Ch. 1

Question 1

Motor skills

Answer 1

Activities or tasks that require voluntary control over movements of the joints and body segments to achieve a goal.

Question 2

Motor learning

Answer 2

The acquisition of motor skills, the performance enhancement of learned or highly experienced motor skills, or the reacquisition of skills that are difficult to perform or cannot be performed because of injury, disease, and the like. Of interest are the behavioral and/or neurological changes that occur as a person learns a motor skill and the variables that influence those changes.

Question 3

Motor control

Answer 3

How our neuromuscular system functions to activate and coordinate the muscles and limbs involved in the performance of a motor skill. Researchers may investigate this question while a person is learning a new skill or performing a well-learned or highly experienced skill.

Question 4

Motor development

Answer 4

Human development from infancy to old age with specific interest in issues related to either motor learning or motor control.

Question 5

Skill

Answer 5

An activity or task that has a specific purpose or goal to achieve; an indicator of quality of performance.

Question 6

Movements

Answer 6

Specific patterns of motion among joints and body segments used to accomplish action goals.

Question 7

Gross motor skill

Answer 7

A motor skill that requires the use of large musculature to achieve the goal of the skill.

Question 8

Fine motor skill

Answer 8

A motor skill that requires control of small muscles to achieve the goal of the skill; typically involves eye hand coordination and requires a high degree of precision of hand and finger movement.

Question 9

Discrete motor skill

Answer 9

A motor skill with clearly defined movement beginning and end points; usually requiring a simple movement.

Question 10

Continuous motor skill

Answer 10

A motor skill with arbitrary movement beginning and end points. These skills usually involve repetitive movements.

Question 11

Serial motor skill

Answer 11

A motor skill involving a series of discrete skills.

Question 12

Environmental context

Answer 12

The supporting surface, objects, and/or other people involved in the environment in which a skill is performed.

Question 13

Closed motor skill

Answer 13

A motor skill performed in a stationary environment where the performer determines when to begin the action.

Question 14

Open motor skill

Answer 14

A motor skill performed in a moving environment where the feature of the environmental context in motion determines when to begin the action.

Question 15

Taxonomy

Answer 15

A classification system organized according to relationships among the component characteristics of the group of items or objects being classified.

Question 16

Regulatory conditions

Answer 16

Features of the environmental context to which movements must conform if they are to achieve the action goal.

Question 17

Intertrial variability

Answer 17

An environmental characteristic in Gentile’s taxonomy of motor skills. The term refers to whether the regulatory conditions associated with the performance of a skill change or stay the same from one trial to the next.

Question 18

Nonregulatory conditions

Answer 18

Features of the environmental context that have no influence or only an indirect influence on movement characteristics.