skill aquisiton

Question 1

ATTENTION PROCESSES

Answer 1

The learner must pay attention to the demonstration
using selective attention to pick out the relevant cues. A
teacher/coach should highlight the relevant cues.

Question 2

RETENTION PROCESSES

Answer 2

The learner must remember the model’s performance,
creating a mental picture. Retention can therefore be
improved through repeated demonstrations and mental
rehearsal.

Question 3

MOTOR REPRODUCTION

Answer 3

The learner modelling the skill i.e. copying the
performance. There is a need for the learner to replicate
the skill. Practice should meet the capabilities of the
learner. Performance can be improved by practice and

Question 4

MOTIVATIONAL PROCESSES

Answer 4

The learner needs to be motivated to learn the skill
they need to reproduce. The status of the model can
affect motivation. If they are highly skilled and respected
the learner is more likely to be motivated. External
reinforcement of the model will increase the motivation.

Question 5

MATCHING PERFORMANCE

Answer 5

Replication of skill modelling the behaviour of the coach

or demonstrator.

Question 6

POSITIVE TRANSFER

Answer 6

This occurs when prior learning promotes present learning e.g.
there might be positive transfer from gymnastics to diving.

Question 7

NEGATIVE TRANSFER

Answer 7

This occurs when prior learning has an inhibiting effect on the
learning of a new task e.g. there could be negative transfer for an experienced basketball
player beginning to play netball as the different weight of the ball could cause the player
to overshoot/overthrow

Question 8

ZERO TRANSFER

Answer 8

– In this case prior learning has no effect on present learning e.g. skills
learned in football would have no impact when learning to play golf.

Question 9

BI-LATERAL TRANSFER –

Answer 9

This is transfer between limbs.

Question 10

PROACTIVE TRANSFER

Answer 10

The effect that learning a skill has on a skill that has not yet been learned – this could be positive, negative or zero.

Question 11

RETROACTIVE TRANSFER

Answer 11

The effect that learning a skill has on a previously learned

skill, again the effect could be positive, negative or zero.

Question 12

The type of guidance used is affected by several factors:

Answer 12

The stage of learning of the individual – cognitive, associative or autonomous.
• The nature of the activity – complexity of the skill, safety etc.
• Individual preferences – most people have preferred styles of learning e.g. most
people like to see what the skill they are learning looks like.

Question 13

VISUAL guidance

Answer 13

This is used in all stages of learning, but particularly valuable in the cognitive
stage. (DEMONSTRATION) – this includes physical demonstration by coach
or other competent performers, the demonstration must be accurate so that the
learner builds up the correct picture.

Question 14

VERBAL guidance

Answer 14

This is often used by coaches to explain the task and describe the
actions. It is also used effectively to highlight important performance cues, used in conjunction with visual guidance. This is used in the associative stage of
learning to give more information for progress. Within the autonomous stage
verbal guidance is vital for marginal gains.

Question 15

MANUAL

Answer 15

This form of guidance involves physical contact / support. Often used
when there is an element of danger or taking the performer through the movement.
This might be more appropriate at the cognitive or associative stage.

Question 16

MECHANICAL

Answer 16

Uses equipment to aid the learning process. This might be a
float in swimming at the cognitive stage to allow the performer to swim or at the
autonomous stage to take them through difficult move as the use of a harness in
gymnastics

Question 17

types of feedback

Answer 17

Knowledge of results - tangible facts and figures that is simply outcome driven.
2. Knowledge of performance - non-tangible offering feedback on the movement and
performance regardless of outcome.
Positive Feedback
• Negative Feedback
• Terminal Feedback
• Concurrent Feedback

Question 18

who was welford

Answer 18

Welford (1968) was the first psychologist to apply the information processing approach
to skill acquisition. He saw it as having three stages: input of information (perception);
throughput (decision making); and output (response).

Question 19

outline whitings model

Answer 19

Whiting’s model
Splits information processing into:
1. Receptor system – these are the sensory organs, which receive the information.
2. Perceptual mechanism – this involves selective attention and filtering information.
3. Translatory mechanism – where decision making takes place, sorting the relevant
information and using both short and long term memory.
4. Effector mechanism – output messages are sent to the limbs via the nervous
system

Question 20

SHORT TERM SENSORY STORE

Answer 20

information from the senses passes through the
short-term sensory store (STSS). Information is only kept for ONE second and if it
is not considered important, it is forgotten.

Question 21

SHORT TERM MEMORY

Answer 21

(working memory) lasts for between 20-30 seconds
before we lose the information and we can only retain 5-9 items as a rule.
This capacity can be increased by grouping the information (chunking). This
information can be passed into the long term memory if practised.

Question 22

LONG TERM MEMORY

Answer 22

these are past experiences and the memory has a
limitless capacity. Once information is stored in the LTM it is not forgotten
although at times it is difficult to retrieve