Lecture 16 Flashcards
Abilities
are generally movement attributes that are (largely) genetically predetermined that affect performance such as : speed, strength, agility, flexibility etc
Abilities differ from skills
In the sense that skills are learned, whereas abilities are a product of both learning and genetics
What is skill?
Skill is a complex movement phenomena with many interrelated factors
- Perception (environment, sensory etc)
- Decision making (Goal-oriented, influenced past)
- Action (mechanical, physical etc)
Skills are learnt with practice we are not
born with them
When can humans learn skills
-Readiness to learn
-Critical periods
Readiness to learn
-Development / education psychology
-Motor milestones that they need to meet to be at a regular growing age
Critical periods
-Neuroscience concept
-Heightened neural plasticity
-Embryology
-Imprinted in birds (the first thing they latch on to)
-Sensory deprivation studies
Sensitive period
When the effect of experience on the brain is particularly strong this is referred to as a sensitive period
Critical period
When experience essential for normal development alters performance permanently this is a critical period
Brains, tool-use and lan
Some biologists suggest that tool use, cognition and language co-evolved
Humans gathered around fires (made with tools) for warmth, to eat and talk
Individual differences and movement preferences
-Subtle and Inherent
Subtle differences in our movement preferences
Inherent movement preferences that explain why we move and learn differently
Intrinsic dynamics
“the preferred states of the system given its current architecture and previous history of activity”
Why we move / learn differently
- Intrinsic dynamics
- Task demands
- Environment
Solving Bernsteins Degrees of freedom problem
There are more degrees of freedom than are strictly necessary to perform a given task. We have redundancy or abundance of DFs.
As we become skilled humans learn to exploit the ….
redundancy in our bodies to achieve task goals more consistently
Context conditioned variability
Humans utilise DFs and learn to adapt to different contexts remarkably fluently
Role of muscle is context dependent
Each relationship between muscle excitation and task demand is unique
Due to CCV we need to continuously
recognise and adapt to changes in internal and external forces
Alternative view of movement variability
- variability seen as inherent in complex biological systems
- Not necessarily ‘noise’ or error
- within limits, variability can be adaptive and functional
Variability that we see in movement is not a problem
Motor systems have evolved to exploit degeneracy
Practical implications (wait)
Work with and not against individual differences
Awareness of sensitive periods for learning
- Physical
-emotional
-Neural
-sensory
Encourage informal play
Talent identification and development
