Skill Acquisition Flashcards
What is a ‘skill’?
A learned ability to bring about a pre-determined result with maximum certainty and efficiency
What are basic skills?
Are easy to do and can be transferred between sports. Need to learn how to perform basic skills before developing complex skills
What are complex skills?
Require greater coordination and control and are sport specific e.g. Butterfly in swimming
Require a greater deal of practice and are not as transferable
What is an open skill?
A skill which is affected by many external environmental factors e.g. When returning a ball in tennis - ball height, going, speed
What is a closed skill?
A skill only affected by the performer e.g. High jump/running
What is a cognitive skill?
Involves thought processes and intellectual ability e.g. Best formation for a team
What is a perceptual skill?
A skill that involves the detection and interpretation of stimuli from the environment e.g. Opposing player marking intended player has to pass to someone else
What is a motor skill?
A skill that involves physical movement and muscular control e.g. Perfect serve
What is a psychomotor skill?
A skill that involves combination of movement and perceptual ability e.g. Been tackled sees teammate performs a pass to move ball on
What is a discrete skill?
A skill that has a clear start, middle and end Short duration Single specific skills To repeat must start again E.g. Catching
What is a serial skill?
A skill that is formed in a linked series of discrete skills
Has a set order/sequence
E.g. Triple jump
What is a continuous skill?
A skill that has no clear beginning or end
Extended time duration
End of one movement is start of the next
E.g. Swimming/cycling
What is a gross skill?
A skill that involves large muscle movements and groups at one time
Not precise movement
Includes many fundamental movement patterns
E.g. Walking, running & jumping
What is a fine skill?
A skill that involves small muscle groups
Intricate movements
Precise and involves high levels of hand-eye coordination
Accuracy
E.g potting a ball in snooker
What is a self-paced skill?
A skill that a performer controls the start of the movement, speed and are usually closed skills e.g. Golf swing
What is an externally paced skill?
A skill which is initiated by other actions
Change action speed in relation to others actions or changes in the environment
Usually open skills e.g. Waiting for game to start
What is the difference between skill and ability?
A skill is learnt
You can forget a skill
Abilities are genetic/natural
Enduring , development can occur by training - building blocks for learning a variety of skills
What is motor ability?
Involves movement - links with fitness components
What is perceptual ability?
Involves processing of information and then implementing movement
Three types of receptors in Whiting’s model are…
Exteroceptors, proprioceptors and interoceptors
What is an exteroceptor?
Information gathered from outside the body - extrinsic e.g. Sight, sound & touch
What is a proprioceptor?
Information gathered from inside the body via nerve receptors in the muscles and joints - intrinsic - kinaesthetic awareness (how it feels)
What is an interoceptor?
Information from the internal, passed to the CNS to control functions e.g. Blood flow, blood pressure and body temperature
What are the perceptual mechanisms in Whiting’s model?
Part of the brain which perceives information from the sense organs about the surroundings and gives it meaning
What are the translatory mechanisms in Whiting’s model?
Part of the brain which makes decisions and sorts out and process the few relevant bits of information
What are the effector mechanisms in Whiting’s model?
Part of brain which carries out the decisions and sends messages via the nervous system to the limbs and body parts which act out the relevant skill
Order of the basic model for information processing?
Input: stimuli to senses
Decision making: what stimuli mean and what to do
Output: motor programme runs muscle (performance)
Feedback
What is perception?
Stimulus identification
Performer needs to identify and interpret which information is relevant and important
What are the three elements of perception?
DCR
Detection: realising there is a stimulus
Comparison: allows us to realise the thing you need to concentrate on
Recognition: allows us to remember if we have seen it before
What happens when the unexpected happens?
There is a slight delay in our reaction…
Single channel/limited proceeding capacity - only one stimulus at a time
One signal has to be cleared before another can be responded
Can only respond to one stimulus at a time
What is attention?
The amount of information we can cope with
We have limited attentional capacity
Performer must attend to only relevant info and ignore irrelevant info - selective attention
Some parts of a performance become automatic…
Information to those parts do not require attention - performer can develop new elements of skill as have time to attend
How can the coach help with attention?
Need to help the performer take advantage of spare attentional capacity
Need to direct attention of the performer to enable them to concentrate and reduce the chance of attention switching to distraction
Selective attention is…
The process of sorting out relevant. Information from the many received
Attention passes the info to the STM which gives time for conscious analysis
Naturally attend to information that is:
- Familiar
- Expected
- Bold
- Loud
- Contrasting
- Unusual
How can a coach help train selective attention?
- Coaches making cues more obvious
- Better anticipation
- Mental rehearsal
- Performing at optimum level of arousal motivation
- More experience the better
What are the memory stages?
Receptor system (input) Short term sensory store (STSS) Selective attention Short term memory (STM) (Long term memory [LTM]) Decision making Motor output Feedback
What is the receptor system/sensory input?
Information received from the surroundings
What is the STSS?
Receives info and holds it for less than a second prior to processing. Info deemed unimportant is lost and replaced by new info
What is selective attention?
Process of sorting out relevant bits of info from the many which are received
What is the STM?
Keeps info for short period of time (20-30s) after it has been deemed worthy of attention
STM can carry 5-9 separate items of info
Info can be used for problem solving or passed onto the LTM for permanent storage
Improving (STM) information retention:
- Knowing how (educate performer about skill details, explain what to do)
- Brevity (be brief, no overload)
- Clarity (advice/instruction simple, separate similar skills to distinguish between them)
- Chunking (more info can be in STM of lumped together)
- Organisation (organise the process, ensure info is meaningful)
- Association/chaining (link new info with old)
- Practice (repetition will enable it to be remembered)
What is the LTM?
Retains info for long periods of time
Only very well leaned info is stored
Permanent retention of info through repetition or rehearsal
LTM = limitless, not forgotten, may require a code to recall
Situations and the LTM:
- when faced with new situation, relevant stimuli are passed on from the STM- where a comparison can be made with any similar experience
- recognition occurs: similarities are notes and decision made quickly
- situation new: a motor programme will be formed based on available knowledge - this may take slightly longer and delay decision making
Improving LTM…
- improve STM capability
- ‘OVERLEARNING’ (automatic) of motor programmes
- modified games and realistic practise situations
- making the info relevant and meaningful
- using mental rehearsal - to visualise a skill or movement - often prompted by tape/film or talk from a coach
Mental practice can be used to…
- Imagine success
- Create a mental picture of skill
- To control arousal level in advance of performance
- To build self-confidence
- To provide a mental warm up - promotes a state of readiness
Reaction time is the time between the..
the onset of a stimulus and the start of a response
The stimulus could be:
Kinaesthesia Hearing Touch Vision Pain Smell
Movement time is the time between the…
Start of the movement and its completion
Response time is the time from the onset of a…
Stimulus to the completion of the movement
Simple reaction is…
Only one option
Is relevant to a single stimulus and a single possible response
E.g. Gun shot in 100m sprint
Choice reaction is…
Several stimuli are given but only one must be selected for response
More choices a person has, the more information needs processing and the longer it takes to process the information, the slower the reaction time
E.g. 2 people driving for a ball
Hick’s law states:
Reaction time increases as the number of stimuli increases
More stimuli the longer the reaction time
Flattens slightly-only so much stimuli can be taken in
Psychological refractory period (PRP) is when:
The presentation of a second stimulus causes the processing of information to slow down
Causes a time lag (PRP) between the relevant stimulus and an appropriate response
E.g. Selling a dummy in response
Factors affecting reaction time are:
- Age: older we get reaction times slow down
- Gender: males quicker, women’s decreases less
- Stimulus intensity: increase in intensity will improve reaction time
- Height: tall people have slower RT due to greater distance the information has to travel from performers brain to active muscles
- Arousal levels: RT better when the performer is alert but not over aroused, must attend to important cues
- Anticipation: body language/position may give cues e.g. Dummy
Training selective attention by…
- Coaches making cues more obvious
- Better anticipation
- Mental rehearsal
- Performing at optimum level of arousal, motivation
- The more experience the better
Anticipation is:
The ability to predict future events from early signals or past events.
RT can be speeded up if the performer learns to anticipate certain actions
Good performers…
start running motor programmes before the stimulus is fully recognised.
They anticipate strength, speed and direction of stimulus
Enables them to eliminate PRP
Opponents reaction times can be increased by…
Increasing the number of choice of stimulus they have
Increasing the number of fakes or dummies (Dawson/Robinson)
Psychological refractory period is the…
Presentation of a second stimulus will slow you down. Reaction time slowed as precious stimuli must be cleared before second can be processed (single-channel memory)
Why does the psychological refractory period happen?
Single-channel theory
Attentional switching
Single-channel theory:
A performer can only attend to one thing at a time so information is processed sequentially
Attentional switching is:
Transferring attention from one situation to another.
Although attention can be shared between situations, only one would be attended to at a time
How to improve response time:
- Detecting relevant cues - pick out relevant stimulus from other possible ones, choice reaction time reduced by eliminating others
- Decision making - work on set pieces in open skill situations so that an ‘automatic’ complex response can be made to a simple open stimulus
- Change in attentional focus - practice switching of concentration quickly from one to another
- Controlling anxiety - anxiety would increase response times - reduce by calming strategies
- Creating optimum motivation - psyching up
- Warm-up
One of the most effective methods of improving response time is…
Anticipation
2 types of anticipation:
Spatial
Temporal
Spatial anticipation is…
Predicting what will happen (badminton player notices change in shot action
Temporal anticipation is…
Predicting when it will happen (defender attempts to guess when the attacker will pass the ball)
Motor programme is…
A set of movements stored as a whole in the LTM
Contains all the information required to make a movement; which muscles to use, the order in which muscles are used and the phasing and degree of contraction of muscles
Executive motor programme is a …
Stored programme that is recalled by the memory when a specific action is required, and transmits the motor commands via nerve impulses to the relevant muscles, allowing movement to occur.
EMP is recalled when…
Needed, modified after execution and stored for future reference
Each EMP has an …
Organised series of subroutines
Subroutines are…
Component parts that make up an executive motor programme
Two types of motor programmes…
Open loop control
Closed loop control
Open loop control:
Applies to the executive programmes whose subroutines are SIMPLE and WELL-LEARNED
AUTOMATIC
completed RAPIDLY without time for feedback
Apply to CLOSED and SELF-PACED skills
(Tennis serve/discus throw)
Order of open loop control:
Motor control mechanism->motor commands->movement
Closed loop control…
Applies to ongoing movements
Only part of the information necessary to complete a movement is sent to effector organs (neuromuscular system)
Remaining information is sent following feedback via kinaesthesis
Example performing a gymnastic move/complex dive
We need feedback in closed loop control to complete movement is because a previous…
Part of the skill can have an effect on the next part of the skill and therefore effecting the skill as a whole
Order of closed loop control is:
Motor control mechanism
->motor commands
->movement. ⤴Kinaesthetic
Feedback
Factors affecting the efficiency of the information processing system and strategies for improvement include:
Improving selective attention
Improving memory
Improving reaction time
Why skills are not always successful
Improve selective attention by:
Increase intensity of stimulus Motivate/arouse the performer/alert Focus on one cue Learn to ignore irrelevant stimuli Lots of relevant practise/rehearsal Mental rehearsal/imagery Transfer from previous experience to help with explanation/expectation
Improving memory:
Rehearse/overlearning Associate with familiar information Make information meaningful Make experience enjoyable Make stimuli contrasting Chunking/chaining/break up skill Imagery/mental rehearsal
Improving response times:
Detecting cue Detecting relevant stimuli Decision making Change in attentional focus Controlling anxiety Creating optimum motivation Warm up
Why skills are not always successful :
- Beginners unable to identify the appropriate stimuli
- information overload, insufficient capacity to complete the whole skill
- may lack the range of responses to deal with the situation
- demand for rapid decision making, unable to concentrate on response and the skill breaks down, unable to decide on response
- limited range of responses, not able to be adjusted to suit the demands of the situation
