specificity of practice
one of the most important and easy to replicate principles in motor behavior
scholars of motor behavior
study how motor skills are learned, controlled, and developed to assist people as they place and experience physical activity.
sub disciplines of motor behavior
motor learning
motor control
motor development
goals of motor behavior
-understand how motor skills are learned. how processes improve learning and performance
-understand how motor skills are controlled.how mechanisms in response selection and response execution control the bodys movement
-understand how learning and contro
goals of motor learning
understanding the influence of feedback, practice, and individual differences, especially as they relate to the retention and transfer of motor skill.
goals of motor control
to understand how to coordinate the muscles and joints during movement, how to control a sequence of movements, and how to use environmental information to plan and adjust movements.
history of motor control research
research in the late 1800s on the "springlike" qualities of muscle and Sherrington's seminal work on neural control is still useful in explaining how the nervous system controls muscles during movement.
The World War 2 era
one of the great interest in motor behavior research
memory drum theory (Franklin Henry)
first major theoretical paper from the disciple of kinesiology
reaction time was slower for complex movements because those movements took more planning time
Motor development
developmental approach to motor learning and motor control originated in developmental psychology and child development
research methods for MB
understanding how movements are learned, how they are controlled, and how they change across the life span is complicated.
technology
invented and adapted to control the testing situation and to record and analyze the movements
-allowed the use of real world movements instead of movemetn invented in the lab
Types of studies
the between group
the within-group design
descriptive research
the between group
compares two or more groups that were exposed to different treatments but tests them using the same task
the within-group design
all participants are exposed to two or more different treatments and are tested on the same task
descriptive research
the investigator measures or observes participants performing a task.
studying the early stages of learning
novel learning tasks
novel learning tasks
provide certainty that no participant has tried the task
studying expert performers
these investigators asked, "what do expert performers do during practice and competition?" one way to answer the question was to compare expert performers to novice performers and evaluate how they differ on perceptual knowledge.
measuring movements
tasks used in motor behavior research provide a number of ways to measure movements and their outcomes
-help us understand how the reach grasp, error, speed, reaction time, and accuracy of the movement
kinematics
location, velocity, acceleration
characteristics of movement tasks
open or closed, discrete or continuous
reasons why:
1. results of two studies may be different if the task characteristics are different
2. the characteristics of the task used in the study must match the questions asked.
measuring learning and transfer
the idea of learning is similar to the idea in the previous discussion about experts. a motor skill can be examined at any point from the first attempt to well beyond mastery.
- the goal of most practice is learning
- learning is defined as retention and
motor learning principles
1. correct practice improves performance and supports learning
2. augmented feedback enhances practice and thereby learning.
retention
refers to how much skill a performer can demonstrate after a period of no practice
transfer tests
require you use information in a slightly different way from how the skill was originally practiced
use transfer in several ways
you transfer skills that you learn in practice to a game, or you use your experience throwing a baseball when you throw a javelin for the first time
practice
repetition, requirement for learning, must be organized differently depending on performance or learning
feedback
guides the learner toward performing the task corectly and reinforces correct performance
intrinsic feedback
info about performance that you obtain for yourself as a result of the movement
(extrinsic feedback)
info provided by an outside source
knowledge of results
info about the result
-it helps advanced performers more than it does beginners because advanced understand how to make corrections>know how to change the movement to influence the outcome
knowledge of performance
should be given at the beginning of learning and then gradually reduced (fading feedback)
motor control principles
1. the brain uses the central nervous system to initiate and control muscles that make the movements
2. a goal of most movement is to rely on the decision-making centers in the brain as little as possible once the movement is initiated
two theories that led to the motor control principles
1. motor programs explain how we produce and control movements : select programs (response selections), if you put in the numbers and indicate math operations to perform the program outputs the answer(response execution)
motor programs
proposed memory mechanism that allows movements to be controlled
-become more automatic allowing the performer to concentrate on the use of the movement performance situations in performance situations
schema theory
store groups of movement with similar characteristics
dynamical systems
more direct and less cognitive link between info that the perceptual system picks up and the motor action that occurs (coordinated structure)
developmental motor learning and control principles
1. children are not miniature adults
2. children are more alike than different
How does motor behavior differ from psychology of sport
Principles and laws from physics along with biology and zoology are applied to motor behavior. Psych studies elite athletes in competitive settings whereas motor behavior studies people of all skill levels. Used by pedagogy and adaptive PE areas.
Explain the differences between motor learning and motor control within the field of motor behavior
Motor learning helps us understand how we learn skills so that the skill becomes automatic. Motor control is essential for every movement from poorly skilled to well skilled. Motor learning is responsible for the shift from poorly skilled to highly skille
Why is the change in motor learning and motor control across the life span of interest
Strategies used by adults can be taught to children to improve performance during motor skill acquisition. Research enhances teaching.
Think about the practice issues discussed in this chapter, such as feedback, retention, transfer, goal setting, and scheduling. Choose a sport with which you are familiar and discuss how the practice characteristics would influence your planning if you we
Prepractice: goal setting, simple instructions, modeling. Practice: constant practice, contextual practice, blocked practice, extrinsic feedback. Postpractice: verbal rehearsal, goal setting.
Can you think of an example in which more difficult practice conditions result in better retention and transfer? Why does that happen? Can you plan practices to promote this? How?
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Discuss when it might be best to provide either knowledge of performance or knowledge of results to a person learning a motor skill.
Performance has a temp effect and reflects learning when a player is able to demonstrate their newly acquired skill at any time. Results has a perm effect reflecting acquisition of skill.