Exam #3 Flashcards
What are the Two Models proposed to identify & describe the stages of learning a new motor skill?
- Fitts & Posner three-stage model
- Gentile two-stage model
What are the stages of Fitts & Posner Three-Stage Model?
- Cognitive Stage
- Associative Stage
- Autonomous Stage
What are the Person Characteristics of the Cognitive Stage?
Questions concern what to do to achieve goal of the skill
Involved in cognitive & movement problem-solving activity
Movements demand large amount of conscious attention
Aware of making errors, but doesn’t know how to correct them
What are the Performance Characteristics of the Cognitive Stage?
“In the ballpark” movement pattern
Large number of errors
Errors tend to be “big”
High amount of trial-to-trial variability (poor consistency)
What are the Person Characteristics of the Associative Stage?
Performer “associates” environmental cues with the required movements
Reduced amount of attention demanded at movement level
Increased capability to perform simultaneous tasks
Increased capability to detect errors
What are the Performance Characteristics of the Associative Stage?
Refinement of movement pattern
Errors are fewer and smaller
Trial-to-trial variability decreases
What are the Person Characteristics of the Autonomous Stage?
Characteristics
Very little, if any, attention demanded at movement level (“automatic”)
Capable of performing simultaneous tasks
Capable of detecting and correcting errors
What are the Performance Characteristics of the Autonomous Stage?
Consistent trial-to-trial variability
Errors are few and small
What are the parts of the Gentile Model?
- Initial Stage
- Later Stages
What are the characteristics of the Initial Stage?
Performance emphasis = Develop movement pattern that allows some degree of success at achieving the action goal
Person begins to learn to discriminate regulatory (important) from non-regulatory (unimportant) environmental conditions
Other performance characteristics similar to Cognitive Stage in Fitts & Posner model
What is emphasized during the Later Stages?
Developing capability to adapt movement patterns to situational demands
Becoming more consistent at achieving action goal
Increasing economy of effort while performing the skill
Achieving specific goals for performing closed and open motor skills
What are Closed Skills in the Gentile Model?
Goal – “Fixation”
Focus on increasing consistency of producing same movement pattern each time skill is performed
Increase ability to adapt to non-regulatory conditions (fatigue, anxiety, wind, noise)
What are Open Skills in the Gentile Model?
Goal – “Diversification”
Focus on increasing capability to adapt to changing spatial and temporal regulatory conditions
Increase capability to modify movement characteristics of movement pattern as needed
What are the 7 Stages of Learning?
Rate of improvement
Body & limb segment coordination
Muscle activation during performance
Energy cost
Kinematic goal achievement
Visual attention
Demand for conscious attention
What is the Power of Improvement?
Power of law practice
We get most of our improvements at the beginning and least of our improvements at the end
What do people do as they improve performance so that the Power Law characterizes the rate of improvement?
What is the Langley Study of Beginner Bowlers?
Assessed what students were trying to correct at beginning, middle, and end of 10 wk bowling class
First week: General lack of bal control related to inconsistency and aiming
Middle week: Specific movement errors related to desired outcomes
Final week: Specific errors related to consistency and aiming of a hook
What is Body and Limb Segment Coordination?
Progresses from “freezing to freeing” degrees of freedom
For a multi-joint movement: initial control strategy, person performs skill by moving some joints as only 1 joint (freezing df)
Eventually develops a functional synergy of those joints (freeing df)
What is Muscle Activation During Performance?
Decrease in number of muscles activated
Develop sequences of muscle activation (Jaegers dart throwing experiment)
What is Energy Cost?
Increase in efficient use of energy
Decrease in energy cost
Energy use involves
Physiological (O2 calories)
Mechanical (= work rate/ metabolic rate)
What is Kinematic Goal Achievement?
Progresses from spatial to temporal goals
Displacement → Velocity → Acceleration
What is Visual Attention?
From erratic to more specific visual search
Develops faster visual focus on correct cues
Increases capability to shift visual attention
How can you Decrease Demand for Conscious Attention?
Decrease due to:
Chunking
Systematically increase number of parts in a “chunk”
What is the 2-Component Model?
Proposed by Baddeley:
-Working Memory
-Long-term Memory
What does Working Memory Incorporate?
Sensory, perceptual, attentional, and short-term memory processes.
How long is information stored in Working Memory?
A place where information is stored for a Short Time.
What does Working Memory play a Critical Role in?
-Decision making
-Problem-Solving
-Movement production & evaluation
-Long-term memory function
What kind of structure is Working Memory?
It is a functionally active structure.
-Deals with the tasks that occur “right now”
-Elements in working memory get moved to long-term memory
-Teams with elements of long-term memory
What is Working Memory involved in?
Involved in both the storage and processing of information.
What are the characteristics of Working Memory?
Duration: refers to how long working memory can hold or store information
-Duration for both cognitive and motor skills was found to be at a max of 20-30 seconds
Capacity: refers to how much information we can store.
-We can store up to 7 (+/-2) items in working memory.
-We can chunk to expand the capacity
What is Long-Term Memory?
A more permanent storage space than working memory.
Contains knowledge about past events and knowledge about how the world works.
What is the Duration & Capacity of Long-Term Memory?
Duration: information is relatively permanent; we don’t lose information instead we have problems locating it.
Capacity: relatively unlimited capacity
What are the three types of Long-Term Memory?
-Procedural Memories
-Episodic Memories
-Semantic Memories
What are Procedural Memories?
-Critical to motor skills
-Can only be acquired through practice
-Usually, performers cannot describe how they do it
-Memories that tell us “how to do something”
What are Episodic Memories?
-Personally experienced events and where they occur in time
-In terms of motor skills: “I remember when I missed that putt left, I won’t do that again.”
-Allows you to compare what you did in the past to what you are doing now; comparing performances
-Tell us “what to do”
What are Semantic Memories?
-Conceptual knowledge such as the concept of “love” or what a dinosaur is
-General knowledge about the world and how it has developed from our personal point of view
-Factual information such as “E=mc²”
-Tell us “what to do”
-Declarative knowledge
What are the three causes of Forgetting?
-Trace Decay
-Proactive Interference
-Retroactive Interference
What is Trace Decay?
-When forgetting occurs due to the passing of time
-It is more likely we forget because of retrieval problems
What is Proactive Interference?
-Activities that occur prior to performance that negatively affect memory
-Ex. Practice: a, b, c, d, e, f, g Test: g
What is Retroactive Interference?
-Activities that occur after to be remembered movement we need to remember negatively affect memory
-Ex. Practice: a, b, c, d, e, f, g Test: a
What are some strategies to Enhance Memory?
-Memory is enhanced when patients or athletes are asked to remember the beginning or end of a movement
-Make your recommendations to a patient or athlete meaningful to enhance memory
Use visual & verbal labels
-To enhance memory invoke intentional learning instead of incidental learning
Tell them they will be tested
Increases effort in practice
-Chunk or subjectively organize the movements
What is the Encoding Specificity Principle?
The more the practice environment resembles the test environment, the better the retention of the learned skill or skills.
What is the general definition of Motor Learning?
A change in the capability of a person to perform a skill that must be inferred from relatively permanent improvement in performance as a result of practice or expertise.
What are the characteristics associated with learning a motor skill?
Improvement
Increase in trial-to-trial performance to performance consistency
Persistence of improvement and consistency
Increase in adaptability to environmental context variations
Increase in stability (i.e decrease effects of perturbations)
What is Performance?
The execution of a skill at a specific time and situation
Observable behavior
Temporary
Can be influenced by performance variables (fatigue, anxiety, alertness)
What is Learning?
Not directly observable
Relatively permanent
Due to practice or experience
Not influenced by performance variables
Why Assess Leaning?
Accountability issues
What are Techniques used to Assess Motor Skill Learning?
Performance curves
Retention tests
Transfer test
Observe changes in coordination dynamics
What are Performance Curves?
Outcome measures
Kinematic measures
Look for evidence of:
-Improvement
-Increases in trial-to-trial consistency
What are Retention Tests?
Purpose: to test relative permanence of what was learned during practice
Characteristics:
-Perform skill after a period of no practice
-Perform the same skill as practiced
What are Transfer Tests?
Purpose: test the adaptability of what was learned during practice
Types of Transfer Tests:
-Different task characteristics
-Different environmental context conditions
What is Observing Changes in Coordination Dynamics?
Purpose: to assess coordination changes during practice and tests
Look for evidence of:
-consistency/stability
What are the Two examples of Practice Performance Misrepresenting the Amount of Learning?
Performance variable & Performance plateau
What is Performance Variable?
A practice condition characteristic that artificially inflates or depresses performance but does not influence learning
Research example: experiment by Winstein
What is Performance Plateau?
Temporary period of time of no performance improvement, but eventually improvement continues
Ex: 105 trials per day – pursuit tracking task
