Midterm 1 Flashcards
motor learning
- relatively permanent changes in motor behaviours resulting from practice or experience
- focuses on acquiring or modifying the capability to perform skilled movements
motor control
- the process of initiating, directing, and grading purposeful voluntary movement
- an area of study dedicated to understanding the neural, physical, and behavioural aspects of movement
- how the brain, nervous system, muscles, and sensory systems work together to initiate and regulate movements
motor performance
- the execution of a motor skill at a specific time and in a specific situation
- can be measures in terms of outcome (eg. accuracy, distance, speed) or quality of movement (eg. coordination, balance)
- may vary from one attempt to another due factors like fatigue, stress, or learning
why study motor skills?
applies to:
- coaching and teaching
- rehabilitation
- medicine
- ergonomics
- robotics
motor behaviour sub-categories
- motor learning
- motor development
- motor control
motor skills definition
the ability to bring about some end result with maximum certainty and minimum outlay of energy, or of time and energy
characteristics of a motor skill
- a well defined goal
- must produce skill reliably, on demand, without luck
- minimize physical and mental energy costs of performance (not require of all motor skills)
- speed is the main goal of many motor skills (eg. races, surgery)
factors affecting motor skills
constraints
- individual: knowledge, previous experiences
- environment: what’s going on, opponents
- task: what are we being asked to do
3 elements critical to production of most motor skills
steps of information processing
- perceiving relevant environment features
- deciding what to do, where and when to do it to achieve the goal
- producing organized muscular activity to generate movements that achieve the goal
exceptions of motor skills
- reflexive movements: involuntary, rapid, and localized
- learned automaticity: expertise, effortless execution, low cognitive load, subconscious control
classifications of motor skills (5)
discrete vs. continuous
open vs. closed
fine vs. gross
manipulation of object (Y/N)
body transport (Y/N)
discrete motor skills
defined beginning and end, typically briefer, defined outcome
serial motor skills
typically a series of discrete skills to make a more complicated action, typically slightly longer than discrete skills
continuous motor skills
more arbitrary beginning and end points, measure with tracking tasks, typically last minuted to hours
produce many error scores on a single trial
open motor skills
- affected by: reaction time, anything that affects adaptability
- unpredictable environment making it difficult to predict how it will change
closed motor skills
- more predictable and stable environment
- usually performers can predict task and plan motor skills
fine motor skills
smaller muscle groups, more precise
gross motor skills
large muscle groups, doesn’t require much accuracy, trying to produce greater force
taxonomy
a complex classification system for characterizing motor skills
scientific method steps (7)
- observation and question generation
- hypothesis development
- experimentation
- data collection and analysis (typically more quantitative in this field)
- interpretation and conclusion
- publication and peer review
- replication and further research
theories
well-developed explanations of how various phenomenon occur
very comprehensive, involve relevant scientific constructs
scientists pull out specific predictions (ie. hypotheses) from theories
hypotheses
identify relationships between scientific constructs that can be measured (ie. variables)
error
on a single trial we can calculate how far the arrow is away from the target
constant error (CE)
- measures the amount and direction of bias away from target (ie. accuracy)
- when averaged among trials can have cancellation effects which can incorrectly quantify accuracy
- tells us average error