Implicit learning - 4.1

Question 1

A model to describe motor learning

Answer 1

Fitts and Posner (1967) suggested a three-stage model to describe the learning process; cognitive stage, associative stage and autonomous stage.

Early stages of the skill are dominated by cognitive concerns about the skill whereas skilled performance is more automatic in nature.

Question 2

Cognitive stage

Answer 2

The primary concern is with the generic aspects of the skill; what has to be done? What goes where?

Knowledge is explicit and rule-based, and we search for the most appropriate strategy; unsuccessful one’s are discarded, and successful ones are retained.

There are dramatic changes in performance and performance is highly variable with a large number of obvious errors.

Question 3

associative stage

Answer 3

Involves the refinement of skills and performance changes are more subtle.

The nature of the cognitive activity changes (e.g. more emphasis on error detection), with less glaring errors and variability between trials.

Question 4

autonomous stage

Answer 4

Involves months or years of practice, automation of skill and can be performed with less interference from other tasks.

It appears like the skill is being performed without thinking about it and knowledge is implicit and non-verbalisable.

There is little, if any, variability between trials.

At what level does autonomous become problematic?

Question 5

declarative knowledge

Answer 5

Requires awareness, attention and reflection, is consciously recalled and requires constant repetition can transform declarative knowledge into procedural knowledge

Question 6

procedural knowledge

Answer 6

Occurs without attention, awareness, conscious or other higher cog process and is developed slowly through repetition of act over many trials.

Repeating movement continually under varying circumstances leads to procedural learning

Question 7

WM system

Answer 7

Stores and manips information. Baddeley (1990)

3 distinct sub systems;

1. The articulatory/phonological loop
2. The visuo-spatial sketchpad
3. The central executive

Question 8

the articulatory/phonological loop

Answer 8

associated with verbal information

Question 9

the visuo-spatial sketchpad

Answer 9

is associated with visual and spatial information

Question 10

the central executive

Answer 10

oversees the others and is linked to attention

Question 11

WM

Answer 11

A temporary storage space (‘desktop of the brain’, Logie, 1999) where incoming info held and manipulated.

Allows us to keep track of where we are, what we’re doing and provides capacity to hold info long enough to make a decision, write down telephone number, test hyp, or oversee movement

Question 12

explicit processes

Answer 12

rely on working memory for the storage and manipulation of information and are, therefore, verbally based and open to introspection.

In other words, we are consciously aware of the information being processed and can share that information with others (Seger, 1994).

Question 13

implicit processes

Answer 13

typically unavailable for conscious inspection and difficult to verbalise (Kellogg, 1982).

Question 14

implicit learning

Answer 14

…accrual of Knowledge that “… in some raw fashion, is always ahead of capability of processor to explicate” (Reber, 1989)

Question 15

is implicit learning beneficial?

Answer 15

“Almost everything we do, we do better unconsciously than consciously” (Baars, 1998).

Implicit processes are phylogenetically older than explicit processes (therefore more stable and resilient) – Reber, 1992.

“The zone” (Masters, 2012)

Question 16

implicit motor learning

Answer 16

…accrual of motor skill without accumulation of, or at least conscious access to, explicit knowledge that underlies perf of the skill. Speculated that it may be possible to evoke these evolutionary old attributes. Implicit motor learning.

Question 17

why use implicit learning?

Answer 17

pressure

Question 18

pressure

Answer 18

“There is no better way to ruin performance than to think simultaneously about the details of its execution” (Norman, 1982).

The Bliss-Boder hypothesis (1895-1935) .

Question 19

the Bliss-Boder hypothesis

Answer 19

suggest we over-analyse, which leads to a switch from expert back to novice levels which ultimately leads to skill breakdown.

Question 20

self-focus theories of choking

Answer 20

“Under pressure, a person realises consciously that it is important to execute the behaviour correctly. Consciousness attempts to ensure the correctness of this execution by monitoring the process of performance; but consciousness does not contain the knowledge of these skills, so that it ironically reduces the reliability and success of the performance when it attempts to control it”. (Baumeister, 1984)

Question 21

theory of reinvestment

Answer 21

“…relatively automated motor processes can be disrupted if they are run using consciously accessed, task-relevant declarative knowledge to control the mechanics of the movements on-line” (Masters & Maxwell, 2008)

Question 22

choking by reinvestment

Answer 22

“A golfer attempting a short putt to win a match might try to recall and use rules that describe the action about to be performed, such as ‘move the clubhead back 10 cm, then smoothly and gently push through the ball and stop 10 cm after hitting the ball, ensuring contact is made with the centre of the clubface and that the arms are…’.

This use of explicit processes is inefficient, attention-demanding and slow, ultimately leading to a breakdown in performance” (p.113). Maxwell et al., 2000.

Move from implicit processes back to novice explicit behaviour.

Rely more on attention and WM memory and this is what causes the breakdown.

Question 23

reinvestment

Answer 23

“A predisposition to turn one’s attention inward to the mechanics of one’s movements” (Masters 1992).

Question 24

The susceptibility of skill failure because of reinvestment is determined by three things

Answer 24

1) performance context (anx/fatigue)
2) predisposition (how likely you are to be susceptible to reinvestment
3) degree to which underlying knowledge of the skill is accessible to consciousness as declarative knowledge.

Question 25

1) performance context

Answer 25

Study 1: demand/resource evaluations made immediately before the competition accounted for a significant proportion of variance in golf performance index (R2 = .08, B = .29, p < 0.001)

Question 26

2) dispositional reinvestment

Answer 26

Movement Specific Reinvestment Scale.

Question 27

2 factors in the MSRS

Answer 27

1) conscious motor processing items
- For example, “I try to think about my movements when I carry them out”

2) Movement self-consciousness items
- E.g. “I am concerned about my style of moving”.

Question 28

reinvestment and falling

Answer 28

There is increasing evidence of an association between movement specific reinvestment and older age during locomotion.

For example, Wong, Masters, Maxwell, and Abernethy (2008) and Wong, Masters, Maxwell, and Abernethy (2009) showed that older adults who had previously fallen displayed higher propensity for movement specific reinvestment and increased awareness of their limb movements during walking, compared to older adults who had not fallen.

Question 29

MSR, stepping behaviour and visuomotor control during walking in older adults without history of falling - introduction

Answer 29

“Every older person is different. Don’t try to answer the question ‘What will stop older people falling?’ and just repeatedly ask ‘What might stop this person falling?” (Frances Healey).

The theory of reinvestment (Masters, 1992, Master and Maxwell, 2008).

Use of self-focused attention to consciously monitor and control movements during performance.

The propensity to consciously control movements is quantifiable.

Used the Movement-Specific Reinvestment Scale (MSRS; Masters, Eves, & Maxwell, 2005).

Older adult fallers show greater propensity for reinvestment than non-fallers (Wong, Masters, Maxwell, & Abernethy, 2008) and most falls occur during locomotion (Prince, Corriveau, Herbert, & Winter, 1997).

Visuomotor control plays an important role during walking in older adults (Chapman & Hollands, 2007).

Reinvestment may cause adopting inappropriate gait and gaze strategies during locomotion.

The question asked was: Is reinvestment related to gait and gaze strategies adopted by older adults, who have not yet fallen, during locomotion?

Question 30

methods

Answer 30

see notes

Question 31

results

Answer 31

see notes

Question 32

discussion

Answer 32

Reinvestment plays an important role during walking in older adults.

There is a positive correlation with stance and dual support times; more time required to plan the movements (Chapman and Hollands, 2010; Hollands and Marple-Horvat, 2001).

There is also a positive correlation with foot placement error.

Can we predict falling based on reinvestment and the underlying differences in visuomotor control?

Question 33

the role of conscious control in maintaining stable posture (Uiga et al., 2018)

Answer 33

Movement specific reinvestment is associated with balance performance in young adults and high propensity for reinvestment is associated with lower complexity during balancing. MSR is not associated with balance performance in older adults and older adults appear to have minimal access to balance-related declarative knowledge.

Question 34

Conscious monitoring and control (reinvestment) in surgical perf under pressure (Malhotra et al)

Answer 34

We can cause problems if we consciously monitor and control (already learned) movements, but what happens if we stop people from focusing ‘internally’ on the conscious control and monitoring of the skill?

Question 35

why use implicit motor learning?

Answer 35

Better performance under pressure/fatigue.

Pressure causes us to reinvest (taking conscious control of movement) - “relatively automated motor processes can be disrupted if they are run using consciously accessed, task relevant declarative knowledge to control the mechanics of the movements on-line” (Masters & Maxwell, 2008; p. 160).

We need to restrict the build-up of declarative knowledge (nothing to invest in).

“It is hypothesised that, if, in passing from novice to expert, or unpractised to practised, explicit learning can be minimised, the performer will have less conscious knowledge of the rules for execution of the skill and will be less able to reinvest his or her knowledge in time of stress….” (Masters, 1992 p.345).

Question 36

some thoughts from Rich - review

Answer 36

see notes

Question 37

how can we tell learning was implicit?

Answer 37

Firstly, the number of rules generated. There are fewer if you can’t verablise what you’re doing.

Secondly, movement measures, if they’re less efficient or smooth.

Thirdly, probe reaction times (Lam, Masters and Maxwell, 2010). Implicit learners have faster PRT than explicit learners.

Finally, neural measures. There will be low coherence between motor planning and verbal-analytical regions of the brain (Zhu et al., 2011).

Question 38

Left temporal region (Haufler et al., 2000; Kerick et al., 2001)

Answer 38

see notes

Question 39

Frontal midline region (Fz): motor planning (Kaufer and Lewis, 1999)

Answer 39

see notes

Question 40

EEG T3-Fz coherence as the measurement of the involvement of verbal-analytical processing in motor performance (e.g. Deeny et al. 2003; Zhu et al., 2011)

Answer 40

see notes