Skill Aquisition Flashcards
What are the characteristics of a skill (9)
Learned Aesthetically pleasing Consistant Efficient Fluent Accurate Controlled Economical Goal Directed
Simple skills
Few subroutines, and does not require much thought (few decisions to be made)
Complex skills
Multiple subroutines, and decision making and coordination are important
Gross skills
Large muscle groups create powerful movements. Basic motor skills
Fine Skills
Small muscle groups create precise and accurate movements. Require coordination
Discrete skills
Clear beginning and end to the skill
Serial skills
Linked discrete skills that form a continuous movement
Continuous skills
No clear beginning or end, the end of one subroutine is the beginning of the next
Open skills
Unpredictable environment, that players respond and adapt to through making decisions
Closed skill
Predictable environment, means fewer decisions are required and skills are self paced
Self-paced skill
Performer is in control of the start and pace/speed of the skill
Externally-paced skill
The start of the skill, and the pace, is controlled by external factors
Low-Organisation skills
Simple skills that can be easily broken down into parts. Discrete subroutines can be practiced seperately
High-Organisation skill
Complex skills that cannot be easily separated into subroutines
Positive transfer
Previously learned skills aids the learning of a new skill
Negative transfer
Previously learned skills hinders the learning of a new skill
Bilateral transfer
When a skill learned using one limb can be transferred to the opposite limb
Zero transfer
Learning of one skill has no impact on the learning of another
whole practice
Skills are practiced as a whole, not broken down into sub-routines
Advantages and disadvantages of whole practice
+ Good for low organisation skills
+ Promotes kinaesthetic awareness
+ Useful for simple, continuous skills
- Difficult to learn complex skills this way
- Can overload novice performers
Whole-part-whole practice
Skill is performed as a whole, a weakness is identified to practice, then the skill is practiced as a whole again
Advantages and disadvantages of Whole-part-whole practice
+ Good for serial skills
+ Enables some kinaesthetic awareness
+ Useful for complex skills which can be clearly separated into subroutines
- Time consuming
- Not useful for highly organised skills
- Can reduce kinaesthetic understanding of skills
Progressive-part practice
Also known as chaining. The first part of a skill is learned and then the rest of the. parts are added in sequence
Advantages and disadvantages of progressive-part practice
+ Useful for highly organised and serial skills
+ Enables understanding of how the subroutines interact, increasing success and motivation
+ Aids correct timing of each routine
- Disjointed feel to the skill, affecting the flow
- Time consuming
Massed practice
When the performer practices continuously with no breaks
Distributed practice
When the session is broken down into smaller time blocks, with rest periods
Mental practice
The performer goes over the movement or skill in their head/mind without physically moving
Varied practice
Changing the practice type and the practice drills
Advantages and disadvantages of massed practice
+ Useful for continuous skills
+ Useful for those with high fitness and motivation, can also be used to increase fitness
+ Allows motor programmes to be stored
- can become repetitive and tedious
- Hard to focus for long periods
- Should not be used with dangerous skills
Advantages and disadvantages of distributed practice
+ Useful for those with low fitness and motivation
+ Useful for discrete skills and complex skills
+ Allows time for coaching and mental rehearsal
- Time consuming
Advantages and disadvantages of Mental practice
+ Builds confidence through visualising success
+ Controls arousal/anxiety
+ Can be completed when injured
- Not as useful as physical practice when used alone
- Limited effect for simple skills
Advantages and disadvantages of Varied practice
+ Best for open skills
+ Improves selective attention
+ More enjoyable/interesting, so increases motivation
+ Develops decision making and schema
- Time consuming
- Risk of negative transfer with changing practice
What are the characteristics of learners in the cognitive stage
Has to think about the skill Guidance needed Slow and uncoordinated Many mistakes Subroutines explored through trial and error
What are the characteristics of learners in the associative stage
Lots of practice needed to progress
Fewer errors
Greater consistency
Performs in a wider variety of situations
Performance is smoother, more accurate and more efficient
What are the characteristics of learners in the autonomous stage
Very few errors
High levels of smoothness, efficiency and accuracy
Performance is habitual
Able to analyse their own performance
Skill progresses at a slower rate, focussing on finer details
Positive feedback
Used when a performance is successful to positively reinforce the action
Negative feedback
Used when a performance in unsuccessful. Becomes more intrinsic as performers move through the stages of learning
Intrinsic feedback
Comes from within the performer, relating to how the performance felt. Gained from kinaesthetic
Knowledge of performance
Feedback referring to the quality of the movement and technique
Knowledge of results
Refers to the outcome of the performance
What are the causes of a learning plateau (6)
- Motivation
- Boredom
- Coaching
- Limit of ability
- Targets set too low
- Fatigue
What are the solutions to a learning plateau
- Set new targets
- Change of coach
- Use of praise
- Rest periods
- Variety of tasks
- Explain the concept of a learning plateau
- Provide feedback
Visual Guidance
The use of visual cues, such as demonstrations, to show a performer how a skill should be demonstrated
Verbal Guidance
The use of spoken instructions to clearly explain how a skill should be performed correctly
Manual Guidance
Involves physically altering the performers body position to ensure that the skill is correct
Mechanical Guidance
The use of equipment to help a performer learn how to perform a specific movement
Positives and Negatives of Visual guidance
+ Allows the learner to concentrate on key components
+ Effective when used with cognitive performers and with simple skills
+ Can show what a performer is doing wrong
- Does not fully explain reasoning behind coaching points
- Therefore cognitive performers may need additional guidance to be able to progress
Positives and Negatives of Verbal guidance
+ Provides additional information to support performers
+ Can be used to improve specific areas of weakness
- Can overload performers with information
- Difficult for performers to imagine how to perform the skill (especially cognitive)
Positives and Negatives of Manual guidance
+ Increases confidence
+ Reduces risk of injury
+ Allows complex skills to be broken down into simpler parts
- Learner can become over-reliant on guidance
- This may also mean that there is no improvement in kinaesthetic awareness
Positives and Negatives of Mechanical guidance
+ Makes the skill less dangerous
+ Helps to provide a general feel for the movement
+ Can help when performers are injured or disabled
- Learner can become over-reliant on the equipment
- Learners internal feedback may be less accurate due to the support
Operant Conditioning
Used to shape behaviour through the reinforcement of correct behaviour, and through weakening incorrect actions
Positive reinforcement
Encourages correct behaviour and strengthens the stimulus-response bond (praise)
Negative reinforcement
Encourages correct behaviour through removing a negative stimulus. Strengthens the S-R bond
Punishment
Used to discourage incorrect behaviour, and is used to weaken the S-R bond
What are the main features of ‘insight learning’ ?
Using experience and understanding to solve problems relating to the whole skill. Instead of trail and error, it encourages performers to apply their sporting knowledge to the situation
How does insight learning positively impact on performers
Provides self-satisfaction and motivation due to the performer working out the problem independently. Helps the performer to develop a better understanding of skills and scenarios
What are the stages of observational learning
Attention
Retention
Motor production
Motivation
How can you make demonstrations more likely to be copied
- Performed by a role model or someone of a similar ability
- Reinforced and consistent demonstrations
- Visually powerful to ensure the performers are paying attention
- Accurate demonstration with clear instructions
- Make it relevant to the performer
- Ensure it is within the performers ability level
What is social development theory
Learning by association with others. Skills can be learned from ‘More Knowledgeable Others’ (MKO)
What are the stages within the zone of proximal development
- What can I do alone?
- What can I do with help?
- What can I not do yet?
What are the stages of the information processing model
Input
Decision Making
Output
Feedback
Input stage
Performer picks up information from the display with the five senses
What are the 5 senses
Sight Auditory Touch Balence Kinesthesis
Selective Attention
- Part of the decision making/Perceptual mechanism stage
- Filter/ seperate relevant information from irrelevant information
- Perception
How to improve Selective Attention
- Increase the intensity of the stimulus
- Increase time to react
- Analysis of strengths and weaknesses
- Increase fitness levels
- Practice with distractions
- Mental rehearsal
- Make stimuli unique
- Highlight specific cues
- Optimal arousal levels/ motivation
- Warning signals
Perceptual mechanism
Detection
Comparison
Recognition
Detection stage
Performer has picked up relevant information and has identified what is important using senses and selective attention
Comparison stage
- Trying to match the information identified as important, to information already in the memory
- This is why the memory system is also important to the performer
Recognition stage
- The performer has used the information from the memory to identify an appropriate response
- This response can be put into action
Translatory mechanism
- Can help convert information so decisions can be made
- Uses past experiences so that the information received can be linked with these past experiences and sent to the memory system
- Similar actions that have been stored in the memory can bar recognised then used
- Stored in memory as a form of a motor programme
Effector Mechanism
Is the network of nerves that is responsible for delivering decisions made during the perceptual process to the muscles, so that the muscles can perform the action
Central executive
Control centre of the working memory model, it uses three other ‘systems’ to control all the information moving in and out of the memory system
Phonological loop
Temporary storage system for auditory information
- Phonological store
- Articulatory process
Visuospatial sketchpad
Responsible for dealing with spatial and visual information
- Visual cache
- Inner scribe
Episodic buffer
Coordinates the sight, hearing and movement information from the working memory into sequences to be sent to the long-term memory
Encoding
Is the conversation of information into codes
- Visual
- Verbal
- Semantic
storage
is the retention of this information
Retrieval
Recovery of the stored information
Short Term Sensory Store (STSS)
- Stimuli enters the brain
- Has large storage capacity
- Can only hold information for 0.25 - 1 seconds
- Selective attention is used to filter through important information
Short term memory
- Known as working memory- decision making takes place here
- Can hold approx 7 items
- Only information sent through the STSS
- To extend the length of the STM you must repeat information- verbal repetition and chunking
- Rehersed information is passed info into LTM
- If not reversed it is forgotten or lost
Long term memory
- Has a unlimited capacity
- Stores information for long periods of time
- Encoded information means it has been stored with meaning- LTM
- Skills/ motor programmes are stored in your LTM as they have been rehersed many times
- Autonomous performer- motor programmes are ‘over-learnt’ making sports actions automatic
- LTM only stores information
Working memory
- Picks up relevant information from the sporting environment
- Uses selective attention to filter irrelevant information
- Links to LTM, sending coded information for future storage and use
- From the relevant information, a memory trace is produced and sent LTM
What are the features and functions of the memory system
- Action is initiated by the WM sending a memory trace to the LTM
- WM limited capacity ( 7 items)
- Information overload means that some information is lost or ignored by the performer
- Working memory lasts for around 30s
- Important information is stored as a motor programme
- LTM has a large capacity
How to store information
Mr Francis Regularly Cheers At Rugby Competitions
Mental practice Focus Rewards Chunking Association Repetition Chaining
Schema Theory
Initial conditions (Recall Schema)
- Where am I ?
- Gathers information from environment (where the performers body is)
- Knowledge of environment (position of body and limbs)
Response Specifications (Recall schema)
- What do I need to do ?
- Available options and what has to be done
- Movements, what are we trying to achieve, the motor programme we need to use
- Direction, speed, force, specific demands of the environment
Sensory Consequences (Recognition schema)
- What did it feel like ?
- What the movement feels like- kinesthesis
- Information based on sensory feedback/ during and after movement- All sensory system
- Knowledge of performance
Response Outcome (Recognition Schema)
- What happened ?
- Was the movement successful- Knowledge of Result
- Comparisons are made between the actual response and the intended outcome. If action is unsuccessful adjustments can be made next time and the motor programme
How can coaches organise practices to develop schema
- Vary conditions
- Frequent feedback
- Praise and positive feedback
- Ensure skills being practiced are transferable to a game situation
- Identify skills that can be transferred to different sports
Reaction time and example
Time taken from onset of a stimulus to the onset of a response (involves no movement)
Eg. Period from hearing the gun to push of blocks
Movement time and example
Time taken to complete the task (after info has been processesed)
Eg. moving
Response time and example
The time taken from the onset of a stimulation to the completion (Response time= Reaction time + Movement time)
Eg. Time between hearing gun and hit
Simple reaction time
The specific response to one specific stimulus ( fast as it only has one stimulus to think about)
Eg. the starter gun at the beginning of the race
Choice reaction time
Choosing from lots of stimuli takes longer so response is slower
Eg. in a team game, make decision from varying stimuli
Hicks Law
Response time increases as number of choices increase
Eg. Serving in tennis- mix up the serves (slice etc)- so the opposition can’t predict
Psychological refractory period
A DELAY when a second stimulus is presented before the first has been processed leading the performer to freeze for a split second until second stimulus is processed
Eg. a dummy skill in football
Single channel hypothesis
Stimuli can only be processed ONE AT A TIME. Therefore, a second stimulus must wait until the first has been processed
Anticipation
When a performer tries to pre judge a stimulus by trying to work out what is happening before it does. Performers may use information from the environment/ cues like body language
Eg. researching opponents cues etc prior to the game to gain an advantage
Temporal anticipation
Pre judging WHEN the stimulus is about to happen
Spatial anticipation
Pre judging WHERE the stimulus is about to happen and WHAT it is
How to improve response time (4)
- Use mental practice
- Train the specific stimulus expected in a game
- Learning to focus and concentrate in the game to pick up stimulus early
- Improving fitness
How does mental practice improve response time
Going over the task in the mind prior to the action. Response preparation process is improved and the action can be predicted so much quicker.
Good for closed skills and serial skills when the environment is predictable
How does training the specific stimulus expected in a game improve response time
Goal keeper practicing penalties to the left if the opposition taker is left footed
How does learning to focus and concentrate in the game to pick up stimuli early improve response time
Can do this by making the stimulus intense making areas out, louder stimulus/noise or brighter bib
How does improving fitness improve response time
Improved reaction- intense interval training and plyometrics may improve speed and power in the movement part of response
