Motor Learning

Question 1

what can impact performance regardless of skill

what does learning cause

3 things that can affect performance

Answer 1

Regardless of skill level, any individual performance can
vary due to factors such as mood, motivation, stress, etc

Learning causes (relatively) permanent gains in performance

Some things that can affect performance:
1) Physical fatigue: caused by longer or intense practice
2) Arousal (Inattention/Central Fatigue): A person’s state of alertness or arousal
can increase or decrease with practice (fatigue can decrease arousal).
3) Motivation: The less motivated a person is to perform well, the less well they
are likely to perform

Question 2

how do we measure learning

Answer 2

1. Target rotates around the circular
   path with predefined speed.
2. Subject is instructed to maintain
   their mouse cursor in the target.
3. Compute Time on Target or %Time
   on Target or Error between cursor
   and target.
4. Compare Time on Target or Error
   across sequential trials

Question 3

time on target and error graphs

performance curves

law of practice

observations

what do performance curves mask

Answer 3

Performance Curves: A graph of performance across trials. We often report average performance across a number of trials and people

The Law of Practice: Performance improves rapidly at first, but more gradually later on (i.e., diminishing returns). This means that performance curves are relatively well described by power- or exponential processes.

Observations:
1. Initial errors are smaller when participants perform the same task on Day 2.
2. The rate of re-learning the task is faster when participants perform the task on Day 2 (it takes them fewer trials to hit the same level of performance)

Performance curves can (and often do) mask
individual differences in motor performance and
learning

Question 4

what kind of person is yellow, red, and gray in this error

Answer 4

yellow is a newbie

red is an intermediate

gray is already and expert

Question 5

what must performance be to be considered learning

Answer 5

Improvements in performance should be relatively
permanent to be considered motor learning

Question 6

if one golf group putts with aids and another does not, whose performance is better?
but who learned more without the aid

Answer 6

the group without the aid learns more and without the aid perform better

group 2’s changed in performance are permanent not temporary

Question 7

**skill acquisition process
What is motor learning?
motor adaptation

Answer 7

motor learning is the process of improving performance and acquiring a motor skill
motor adaptation is modifying the skill you have learnt for different conditions, equipment, etc.
modifying an existing skill