Motor Skill Classification

Question 1

What are the three one-dimension classifications of motor skill

Answer 1

1. Size of musculature
2. Distinctiveness of movement
3. Stability of the environment

Question 2

what does the size of musculature affect

Answer 2

Precision of movement

Question 3

What are 2 types of motor skills affected by size of musculature

Answer 3

Gross motor skills
Fine motor skills

Question 4

What are gross motor skills

Answer 4

Involve large muscles and precision of movement is not as important
Smooth coordination of muscles is essential
Ex) Olympic lift

Question 5

What are fine motor skills

Answer 5

Require control of small muscles to achieve a goal
Usually involve a high degree of precision of movement and hand-eye coordination
Ex) writing, stitching, art, instruments

Question 6

What is the distinctness of movements

Answer 6

Defining beginning and endpoints of movement

Question 7

What are three classifications of distinctiveness of movements

Answer 7

Discrete motor skills
Serial motor skills
Continuous motor skills

Question 8

Discrete motor skills

Answer 8

Clearly defined beginning and endpoints
Ex) flipping light switch, throwing dart, downward dog

Question 9

Serial motor skills

Answer 9

A series of discrete motor skills performed in specific order
- individual skills in order
- sequence, routine
Ex) yoga, dance, synchronized swimming, figure skating

Question 10

Continuous motor skills

Answer 10

No obvious beginning and end points
- repeat same movement
Ex) swimming, skating, running, XC skiing

Question 11

What are 2 classifications of stability of environment

Answer 11

Closed motor skills
Open motor skills

Question 12

Closed motor skills

Answer 12

• performer in a stable and predictable environment
• self paced task
• object waits to be acted on by performer
  Ex) darts, volleyball serve, diving, free throw, swimming in pool

Question 13

Open motor skills

Answer 13

• performer in an ever-changing, unpredictable environment
• an externally paced task
• performer needs to react to environment to be successful
  Ex) vball pass comes over net, archery hitting moving target, wrestling, open water

Question 14

What are the 3 systems of motor skill classification on

Answer 14

Continuums
Open <-> closed
Fine <—>gross

Question 15

Closed to open baseball swing

Answer 15

Open to closed
T-ball, pitching machine, batting practice, live pitching in a game

Question 16

Fine to gross example

Answer 16

Typing, dart throwing, ball throwing, Kipling pull up

Question 17

Performance

Answer 17

• observable behaviour
• execution of a skill at specific time and specific situation (can be luck)

Question 18

Learning

Answer 18

• a change in capability to perform a skill (that)
• must be inferred (from)
• a relatively permanent improvement in performance (as)
• a result of practice or experience

Question 19

Characteristics of performance

Answer 19

• observable behaviour
• temporary
• may not be due to practice
• may be influenced by performance variables (environmental conditions, alertness, anxiety, fatigue)

Question 20

Characteristics of learning

Answer 20

• inferred from performance
• relatively permanent changes in the capabiity to perform a skill
• due to practice
• not influenced by performance variables

Question 21

What is a performance variable

Answer 21

Anything that may influence performance at any given time
- alertness
- anxiety
- fatigue
- uniqueness of the setting

Question 22

What are the 6 general performance characteristics of skill learning

Answer 22

1. Improvement
2. Consistency
3. Stability
4. Persistence
5. Adaptability
6. Reduced attention demands

Question 23

Improvement

Answer 23

• performance of a skill generally improves over time
• get closer to goal/target/criterion
• higher level of skill later vs earlier
• practice usually positively affects performance (practicing incorrectly can lead to decreased performance and/or after practice)

Question 24

Consistency

Answer 24

• less variability in performance
• from one attempt to another, performance characteristics become more similar
• starts off as being variable, with time it becomes more consistent (can become consistent without improvement. Easy to fix if consistently wrong)

Question 25

Stability

Answer 25

• influence of perturbations (unexpected/often sudden happenings) on the skill
• internal(stress) or external(environment) conditions can disrupt performance
• as learning happens, increased ability to perform skill despite perturbations

Question 26

Persistence

Answer 26

• improved performance lasts over increasing lengths of time
• ex) between practices
• shows permanence of performance improvement

Question 27

Adaptability

Answer 27

• performer is able to adapt performance to different personal, task and environmental situations
• also referred to as generalizability
• performance context is never the same
• as learning increases, ability to perform tasks in different contexts

Question 28

What 3 things is adaptability specific to

Answer 28

Personal factors, skill/tasks, environment

Question 29

Reduced attention demand

Answer 29

• as learner progresses the amount of attention needed to perform the skill decreases
• can perform another skill simultaneously
  Ex) texting and driving

Question 30

What is difference between stability and adaptability

Answer 30

Stability - unexpected
Adaptability - can prepare for