L20: Learning and Forgetting Flashcards
Motor learning
The effects of practice or adaptation on motor control and memory
What is meant by ‘degrees of freedom’ when talking about motor learning?
The large range of motion that each movement posesses. Think of the countless variations in a person’s golf swing
What movement characterizes freezing degrees of freedom?
Rigidness due to uncertainty
What movement characterizes unfreezing degrees of freedom?
Fluidness due to certainity
What are the 3 stages of skill acquisition?
- Verbal-cognitive
- Motor associative
- Autonomous
What are 3 characteristics of the verbal-cognitive stage of skill acquisition?
- Novel skill
- Self talk
- High cognitive load
What are 3 characteristics of the motor associative stage of skill acquisition?
- Basic movements
- Slow refinement
- Introducing variation
What are 3 characteristics of the autonomous stage of skill acquisition?
- Automatic
- High precision and accuracy
- Low congitive load
Learning
A relatively permanent change in behaviour
Even if an athlete learns a new skill, why does their performance still fluctuate?
Performance still fluctuates because of problems with retention and circumstance (other parameters)
What are the 2 types of practice?
- Blocked
- Random
What is block practice and when should it be applied?
Repition without intervention.
Good for beginners
What is random practice and when should it be applied?
Multiple tasks with intervention.
Good for non-beginners
Why does random practice promote better learning than blocked practice?
Think of it like code. Blocked practice calls and repeats one line of code.
Meanwhile, random practice calls multiple motor programs, integrating the new skill with old ones
Why is blocked practice good for training but not for retention?
Blocked practice does not adjust paramters, so it rarely reflects the skills applicability in reality
What are the 2 parts of variable practice?
- Invariants (motor programme)
- Variants (parameters)
Invariants (motor programmes)
A common motor code usually applied to the same muscles (think running or writing)
Variants (parameters)
Variables that alter the execution of invariants. This includes posture, orientation, context, etc
Schema
A rule that specifies the correct parameter values for the desired outcome (think throwing a ball a certain distance)
What are the 4 parts of a schema?
- Initial conditions of movement
- Response specifications
- Sensory consequences of movement
- Movement oucome
What are the 2 types of feedback?
- Intrinsic
- Extrinsic
What 2 types of knowledge can extrinsic feedback provide?
- Knowledge of performance
- Knowledge of results
What are 3 aspects of good feedback?
- Target controllable behaviour
- Target invariants before variants
- Make feedback intermittent
