Physical Education Exam Terms Flashcards
Motor learning
Changes in internal processes that determine a person’s capability for producing a motor task.
The level of a person’s motor learning improves with practice and is often inferred by observing relatively stable levels of the person’s motor performance.
Discrete skill
skills which are one unit long, with a fixed beginning, and ending
eg. hitting a baseball, shooting a gun, throwing a ball (most sport skills), striking a typewriter key
Serial skill
contains a series of discrete movements
eg. a gymnastics or a diving routine, changing an automobile tire, playing the piano.
Continuous skill
tasks with no recognizable beginning and end - flows on for several minutes
eg. cycling, swimming, running, steering a car, pursuit rotor
Individual differences
Differences in people’s performance that are caused by differences in their stable and enduring qualities
Specificity hypothesis
A view proposed by Franklin Henry that a large number of specific, independent, and different motor abilities are the basis for every type of motor performance.
Reaction time
The interval of time that elapses from the presentation of an unanticipated stimulus to the beginning of a person’s response.
Arousal
The level of activation of the central nervous system; varies from extremely low levels during sleep to extremely high levels during intense physical activity and excitement.
Inverted-U principle
Describes the relatively stable relationship that exists between arousal level and performance; specifically, as a person’s arousal level increases, his or her performance increases—but only to a point. If the person’s arousal continues to increase, performance begins to decrease.
Memory
The capacity of people to retain and utilize information in various ways for various lengths of time; comprised of three components: short-term sensory store, short-term memory, and long-term memory.
