Skill Ac Flashcards
Affordance
Affordances are the opportunities or possibilities for action that an environment offers to an individual, based on their capabilities.
eg. A door handle affords pulling or pushing depending on its design and your hand’s ability to grip it.
Attractor States
Attractor states are stable patterns of behaviour or movement that a system naturally adopts.
eg. When you ride a bike, your body naturally finds a stable pattern of balance and pedalling—this stable pattern is an attractor state.
Complex System
A complex system is made up of many interconnected parts that interact in unpredictable ways.
eg. The human brain is a complex system where millions of neurons interact to produce thoughts, emotions, and actions
Constraints
Constraints are factors that limit or guide how a system can behave or how an action can be performed.
eg. Gravity is a constraint that limits how high you can jump, influencing how you move.
Coordinative Structures
Coordinative structures are groups of muscles and joints that work together to produce a movement.
eg. When throwing a ball, your shoulder, elbow, and wrist muscles coordinate to perform the action smoothly.
Degeneracy
Degeneracy refers to the ability of different elements of a system to perform the same function in different ways.
eg. You can drink water using a cup, a bottle, or your hands—different methods, same outcome.
Degrees of Freedom
Degrees of freedom refer to the number of independent ways in which a system can move or function.
eg. Your arm has multiple degrees of freedom because it can move in several directions—up, down, forward, backward, and rotate.
Dynamical Systems Theory
This theory explains how complex systems change over time through interactions between their parts, leading to patterns of behaviour.
eg. Learning to swim involves adjusting your movements until you find a stable pattern that keeps you afloat and moving forward.
Environmental Constraints
These are factors in the environment that limit or guide behaviour or action
eg. A strong wind is an environmental constraint that affects how you walk or run, causing you to lean into it.
Invariant Properties
Invariant properties are features of the environment or task that remain constant.
eg. The force of gravity is an invariant property that always pulls objects downward, no matter what.
Organismic Constraints
These are limitations or characteristics of the individual that influence their behaviour or movement.
eg. A person’s height is an organismic constraint that affects how they perform in sports like basketball or gymnastics.
Information-Movement Coupling (Perception-Action Coupling)
This refers to the connection between how you perceive your environment and how you move within it.
eg. When driving, your perception of the road and traffic conditions directly influences how you steer, brake, or accelerate.
Direct Perception
Direct perception is the idea that we can perceive the environment directly without needing to process or interpret it mentally.
eg. When you see a path, you immediately perceive it as something you can walk on, without needing to analyse it.
Indirect Perception
Indirect perception suggests that perception requires mental processing and interpretation of sensory information.
eg. Reading a map requires you to interpret symbols and lines to understand where you are and how to get to your destination.
Informational Constraints
These are constraints related to the availability or type of information in the environment that guides behaviour.
eg. Fog is an informational constraint that reduces visibility, making it harder to navigate or drive safely.
Phase Transitions
Phase transitions refer to the change from one stable state to another within a system, often triggered by changes in constraints.
eg. When water heats up to a certain point, it transitions from liquid to gas (boiling)—a phase transition.
Self-Organisation
Self-organisation is the process where a system naturally forms patterns or structures without external control.
eg. A flock of birds flying in formation is an example of self-organisation, where each bird follows simple rules that lead to a coordinated pattern.
Newell’s Model of Constraints
A model that explains how movement and behavior emerge from the interaction of individual (organismic), environmental, and task constraints.
eg. In soccer, a player’s ability to score depends on their skill level (organismic), the condition of the field (environmental), and the rules of the game (task).
Task Constraints
These are limitations or requirements related to the specific task or activity being performed.
eg. The rule that you must dribble the ball while running in basketball is a task constraint that shapes how you play.
Variant Properties
Variant properties are aspects of a task or environment that can change.
eg. The weather is a variant property when playing an outdoor sport—it can change and affect how the game is played.
