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)