Motor Learning Brainscape Flashcards
What is Motor Learning?
- Neural adaptations associated with practice and experience that lead to a long term change in the ability to produce skilled movement
- The study of the acquisition or modification of movement with practice and experience
Traditional Definition of Motor Learning
- Process of acquiring the ability to produce skilled movement
- Focus on individual
Motor Learning: Current Definition (SC&W)
- Process of searching for task solution that emerges from an interaction of the individual with the task and the environment
- Includes central nervous system changes that are associated with practice.
- Depends on integration and communication among areas of the CNS including cortex, Basal Ganglia, Cerebellum, and the Spinal Cord.
Motor Learning Entails
• Not merely the ability to perform a given task under certain circumstances (performance)
• Motor Learning or Acquisition of skilled movement involves:
o RETENTION
o GENERALIZABILITY
o ADAPTABILITY
4 Concepts of Motor Learning
• Process of acquiring the capability for skilled movement
• Requires experience and practice
• Cannot be measured directly
o Inferred from behavior/performance
• Produces relatively permanent changes in movement
Motor Performance vs Motor Learning
• Motor Performance o Changes in behavior observed during a practice session (may or may not reflect learning). • Performance may be affected by: o Fatigue o Motivation o Anxiety
Motor Learning and Motor Performance
• Abilities vary widely among individuals
• Variables that influence rate and degree of motor learning and motor performance learning fall into 3 major areas:
o Individual
o Task
o Environment
Type of Learning and Memory
- Declarative (Explicit)
* Procedural (Implicit)
Declaritive (Explicit)
- Conscious recall of facts and events
- Can be expressed verbally
- Awareness, Attention and reflection are needed
- Repetition can transform declarative into procedural knowledge
- Can be practiced in other ways then how it was learned
- Mental practice
- Includes input from medial temporal lobes, prefrontal cortex, and hippocampus
Procedural Learning (Implicit)
• Tasks that can be performed “automatically” (Habit)
• Does not require as much attention or conscious thought
• Develops slowly through repetition of a task under varying conditions
o Movement schema
o Rules for moving
• Involves basal ganglia (striatum) and cerebellum and sensorimotor cortical areas
Fitts and Posner: 3 Stages of Motor Learning
• Cognitive Stage→experimentation stage, lots of variability, heavy reliance on vision, fast improvement
o Figuring out “What to do”
• Associative Stage
o Deciding “How to do”→less variability in performance, proprioception more important, errors more consistent, slower improvement
• Autonomous Stage→patient scans for obstacles that impede performance, very stable performance
o Knowing “How to succeed”
Cognitive Stage
High Cognitive Demand with Variable Performance
Associative Stage: “How to Do”
Less Cognitive Demand with Less Variability
Clinical Implications of 3 stage Learning Model
- When first leaning the task, much attention and conscious thought is required. A lot of errors would be made and a lot of water would be spilled.
- In the 2nd stage the movement would become more effective and efficient as she developed an optimal strategy.
- Moving into the 3rd stage, she would be able to reach for the glass while carrying on a conversation.
Factors that influence motor learning
- Instructions
- Practice
- Feedback
- Individual differences
Instructions
- Demonstration
- Focus attention to specific aspects of movement
- Limit quantity and details of information to match cognitive abilities
- Factors that influence motor learning
Practice
• Environmental factors
o e.g. open versus closed environments
• Blocked versus random
o Blocked: practice each task individually
o Random: practice the tasks in random order
• Part-Task versus Whole-Task
• Which best for learning?
Performance is better during the acquisition phase with the blocked or part task practice, but the random and whole task practice support long term learning*
Feedback
• Intrinsic o Sensory information • Extrinsic (a.k.a. “augmented”) o Supplements intrinsic o Verbal, tactile, biofeedback, visual (mirror) o Knowledge of results (KR) • Terminal feedback about the outcome o Knowledge of performance (KP) • Feedback relating to the movement pattern used to achieve goal.
Feedback Schedule
- For simple tasks, feedback after each trial improved performance early in learning.
- KR given less frequently produced the best results for long term learning and task transfer, particularly for more complex tasks
- Feedback schedule best given after 5 trials
Best Feedback schedule
Delayed, summed, faded
Individual Differences
- Age
- Cognitive Ability
- Motivation
- Physical Characteristics
- Motor Control
Intervention Strategies: Cognitive Stage of Motor Learning - Use demonstration (modeling)
• Break task into parts, if amenable
• Use manual guidance-reduce as patient can safely control movements
• Stress use of vision
• Blocked practice schedule
• Give feedback on correct performance, not errors
o Variety of forms of feedback (visual, verbal, tactile)
Associative Stage of Motor Learning
- Fade verbal and tactile feedback
- Practice tasks as a whole- increase complexity
- Give feedback early in movement or after movement
- Summary feedback, delayed feedback
- Identify consistent movement errors
- Allow “mistakes”
- Allow self-evaluation and problem solving
Intervention Strategies: Autonomous Stage of Motor Learning
- Allow learner to correct own errors
- Vary environmental conditions
- Remove all verbal and tactile inputs
- Identify movement errors
