task 7 - skill learning

Question 1

perceptual-motor skills

Answer 1

learned movment patterns guied by sensory inputs

• learnt first

Question 2

open skill

Answer 2

a skill in which movements are made on the basis of predictions about changing demands of the environment

Question 3

cognitive skill

Answer 3

a skill that requires problem solving or the application of strategies
- learn second

Question 4

closed skill

Answer 4

a skill that involves performing predefined movements that, ideally never vary

Question 5

power law of practice

Answer 5

a law stating that the degree to which a practice trial improves perfromance diminishes after a certain pointm so that additional trials are needed to further improve the skill; learning occurs quickly at first, then slows

• can overcome with feedback

Question 6

practice types

Answer 6

• massed (short-term)
• spaced (long-term)
• constant
• variable (the best results)

Question 7

fitts 3 stages learning model

Answer 7

1. cognitive stage; in this stage an individual must exert some effort to encode the skill on the basis of information gained through observation, instruction, and trial and error
2. associative stage; in this stage learners begin using stereotyped actions when performing a skill and rely less on actively recalled memories of rules
3. autonomous stage; in this stage a skill or subcomponents of the skill become motor programs

Question 8

expertise and talent

Answer 8

• talent → people who seem to master skill with little effort are described as being talented or gifted for that skill
• expertise → people who preform a skill better than most

Question 9

rotary pursuit task: how do genetics affect this?

Answer 9

• twin study with faternal vs identical study. both trained to do a task
  
  • identical → progressed (practice increased the role of the genes)
  • faternal → dissimilar (practice made them more different)

Question 10

transfer specificity

Answer 10

• restricted applicability of some learned skills to specific situations
  
  • realated to transfer-appropriate processing

Question 11

identical elements theory

Answer 11

transfer of learned abilities relys on the number of elements in a new situation that are identical to those in situation in which the skills were learnt

Question 12

generalization of learning

Answer 12

when we apply exisitng skill memories to performance of new skills, we are generalizing based on past experience

Question 13

basal ganglia: input and output

Answer 13

input ⇒ from cortical neurons, providing it with information about sensory stimuli person is experiencing (similar to hippocampus)

output ⇒ basal ganglia sends output signals mainly to thalamus and to brainstem (different to hippocamus)

Question 14

lesions: impair skill learning for basal ganglia

Answer 14

does not affect formation and recall of memories for events and facts

• the part that involves generating motor responses based on environmental cues

Question 15

lesions: radial maze task

Answer 15

• studies of perceptual-motor skill learning in rats
  
  • when placed in a maze there is food in one arm of the maze and they have to try and not go into the same arm
    
    • rats with basal ganglia damage can learn this but those with dysfunctional hippocampus cannot
    • teach rats to enter only illuminated arms in the maze, hippocampus damage can learn this but those with basal ganglia damage cannot

Question 16

parkinsons brain view

Answer 16

• reduction in the number of neurons in the brainstem that modulate activity in the basal ganglia and cerebral cortex
  
  • dopamine levels are greatly reduced
  • without proper dopamine levels interactions between neurons in cerebral cortex and basal ganglia become locked into fixed patterns → disrupting control of movements

Question 17

motor prosthesis

Answer 17

→ An electromechanical device that can help people recover lost abilities to learn and perform perceptual-motor skills.

→ Has to be consciously controlled by their users

Question 18

how does it work? controlling a machine

Answer 18

• There is a surgical procedure to implant electrodes in a person’s nervous system, these are attached to a person’s peripheral nervous system rather than implanted in their brain
• The electrodes collect electrical signals from neurons and transmit those signals to a computer for processing. the computer will use those signals to determine how to control the movements of the robotic arm

Question 19

wheres the learning present? controlling a machine

Answer 19

• They used a metaphor in the reading that says how the patients are like jedis, they must learn how to use “the force” or in their case how to generate neural activity that enables the computer to be able to generate the actions to initiate
• This learning takes time because the electrodes that are connected to only a few neurons in a single part of the nervous system so this is different to the usual millions of neurons in many areas of the brain contributing to the performance of motor skills