputs, especially if the learner attends to and responds to them in some way rather than merely watching them passively. - Perceptual learning may be enhanced by methods that attract the observer's attention to the most relevant, advanced perceptual information. What is Observational Learning? - A specific kind of perceptual learning (i.e. learning from a model). - Seen through skill demonstrations for learners to observe directly. - Live or archived models seem to be the same in providing information about the task to be learned and provide essential details about technique. - Research on perceptual learning provides evidence that acquisition of environmental regularities is an important aspect of skilled performance. - Research on specific neural mechanisms provides the foundation for learning through observation. What is Learned? - Information that can be represented spatially can be modeled quite readily, especially if the spatial attributes are presented in a static, discrete manner. - Spatial sequences represent another type of task that appears to be readily learned through demonstration. - Modeling of dynamic skills is effective → learning qualitative features. - A study of females with no prior dance training revealed more benefit after subjects watched videotaped ballet sequences than after they looked at a series of still photographs of the dance. - Very fine spatial information can be successfully learned through demonstration. - Medical students performed surgical techniques more accurately after watching a skilled surgeon perform the surgery, compared to students without observing.  - Timing can be successfully learned through observation. - One group given the recorded sounds of another subject making a correct timing movement prior to any practice. - The "listening group" improved slightly in the task without any knowledge of results. - The listening experience provided the subjects with a reference of correctness → allowed an evaluation of the auditory feedback produced by the movement. - Timing information can also be successfully modeled when auditory and visual information is presented in a spatial timing task. What is Contextual Interference? - Interference generated by the context in which multiple tasks are practiced, impacting learning. - Contextual interference causes poorer performance during acquisition but enhances learning Reading 5 - Augmented Feedback What's the difference between Inherent and Augmented feedback? - Inherent: - Gain information about one’s own movement through sensory mechanisms. - Movement produces feedback; “feedback” can be subdivided into inherent “intrinsic” feedback and augmented “extrinsic” feedback - Forms of info are inherent to the individual during action. - The information provided as the movement is executed is sufficiently useful, that the movement outcome can often be predicted even before it occurs. - Compared to a learned reference of correctness (ROC) , with this reference acting in conjunction with the feedback in an error-detection process. Without such a ROC, many forms of inherent feedback cannot be used to detect errors. - Feedback from within → provides a basis for evaluating movements - Information regarding one’s own movements - Movement outcomes can be predicted before initiation - Some movement errors are signaled immediately, while some are not so easily understood - Inherent feedback is compared to a learned reference of correctness in error detection process - If there is a difference between the 2, an error is detected - Augmented: - Information provided about the action that is supplemental to the inherent feedback. - Concurrent feedback is provided DURING the movement - Terminal feedback is postponed to AFTER the movement - Augmented Feedback is either delivered immediately or delayed - Accumulated feedback indicates the average performance for a period of time  - Movement produces feedback; “feedback” can be subdivided into inherent “intrinsic” feedback and augmented “extrinsic” feedback Dimensions of Augmented Feedback: KR: - A form of verbal, terminal feedback in terms of the outcome of the movement, not about the movement itself. - i.e. (“you missed the ball’ vs. “your elbow was bent’) - Other correct examples: - “You were 2 m off that target time” - “You moved 2 cm too far” (similar to visuo-motor adaptation task) - Can be specific, general, or contain a rewarding component. - Can be difficult to distinguish b/w outcome of movement when correcting form is the goal. - Other terms can be used → information feedback, extrinsic feedback, or reinforcement (implying a reward). - Greater tendency to use KR through defined terms: verbal, terminal, augmented feedback about goal achievement. - One of the most important augmented feedback categories - KR is verbal terminal feedback about the outcome of the movement in terms of the environmental goal - KR can be highly specific or very general - KR concerned movement outcomes in terms of an environmental goal --- NOT feedback about the movement itself KP: - Concerns the movement pattern the learner has made. - (“your elbow was bent”) - More related to the feedback instructors give to their students → directed towards correction of improper movement patterns rather than the outcome of the movement. - Can refer to aspects of movement and processes in the body the subject is vaguely aware of.  - i.e. behaviour of a particular limb in a complex movement, or blood pressure/ biofeedback. How is augmented feedback a learning variable? The group that had KR provided after trials 1 through 19 showed an initial sharp decrease in error, followed by a more gradual decrease. On the other hand, the group that had no KR at all showed essentially no change in performance over the 20 practice trials. - First, we could conclude that the 19-trial KR group learned more than the no-KR group → as they performed more effectively during the practice phase. - Another possibility is that KR had affected performance only temporarily → through some kind of motivational or "energizing" process. - Could be that when these temporary effects of KR are allowed to dissipate with rest (as with fatigue effects) → temporary effects of KR will vanish and performance will regress to the original level. - When KR is not present in such situations → learning does not occur at all. - Does this mean that augmented information about errors is somehow not important for learning these tasks? Probably not. - Rather, while practicing the task, subjects are able to detect their own errors through the inherent feedback (visual in these cases) provided during the normal course of the trial. - Presentation of information about errors (verbal or visual) to the learner is more effectively studied in situations in which learners are unable to evaluate their inherent feedback to detect errors. How is augmented feedback a performance variable? Some early research shows that when KR is provided: - subjects report they are more interested in the task - seem to put more effort into practice - persist longer after the KR is removed, in comparison to practicing without KR. - In relatively boring situations, vigilance tasks, in which subjects are asked to spend hours monitoring a display for the appearance of a threatening object (e.g., in airport security monitoring), KR about the subject's performance has an alerting/ energizing effect, and it can act to counteract sleep loss. Both examples indicated strong influences on performance but weaker effects on learning. - Guidance is very effective for performance when it is present but that all or part of the beneficial effect can disappear when the guidance is removed. - KR (acting as guidance) might provide strong informational support for performance when it is being administered, with the benefits disappearing as soon as the KR is removed or the task conditions are changed. How are the types of knowledge of performance useful? (Video, kinematic, bio, kinetic feedback) Video: - This method of presenting KP by itself is ineffective for motor learning. - Some suggest it may hinder learning: - might provide too much info, especially if skill is complex and the viewer does not know which of the many details are important. - Cuing → only examining certain aspects of the display showed more positive effects than video feedback. - Video feedback alone was no better than simply providing KR. Kinematic: - Feedback involves various measures derived from movement such as position, time, velocity, and patterns of coordination. - Informs the subjects about some aspect of the movement pattern that is otherwise difficult to perceive. - The benefit of augmented kinematic feedback may be optimized when its content specifies information that cannot be generated from sources like inherent feedback or other less detailed sources of augmented feedback. Biofeedback: - Features of the movement that are not perceived directly. Kinetic: - Describing pure motion; descriptors of forces.  - Use this information to optimize the form of the force-time curve (i.e a max impulse). - There is good reason to remain cautious about the benefits of using kinetic feedback for the attentional focus reasons. How are the types of knowledge of results useful? - Bandwidth: - "Correctness" of the movement is defined relative to a "bandwidth" → defined as the degree of acceptable error tolerance around the goal. - Qualitative KR in the form of "correct" or "right" is provided to the subject when the performance outcome lies within the boundaries of correctness. - When performance exceeds the bandwidth, the experimenter provides the learner with specific KR that gives both the magnitude and the direction of error. - This method is probably what many teachers and therapists do spontaneously—correcting relatively poor performance and rewarding relatively good performance. - Learning is facilitated as bandwidth becomes larger. Reading 6 - Mental Practice What is Mental Practice? - The cognitive rehearsal of a physical skills in the absence of overt physical movements - It can take the form of thinking about the cognitive or procedural aspect of the motor skills, or engaging in visual or kinesthetic imagery of the performance of a skill or part of a skill. - Consists of individuals mentally visualizing the skill/action, or sequence of movements before actually attempting the movements. - Ex. a gymnast goes through the entire routine mentally, visualizing the performance for each part of the routine, from beginning to end, before performing the floor routine What are the two roles for Mental Practice? - Mental practice can be effective for learning and relearning skills and for preparing to perform learned skills. - The study of MP follows 2 distinct research directions: - One concerns the role of MP in the acquisition of motor skills - At this point, we questions how effective MP is for a person in the initial stages of learning or relearning a skill - The second direction addresses how MP can aid in the performance preparation of a learned skill - People use MP in 2 ways: - MP as a means of action preparation - MP as a means of facilitating the storage and retrieval from memory of an appropriate action  - Here MP combines characteristics of both acquisition and performance situations How does Mental Practice aid skill acquisition? - We typically compare mental practice, physical practice, and no practice conditions when investigating the effectiveness of mental practice in motor skill acquisition - Physical practice is better than the other conditions - However, MP is better than no practice - MP aids in skill acquisition - The combination of physical and MP is even more impressive. ~ Hird et Al. 1991 ~ Researchers compared 6 different physical and MP conditions ○ 100% MP ○ 100% physical practice ○ 75% Physical practice /25% MP ○ 50% physical practice / 50% MP ○ 25% physical practice /75% MP ○ Neither physical or MP Task: Placing as many round square pegs in the pegboard as possible in 60 seconds Rotary pursuit task in which the target moved in a circular pattern at 45rpm for 15 seconds Results: MP alone was better than no practice for both tasks As the percentage of Physical practice increased for birth tasks, the level of post-test performance arose While physical practice alone was better than combinations of Mental and physical practice, the differences were small --> *An experiment by Allami and colleagues (2008), reported similar results to hird et al (1991) The use of a combination of physical and MP often involves only half as many physical practice trials as physical practice only What are the benefits of Mental Practice in a rehabilitation setting? - Beneficial for acquiring new skills, effective in rehabilitation contexts for the relearning of skills as well as for the improvement of skill performance - MP is becoming increasingly popular as a therapeutic tool as it has several advantages relative to physical practice - Enables interventions to begin very early in the recovery process when little to no movement might be possible - It is also inexpensive, can be done anywhere, and involves no safety risks - Multiples studies supported the functional skill rehabilitation benefit of MP especially in the form of visual and kinesthetic imagery, along with physical practice. ~ Connection to Study~ - Page et al (2005) engaged stroke patients for more than 1 year in MP activities in addition to regular physical performance activities - Results concluded that patients who participated in MP protocol improved their use of their affected limb more than the control group who had only employed the use of relaxation techniques - An additional study found that MP combined with physical therapy improved the muscular endurance of athletes suffering from a grade 11 sprain more than just receiving physical therapy alone What are the Mental Practice benefits for learning medical procedures? - MP acts as a supplement to physical practice in the teaching of medical procedures - MP is attractive when patient safety concerns and the costs associated with purchasing high-tech surgical skill stimulators are taken into consideration - Highly accomplished surgeons use MP extensively, particularly when preparing for surgery - MP enhances the learning of medical procedures as it helps augment the traditional training of surgical skills and they also highlight the important role that imagery quality may play in influencing the quality of physical performance What are the Mental Practice benefits for power and speed training? - An experiment by Van Gyn, Wenger, and Gaul (1990) demonstrated that MP can be beneficial for improving power for people learning a 40m bicycle sprint - 2 groups imagined themselves performing the sprint 8 times - 1 group did only MP - 1 group did MP while practicing physical practice (power training) - 1 group only engaged in power training - 1 group did neither - Results concluded that the group that received both the imagery and the power training showed an improvement in sprint times How is Mental Practice a part of a general preparation strategy that aids learning? - We can incorporate MP into a practice routine in a 5 step general learning strategy - This strategy involves elements of MP in 3 steps: - Getting ready physically, mentally, emotionally - Involves mentally imaging performing the action, both visually and kinaesthetically - Involves concentrating intensely on only 1 relevant cue related to the action - Execute the action  - Evaluate the performance outcome - Several studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of this general strategy for learning a specific skill ~ Lidor, Tennant, and Singer (1996) ~ Participants sat on a chair 6m from a target that was standing on the floor behind a badminton net that was 1.32m high ○ The task required individuals to use an overhand motion to throw a ball over the net at the target - The results concluded that those who engaged in the 5 step general preparation strategy learned to perform the skill more accurately than those who did not use the strategy The transfer test of learning in this study involved the same strategy conditions How does Mental Practice aid performance preparation? - There are 5 types of imagery that athletes use for various purposes - Athletes use imagery in specific situations - such as training period between competitive events, immediately prior to and during a competitive event, and when they were rehabilitating an injury - The use of images can benefit anyone engaged in a situation in which he or she must perform a practiced skill for evaluation purposes - Athletes use imagery as part of their preparation strategies for a variety of purposes such as arousal level regulation, attention focus, and the maintenance of positive and confident feelings - Prior to competition, athletes use motivational types of imagery  - Unfortunately, there is a lack of research on the effectiveness of these imagery strategies What are the 5 Types of Imagery related to motor skill performance? Motivational: ○ Specific - Imagery that represent specific goals ○ General mastery - Imagery that represents effecting coping and mastery of challenging situations ○ General arousal - Imagery that represents feelings of relaxation, stress, arousal, and anxiety in a situation Cognitive: ○ Specific - imagery of performing specific skills ○ General - Imagery of strategies related to an event Why is Mental Practice effective? - There are no comprehensive theories that explain why MP in the form of imagery is effective - However, there are 3 generally accepted hypotheses that propose why MP benefits the learning and performance of specific motor skills 1. A Neuromuscular Hypothesis The MP of a motor skill has a neuromuscular basis The creation of electrical activity in the musculature involved in a movement as a result of the performers imaging of an action suggests that the appropriate neuromotor pathways involved in the action are activated during MP The activation aids in skill learning by helping establish and reinforce the appropriate coordination patterns that are so essential to develop The activation tunes primes the neuromotor pathways that will be activated when the person performs the skill  ○ The tuning process increases the likelihood that the person will perform the action appropriately and reduces the demands on the motor control system as it prepares to perform the skill 2. Brain Activity Hypothesis When a person imagines moved a limb, brain activity is similar to when the person physical moves the same limb The brain activity hypothesis proposes that MP, especially in the form of imagery, is effective because of neurophysiological similarities between the imagined and the actual movements The idea that imagined and actual movements have similar neurophysiological bases has been referred to as the functional equivalence hypothesis Imagined movements also activate several of the same brain regions that are activated when someone observes another person perform a movement ○ Imagining a movement engages an extensive neural motor network that involves the premotor cortex, the basal ganglia, and the cerebellum, that is, the same network of brain regions involved in the planning and execution of movements 3. Cognitive Hypothesis The first stage of learning a motor skill involves a high degree of cognitive activity ○ Much of this activity questions "what to do" with this new task MP would be an effective strategy for people acquiring a new skill or relearning an old one MP can be beneficial in assisting the person to consolidate strategies as well as correct errors What is Imagery Ability? - Imagery Ability: An individual-characteristics that differentiated people who can image an action with a high degree of vividness and control from people who have difficulty imaging an action - Some individuals have great difficulty imaging a described action, whereas others can image with a high degree of vividness and control What is the relationship between Mental practice and Imagery ability? - Mental practice may occur while a person observes another person live, another person on film or video, or may occur without any visual observation at all - When mental practice involves visual imagery, it can take form of either internal or external imagery Internal Imagery → The individual approximates the real life situation in such a way that the person actually imagines being inside his/her body and experiences the sensations that may occur in the actual situation External Imagery → The individual views themselves from the perspective of an observer Imagery can take form of kinesthetic imagery Kinesthetic imagery: Engages a person in feeling the movement of a skill Effective means of MP  --> The Movement Imagery Questionnaire (MIQ) A test of imagery ability designed specifically to apply to motor skill performance An Ability refers to a relatively stable characteristic that indicates a person's potential to perform skills in which that ability is an important component The MIQ consists of various action situations that individuals are asked to perform The person is asked to do 1 of the 2 tasks, Visual Imagery or Kinesthetic Imagery Visual: 1. Form as clear and vivid a mental image as possible of the movement just performed Kinesthetic: 1. Attempt to positively feel yourself making the movement just performed without actually doing it ○ After the completion of 1 of these task the person rates how easy or difficult the task was to complete ○ As Imagery ability is an individual difference variable, Hall proposed that imagery ability influences the success of mental practice People with a high level of imagery ability will typically benefit more quickly from mental practice of motor skills than those will low levels ~ Goss et al. (1986) ~ Researchers in this study selected people who were categorized from their MIQ scores as: ○ high visual/high kinesthetic (HH) ○ High visual/low kinesthetic (HL) ○ Low visual/low kinesthetic (LL) Before each practice trail of 4 complex arm movement patterns, participants kinaesthetically imaged the movement about which they received instructions The results showed that the HH group performed the patterns to criterion in the fewest trials, the HL group next, and the LL group taking the greatest number of trials to achieve criterion A retention performance showed a similar effect ------- Researchers found that the Levels of movement imagery ability were not merely motivation or concentration effects, but related to distinct neurological processing characteristics associated with the ability to produce mental movement images ○ Supports the hypothesis that a relationship exist between imagery ability and the effectiveness of MP ○ People with low imagery ability can benefit from MP ○ Regardless of a person's level of imagery ability, he or she can benefit from MP Reading 7 - Amount & Distribution of Practice ​What is the definition of overlearning? - Overlearning: The continuation of practice beyond the amount needed to achieve a certain performance criterion. - An overlearning strategy is implemented by establishing a performance criterion, determining the amount of practice time the learner needs to attain that criterion; Some percentage of that practice time is extra practice - Extra time has some benefits  - Helps strengthen the GMP and response schema for a skill a person is learning - Increases the stability of the coordination and control characteristics in the performance of the skill - For motor skill learning, overlearning has a positive influence on retention performance - Extra practice of 50 to 200 percent was analyzed, the higher percentages resulted in relatively proportionate higher retention test performance. What is the overlearning strategy for learning procedural skills? - Procedural skills is one type of motor skill that is well suited to gaining benefits from overlearning practice strategy → Procedural Skill: An interesting skill combination of cognitive and motor components - Requires a person to perform a series of movements that individually are relatively easy to execute - To complete the task, individuals must know which movements to make and in what order - This skill is common in occupational, industrial, and military settings - Ex. Sorting mail into bins, or type from a written text - A common problem with this skill is that people tend to forget what to do to carry out the entire procedure ○ Commonly occurs when performing procedural skills that are not routinely performed → Schendel & Hagman, 1982 - Proposed that an overlearning training strategy would be effective for decreasing the amount the soldiers forgot about the procedure - They compared 2 forms of overtraining with a no-overtraining situation - Overtraining condition 1: 100% more trails than were necessary to achieve the specific criterion - Overtraining Condition 2: 100% more trials administered as "refresher" midway through the 8 week retention interval - Both overtraining groups performed better than the control group on the retention test - Based on results, researchers recommended Immediate overtraining procedure - More cost and time effective What is the overlearning strategy for learning dynamic balanced skills? → Melnick, 1971 - Investigated the use of overlearning for a dynamic balance skill - Melnick questioned whether there was an optimal amount of extra practice? - In this study, people practiced balancing on a stabilimeter until they reached a performance criterion of 28 /50 - 4 groups - 0% extra trials - 50% extra - 100% extra - 200% extra - Each participant performed a retention test twice, 1 week and then 1 month after practice - Results concluded extra practice was beneficial - All groups that engaged in extra practice performed better in retention  - A point of diminishing returns for the amount of retention performance benefit in relation to the amount of extra practice - The 50% group did just as good as the 100 & 200% - While additional practice was beneficial, increasing it beyond a certain amount was NOT more beneficial to retention performance What is the overlearning strategy in a physical education class? Goldberger and Gerney (1990) - Examined soccer players performing a two-step punt - 2 groups - % Group 1: Practiced skills according to a teacher rotated format, in which the teacher divided the class into 5 subgroups and assigned each one to 5 stations where they practiced the skills for 5 mins - Group 2: Practiced skills in a learner rotated format - given index cards with instructions at each station - told to use 25 mins efficiently - Each group practiced this for 2 class periods on 2 days - The teacher rotated groups practiced the skill on average of 7 more trails than the learner-rotated format group - Teacher rotated performed 0 to 87 - Learner rotated performed 0 to 67 - No difference in terms of improvement in their punting performance scores - Additional practice time DID NOT yield an additional skill improvement - Learner rotated format was superior because it was a more efficient use of that time How can the overlearning strategy lead to poor test performance? - Some evidence indicates that providing too many extra practice trails leads to learning deficits Sheal & Kohl 1990 Participants pushed a handle with a specified amount of force (175 N) ○ 3 groups: 1 practiced for 85 trials (175N) 2 practiced for 85 trials In addition practiced the same skill at 4 other force goals (125N, 150, 200N, 225N) 3 practiced with 175N for 289 trials All groups performed in a retention test in which they performed the skill with the goal force of 175 N for 10 trials The 3rd group 175 N and 289 trials had the poorest performance The 2nd group performed the best The 1st group was in middle of both groups Differences between each group was most distinct on the 1st trial but similar on final 5 trials of the retention test Travlos (1999) Reported that increasing the amount of practice beyond a certain number of trials resulted in poorer transfer test performance 5 groups experienced different amounts of practice: 42, 77, 102, 127, 152 trials  ○ Performed a transfer test to estimate the horizontal length of a 10 inch line on a tablet At the end of practice all groups performed similarly however, performance on the transfer test was very much influenced by the amount of practice Those who practiced the task for 77 and 102 trial performed the transfer test will less error than the other practice groups Practice beyond 102 trails led to decrement in transfer tests performance rather than an enhancement of it The addition of more practice beyond a certain point did not improve retention and transfer test performance Why would more practice lead to poorer retention and transfer test performance than less practice? 1. The skills practiced in this experiment were simple and boring after a certain amount of time 2. Lee, Swinnen, Serrien 1994, the learners ceased to engage in the amount of cognitive effort required to improve task performance 3. Continued practice of the same movement can result in a decreasing capability to remember the movement variation, whereas the practice of variations of the movement results in enhancing the capability to remember and transfer to a related movement Overlearning and Other Practice variables? - It is useful to practice a skill one already performs correctly to increase the permanence of the person's capability to perform the skill in the future ○ However, the amount of practice is not the critical variable influencing motor skill acquisition "Practice does not make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect" ○ The amount of practice invariably interacts with some other variable to yield optimal skill learning → The amount of practice cannot be considered in isolation, but in terms of its interactions with other practice condition variables What is 'The Distribution of Practice'? The Distribution of Practice: Early research concerned the amount of rest people need between practice trials to ensure optimal learning environment What is the difference between massed practice and distributed practice? - Q: Whether massed or distributed practice trials provided for better learning of motor skills - Some argued distributed practice is better - Other argued that it made no different What is the length and distribution of practice sessions? → Massed practice: A practice schedule in which the amount of rest between practice session or trials is very short. - Will either have no rest or very short amount of rest - is shorter than the amount of time required to perform the skill, but is as long or longer as the skill performance time for a distributed schedule. → Distributed practice: A practice schedule in which the amount of rest between practice sessions or trials is relatively long - Researchers use these terms to distinguish practice distribution schedules rather than assign specific amounts of time - Mass practice = long practice sessions shorter rest periods than a distributed schedule  Why is there a benefit for shorter sessions? → There are benefits to distributed practice; Practicing skills during shorter sessions leads to better learning → Baddely and Longman, 1978 ⇒ Attempted to determine the best way to schedule training sessions for postal workers, which required operating a typewriter like keyboard Training time → total of 60 hours and 5 days each week — 4 groups — ⇒ 2 groups practiced for 1 hour/session ⇒ 1 group practiced for only 1 session/day, total training time of 12 wks ⇒Practiced 2 sessions each day, resulting in a total training time of 6 wks ⇒ 2 other groups practiced 2 hours in each session == 6 weeks and 3 weeks of trainings ⇒ 1 had only 1 session each day ⇒ 1 had only 2 sessions per day - Most distributed trained for 12 weeks - The most massed schedule = training in only 3 weeks - The goal of each groups was to achieve a typing speed of 80 keystrokes per minute - The only those in the most distributed schedule attained this goal in the allotted training time of 60 hours - All other groups required more time - The most massed schedule groups that practiced for 2 hour sessions each day, NEVER achieved this goal - Retention test were given 1, 3, and 9 months after - After 9 months, the most massed performed worse than the others - Although those is the distributed schedule attained the performance goal in the shortest time, they did not perform any better than the other groups - Indicates a poor practice schedule - Authors concluded that the 1 hour training sessions were more desirable than the 2 hour sessions and that 1 session per day was only slightly more effective than 2 sessions per day - 2 hours sessions was NOT A GOOD TRAINING SCHEDULE → Main point: Distributing practice sessions across days resulted in better learning than massing all the sessions within one day Dail and Christina, 2004 - Had novice golder practice putting a 3.7m, distance for 240 trials - 2 groups - 1: followed a massed schedule where they performed all trials one day, with short breaks between blocks of 10 trials - Practiced via distributed schedule of 60 trails per day for 4 consecutive days - Distributed group performed better than the mass group - the different continued 1 and 7 days later on retention of 60 trials - Support the learning advantage of distributed over masses practice schedules - The benefit of distributed practice extends to a variety of types of skills as well as open and closed skills - Research does not disclosed the specific number and length of practice sessions that would be optimal for learning of all motor skills - Shorter and more practice sessions lead to better learning than longer and fewer sessions What are the explanations for the distributed practice benefit? → 3 possible reason explaining why distributed of practice sessions across more days leads to better learning than massing sessions within fewer days 1. Fatigue negatively influences learning for massed practice schedules 2. The massing of practice within a day or a few days may reduce the amount of cognitive effort used on each trial as practice continues beyond a certain critical amount - The massing of practice trails may institute a practice condition in which performance of the skill on each trial becomes so repetitious that it becomes monotonous or boring - Consequently, learner decrease the amount of cognitive effort involves in each trial - diminishing learning - Either or both fatigue and reduced cognitive effort accounted for the poorer learning that resulted from the massed compared to the distributed practice sessions - Participants continued to practice, the effects of fatigue or reduced cognitive effort eventually began to influence their performance in a negative way  -Influencing not only their practice performance but also their retention test performance 3. Memory consolidation → long term memory storage process - Proposed that to store in memory the relevant information we need to learn a skill, certain neurobiochemical processes must occur. - These processes, which transform a relatively unstable memory representation into relatively permanent one, require a certain amount of time without additionally practice of the same skill - The distribution of practice across several days provides a better opportunity for the memory consolidation process to take place than does the massing of practice within a day or a few days How can we relate practice distribution and contextual interference to skill learning contexts? Reading Conclusion: - An important distinction was made between 2 specific issues related to practice distribution: - The length and frequency of practice sessions - Distributed = shorter more frequent sessions - Masses = longer, less frequent sessions - The length of the intertrial interval for a series of practice trials - The time between individual practice attempts within a session - These 2 are often overlooks as the same even though research shows they lead to different conclusions about the best way to structure practice - When the length and frequency of practice sessions is the practice distribution concern, distributed practice results in better learning than massed practice, regardless of the type of skill being learned → Lee & Genovese (1988, 1989) provided evidence that the type of practice distribution schedule that results in better learning depends on whether the skill is continuous or discrete - Continuous Skills: most common type of motor skills used to investigate the effects of massed vs distributed practice between trials Most popular task = rotary pursuit task Consistent result had been that distributed schedules lead to better learning than massed schedules for learning continuous skills - Discrete Skills: A very short task The 2 contrasted intertrial intervals will essentially be the same length in discrete tasks due to the short length Massed practiced schedules result in better learning for discrete motor skills Reading 8 - Case Studies What is the working strategy for providing instructional assistance? The working strategy we use begins with the conceptual model of motor performance, its fundamental mechanisms allow us to determine: ○ Effect of task demand on the three information-processing stages  ○ Extend to which performers can make feedback-based adjustments in their movements ○ Types of intrinsic and extrinsic feedback learners need to improve their skills and develop their error detection capabilities Effective skill instruction depends on answers to these questions: ○ Who is the learner? A child, athlete, rehab patient, senior citizen, etc. ○ What is the target skill? Handwriting, using a wheelchair, hitting a ball, driving a car, etc. ○ Where is the target context within which the person must ultimately perform the skill? At home, during a sport tournament, during a physical education class, music recital, etc. What is included in the checklist for diagnosing a learning situation? WHO? - Learner Characteristics Age Previous experience Motivation Stage of learning Abilities Attention Arousal Memory Information-processing capability WHAT? - Task (target skill) characteristics: Discrete, serial, continuous Motor/Cognitive Closed/open Closed-loop control Exteroceptive feedback Proprioceptive feedback Open-loop control Motor programs Generalized motor programs Speed-accuracy trad-offs Spatial accuracy Temporal accuracy Object manipulation information-processing demands Stimulus identification Response selection Response programming Risk of injury WHERE? - Target context  Recreational Competitive (athletic) Clinical Home Presence or absence of others GOALS OF LEARNING Program learning Parameter learning Error detection and correction Skill refinement Generalization What about designing the learning experience? Practice Preparation: Goal setting Outcome goals Performance goals Process goals Stage of learning Transfer of learning Target skills Target behaviours Target context Performance measures Outcome Process PRACTICE PRESENTATION: Clarifying expectations Managing arousal Focusing attention Providing instructions Providing demonstrations Offering guidance Providing physical practice Simulations Part practice Slow-motion practice Error detection practice Providing mental practice Procedures Imagery PRACTICE FEEDBACK: Intrinsic Feedback  Extrinsic Feedback Knowledge of results Knowledge of performance Instructional decisions Type of feedback Program or parameter Visual, Verbal, or manual Descriptive or prescriptive Amount of feedback Average feedback Summary feedback Precision of feedback Frequency of feedback PRACTICE STRUCTURE: Schema development Constance practice Varied practice Facilitating transfer: Blocked practice Random practice Consistent and Varied mapping What is the assessment of learner progress? Assessment is an important component of any learning situation Practitioners must measure learners’ performance to determine the extent which they are making progress toward goal achievement, and to assess effectiveness of instructional strategies Process of testing learners also strengthens memory for skills Determining how and when to assess learner progress is not a simple task ○ How to assess the quality of learning? Measures? How often? Where? ○ Depends on: Goals of learner Outcomes and behaviours that most clearly reflect goal achievement ○ Valid process measures might include Ratings of performance of skill ○ Skilled practitioner knows which outcomes and processes to look for and how to assess them accurately and reliably Determining how often to perform skill assessments is a challenging decision ○ Learners want to know if they are making progress, but not always excited about formal evaluations ○ At what point in skill learning is performance being assessed the most meaningful? ○ Sometimes, practitioners are required to perform assessments at predefined intervals ○ Sometimes, Frequency of assessment is the result of a joint decision between practitioner and learner  ○ Practitioners that maintain good communication with learners, and are sensitive to the needs of each individual are usually more adept at determining optimal timing and frequency of assessments To ensure valid and accurate assessments, instructors need to be aware of temporary factors that can affect performance (e.g fatigue) Learners may want: ○ To know how well they perform under various circumstances (e.g competition) ○ To know quality of performance influenced by temporary factors Most important assessments take place in desired target context ○ Sports - game/match/meet/race context ○ Rehabilitation - home/work environment context ○ Industrial - work site ○ Recreation - lake/mountains/bike trail Summary: - Effective practitioners consider the following factors when diagnosing learning situations: - Characteristics of the Learner. - Age, previous experience, stage of learning, handicapping conditions. - Goals of Learner. - Program learning, parameter learning, generalization, error detection/correction. - Characteristics of the Target Skill. - Types of info-processing demands, level of environmental stability, speed-accuracy trade-offs, risk of injury. - Nature of the Target Context. - Time pressure, evaluative audience, possible distractions, strategy demands. - Practitioners might provide any of the following types of instructional assistance: - Pre Practice assistance → goal setting, instructions, demonstrations. - Early Practice assistance → physical guidance, attention focusing. - Special types of Physical practice experiences → part-whole, error detection practice. - Appropriate Practice Structure → constant, varied, blocked, random. - Development of Additional Skills → arousal, control mental practice, imagery. - Augmented Feedback → type, amount, precision, frequency. - When measuring learning progress, practitioners must consider the following issues: - Goal of learning, target skill, target context. - Outcome and process characteristics → most valid indicators of skill improvement. - Gains in learning provided by the testing process itself. - Optimal timing and frequency of formal assessments.