The Motor Learning Process Flashcards
The Motor Learning Process
“A process by which an organism benefits from experience so that its future behaviour is better adapted to its environment”
Capability to produce skilled actions
Direct result of practice or experience
Cannot be observed (internal)
Two types of memory
Declarative Memory
• A.k.a. Explicit memory
• E.g. Roy Hodgson is the England manager
• Conscious recollection of experiences and facts that can be described/verbalised
Procedural Memory
• A.k.a. Implicit memory
• E.g. How to ride a bike
• Cannot be described/verbalised but is expressed through performance
How do you create declarative memories?
Encoding: transferring information into permanent
storage, from short-term memory (STM) to long-term memory (LTM).
Retrieval: getting the information out of storage so
it can be used.
How do you create procedural memories?
This is the key to motor learning! In sports training
we aim to be able to do things quickly and accurately without have to consciously think about them
Transition from using declarative to procedural
memory that involves a series of stages (Fitts & Posner, 1967; Anderson,1983)
The stages of the learning process?
Cognitive - Associative - Autonomous
The Cognitive Stage
Develop declarative memories about the steps
involved for the skill you are trying to learn (via rehearsal)
Performance of the skill involves controlled
processing
Each stage in skill execution is consciously controlled
and monitored
Performance is usually slow, jerky, highly susceptible to distractions and prone to error due to conscious control and memory
The Associative Stage
Begin to chunk together steps in to larger memories
(procedural memories). Sub-steps get stored lower down in the chain of command.
Beginning to store more and more stimulus-
response associations in memory making motor control more efficient
The Autonomous Stage
Execution of the skill now involves automatic
processing
Skill execution relies on procedural memories (i.e.,
motor programs) that once initiated run without the use of attentional or working memory resources
The skill is executed unconsciously as it is thought to
involve “muscle memory” rather than high-level
cognitive control.
Has fewer errors, is faster and more accurate
Expert induced amnesia is common
What is automaticity?
“the ability to execute a skill using no (or very few) information processing resources (i.e.,
attention and working memory)” (Gray, 2015)
resources available to process other sources of information not directly required for the task
acquired through learning and practice
The case of H.M
Had the medial parts of his
temporal lobe removed when he was 27 for the treatment of a severe case of epilepsy.
Produced some profound memory deficits. Hippocampus helps to produce new memories.
Got the more common Anterograde amnesia (couldn’t form new memories after)
Mirror Drawing Test
H.M.’s performance improved each time he tried the
task even tough he did not recall having seen it before!
Evidence of some form of long term memory
Implications to memory from H.M findings
Declarative memories are formed and stored in
different brain area than procedural memories.
Learning new skills does not always require the
development of new long-term declarative memories
Implicit learning: “learning by doing”
Many factors influence progression through these
stages:
Consolidation during rest Schedule of practice Feedback Transfer of skills
Capitalization vs compensation learning
Capitalisation: Acquiring skills by building on the
strengths that are naturally given
Compensation: Acquiring skills as a necessity to
overcome the weaknesses that are naturally given
