Motor Learning Flashcards
How can Motor Learning be defined?
What are the 4 key characteristics to note with respect to this?
Motor Learning is a set of processes associated with practice or experience leading to relatively permanent changes in the capability for skilled performance (Schmidt 1991)
- It is a set of processes (events or occurrences) which lead to a product
- Learning is the effect of practice or experience
- Learning is not directly observable but its products are (learning can be inferred through the changes in underlying performance)
- Motor Learning is relatively permanent
What are the two main methods of measuring motor learning?
1) Measure the action itself (qualitative e.g. checklist to measure movement patterns but quantitative movement analysis and comparison with elite performers also possible)
2) Measure the result of the action (quantitative) e.g. use of performance curves
Explain what a transfer design experiment is, with an example
Involves two or more different groups undergoing the same amount of practice but under different conditions e.g. golf driving range with video vs personal tuition
Retest after a period under equivalent conditions to remove temporary effects
What are the 3 stages of motor learning per Fitts and Posner (1967)?
- Verbal/Cognitive stage
- Associative stage
- Autonomous stage
Explain the characteristics of the verbal/cognitive stage of Fitts and Posner’s model of motor learning
- Large number of error and highly variable
- Large performance gains
- A lot of time spent by individuals thinking and talking to themselves about what they are trying to do/strategies
Explain the characteristics of the associative stage of Fitts and Posner’s model of motor learning
1.Sound grasp of sequential order of constituent components and general idea of what the movement is like
2. Focus is on refining of the skill (more effective movement patterns)
3. Less self-talk, less focussed attention
4. Stage lasts longer than cognitive stage and instructional assistance/feedback is less important
Explain the characteristics of the autonomous stage of Fitts and Posner’s model of motor learning
- Some learners enter autonomous stage
- Actions produced almost automatically
- Increased automaticity, reduced physical and mental effort
- Learning is continuing but more difficult to se as performers are reaching the limits of their capablities
How can over-learning be defined?
How can this be used as a strategy?
The practice time beyond the amount needed to achieve some performance criteria
Can be used to enable performers to do a skill without concentrating on it (once in the autonomous stage of learning)
Explain two models for sequencing of practice
What is the impact on performance and learning
Why
Blocked vs random practice (skill AAAA, BBBB, CCCC vs ABDC BDCA, CABD, DACB)
Blocked practice delivers bigger immediate performance gains but lower gains on retention test
What are two hypotheses for why random practice is better than blocked practice for learning?
- Elaboration hypothesis - random practice causes individuals to appreciate the distinctiveness of different tasks whereas blocked practice allows the individual to by pass such comparison and produce the tasks automatically
- Forgetting hypothesis - random practice causes the individual to generate the movement plan each time it is rehearsed because they forget it while performing other movements.
Explain distributed v massed practice
Which is preferable for which type of exercise
Possible reasons?
Massed practice - scheduling practice periods (within 1 session) close together with no/limited rest between periods
Distributed practice - longer intervals between practice periods such that rest is greater than or equal to practice time
Continuous skills - distributed practice results in better performance and greater learning (on retention)
Discrete skills - learning through massed practice is as good as, or better than distributed practice
For continuous skills massed practice may result in fatigue and/or boredom
What are the possible practical implications of comparison of massed vs distributed practice for continuous skills on scheduling training sessions?
- Practice sessions can be too long
- More frequent sessions are preferable
- Time saved through massing sessions (in terms of number of days) may be a false saving
What tasks are more appropriate for ‘whole practice’ and for ‘part practice’?
Whole practice - high organisation and low complexity e.g. basketball jump shot
Part practice - low organisation and high complexity e.g. gymnastics routine
Explain the progressive part practice method
Organise parts of a skill in the order they appear in the whole skill
Practice independently
Then, gradually build up into the whole skill
Benefits of variable practice
Open skills - helps develop a stronger and more adaptable schema to produce novel variations
Younger athletes - reduces boredom
