Motor Learning (Lecture 14) Flashcards
Define motor learning
Processes associated with practice or experience leading to relatively permanent gains in the capability for skilled performance
Does a single performance always reflect the skills that underlie the performance?
No. Individual may have an off day, so one test does not represent actual skills.
What do we want to ignore when measuring capability for performance? What might affect a single performance? Are they always negative?
Ignore variations
Environment, anxiety, caffeine, drug use, fatigue
Some can increase performance (performance enhancing drugs)
Does learning account for capability changes due to growth and development? Does improving strength, which improves skills, account for learning?
No- because we are interested in the learning due to practice of the skill
Is learning observable?
- No but products are.
- CNS exhibits semi-permanent changes due to structure connection and function (cannot observe these changes)
- Learning in inferred through changes in performance
Why do transient factors not constitute learning?
Learning requires relatively permanent changes
What is an example of plasticity/learning in stimulus identification?
Parallel processing
What is an example of plasticity/learning in response selection?
faster more accurate choosing
Anticipating where the target will be
What is an example of plasticity/learning in movement programming?
Getting better a throwing with correct parameters
What is the law of practice?
Improvements are rapid at first and much slower later.
What are characteristics of performance curves?
Plot performance against time
Increase for performance measures
Decrease for error measures
The law of practice states there is a rapid increase in performance at the start
What are some limitations of performance curves?
They DO NOT measure learning
Don’t necessarily characterize progress in relatively permanent changes in capability (only measure specific performance
Performance curves mask between subject effects (average data)
Individual differences are factored out
Why can you have the same data but different performance or error graphs?
Because it depends on the approach used by the experimenter. Some results can show the ceiling/floor effect faster than others.
What does practice result in?
Both temporary and relatively permanent gains
What is a transfer (retention) test?
1) Measure performance after temporary effects have dissipated
2) Tested under common conditions
(Retention = after a break)
(Transfer = switch in task)
What is transfer of learning?
Performance in one task contributes to performance in some other task
Positive: One task improves performance on another
Negative: One task degrades performance on another
What is percent transfer?
Gain dues to transfer task/gain due to regular practice
What are the measure problems of transfer of learning?
1) Shape of performance curves can be arbitrary
2) What values make up each measure are arbitrary
3) The measures are relative and provide mostly descriptive information
What is specific transfer?
Learning for a very specific task (no need for transfer) Useful for closed skills (Free throw)
What is generalized transfer?
Learning for a task where the skill can be executed in different settings. Useful for open skills (jump shot)
What is near transfer?
Goal skill is similar to the training task (jump shot)
What is far transfer?
The goal skill is quite different from the original practice setting (learning to run, jump or throw in elementary vs high school)
What is the evaluation of transfer based on?
Not performance during practice but the performance of the target or goal skill.
What is repetition?
Performing as close to the identical action over and over again
What is a problem of practicing with repetition?
The training may not be representative of target performance
May not be performing the skill correctly
Local minimum - find something that works but is not good enough
Why isn’t repetition a good form of practice?
It does not allow the individual to practice the process of solving the problem but instead simply repeating the solution
Why should performers be allowed to explore movements?
To find the best possible solution
The practice finding a solution through solving the problem
What is specificity of practice?
What you learn is very close to identical to what you practice
Benefits of practice will sometimes only extend to the exact context you are practicing
Change the environment can reduce any performance gains
Transfer is challenging
What is should the goal of practice be?
Perform the target skill as well as possible
Explore other ways of performing the target skill
What should happen during practice?
Avoid repeating by exploring different ways of performing
What should happen during testing?
Perform the target skill as effectively as possible
What is practice design?
emphasis is usually on improving performance during practice
What is specificity?
Restricting practice to idealized cases
What are learning and performance?
Example: Golfers think a good driving range performance will transfer to the course
What are perceptual skills?
When you practice specific skill, you are also enhancing the perceptual processing regarding the specific features of that skill
Why is there a reduced capacity demand on attention with practice?
When you practice a complex skill you reduce the amount of attention required for that skill (or for each component of the skill). You become adequate at the skill and no longer need to think about it while performing it.
-Reduced interference experienced by the two limbs in bimanual tasks
What can happen to motor programs error detection with practice?
One motor program can control an increasingly complex set of movements
Practice improves your ability to detect and analyze errors in performance on your own.
What is Fitt’s stages of learning?
Emphasizes both the perceptual and motor components of motor learning
What is stage 1 of Fitts’ stages?
Cognitive stage - Largely verbal, focus on goal identificaton, performance evaluation. What to do and how to do it. Thinking about what to focus on.
How do you apply stage one of Fitts’ stages?
Use instructions, film clips, demos. Refer to already learned skills. There are rapid gains in this stage
Performance is uncertain since it is building blocks for future development
What is stage 2 of Fitts’ stages?
Fixation stage - Shift away from think and toward optimal movement parameters
How do you apply stage 2 of fitts’s stage?
Shows steady improvement
Variability is expected as individual search for best movements/parameters
Environmental cues are learned (improves anticipation)
What is stage 3 of fitts’ stages?
Autonomous stage - After considerable practice performer attains expert performance. Motor programs are long and control complex movements. Fewer programs means more resources are available for attention.
How do you apply stage 3 of fitts’ stages?
Additional attention resources allows performer to perform higher order cognitions. Self error detection. Learning is slowed.
What are Bernstein’s stages of learning?
Emphasizes motor control and bio-mechanics
What is stage 1 of Bernsteins stages?
Reduce degrees of freedom - Controlling non-essential parts of the body. Extra resources can be used to control relevant parts of the body.
What is stage 2 of Bernsteins stages?
Release degrees of freedom - Success is obtained, improve performance by releasing degrees of freedom. Can create new more effective movements
What is stage 3 of Bernsteins stages?
Exploit passive dynamics - Maximize effectiveness and efficiency of movement by exploiting muscle elasticity, momentum and gravity.
What are some limitations of the stages of learning?
Not discrete nor is learning unidirectional
Theories are useful but fluid
Release degrees of freedom does not apply to all skills
Why did Fitts think performance could be regressive?
When performing under high stress, you might revert back to earlier stages of learning
