Week 6

Question 1

What is a Motor Skill?

Answer 1

The observational attempt of a person to produce a voluntary action to achieve a specific goal/task.

Question 2

What is a Gross Motor Skill?

Answer 2

Large muscle groups involved; low precision required

example: butterfly stroke or running

Question 3

What is a Fine Motor Skill?

Answer 3

High precision required; hand-eye coordination necessary

example: Archery or Darts

Question 4

What is a Closed Skill?

Answer 4

Performed in a stable environment with nothing affecting the skill
example: skills in football training

Question 5

What is an Open Skill?

Answer 5

Performed in a changing environment that can affect the skill
example: skills in football match

Question 6

What is Motor Learning?

Answer 6

Changes in internal process that determine a person’s capability for producing a motor task. The acquisition of knowledge or skills through study, experience, or being taught.

Question 7

What is the Positive Transfer of Learning?

Answer 7

Learning can be positively transferred from practise to game situation when drills are similar in nature to the criterion task

Question 8

What is the Negative Transfer of Learning?

Answer 8

Activities that may negatively transfer to the criterion task need to be avoided when performance is critical

Question 9

What is the Near Transfer of Learning?

Answer 9

Transfer of learning is specific and closely approximates the ultimate situation

Example: Practising various plays before a volleyball tournament

Question 10

What is the Far Transfer of Learning?

Answer 10

Useful for when interested in developing more general capabilities for a variety of skills; best applies when beginning to learn a skill such as the overhand throw, which you might be able to use previous skills for such as a baseball or an American football throw

Question 11

What is Transfer-Appropriate Processing (Lee, 1988)

Answer 11

The notion that the best learning experiences are those that approximate most closely the processing activities of the real world

Question 12

What are the 3 stages of Motor Learning?

Answer 12

Cognitive, Associative and Autonomous

Question 13

What is the Cognitive Stage?

Answer 13

• Begins when task/skill is first introduced
• Performance is cognitively demanding and often slow
• Really conscious of completing the skill
• Instructions are required to correct errors

Question 14

What is the Associative Stage?

Answer 14

• Performance becomes more controlled and consistent
• Fewer errors thus less instructions to fix errors
• Focus is more on the finer movements and details

Question 15

What is the Autonomous Stage?

Answer 15

• Performance is automatic
• Attention can be drawn to other aspects such as creativity or strategy
• Performance improvements are slower and less obvious
• Main aim of the coach is to maintain motivation

Question 16

What are Reinforcers in Operant Conditioning?

Answer 16

Responses from the environment that increase the probability of a behaviour being repeated

Question 17

What are Punishers in Operant Conditioning?

Answer 17

Responses from the environment that decrease the probability of a behaviour being repeated. Punishment weakens behaviour

Question 18

What are Criticisms of Associative Learning?

Answer 18

• Study is based on the behaviour of rats and comparing them to human behaviour; humans are more ‘cognitive’ creatures
• Humans have the knowledge to correct behaviour after less trials compared to another animal

Question 19

What is the Closed Loop Model?

Answer 19

• Adam (1971)
• When completing a skill, the brain sends instructions to the body to complete the skill, then feedback and knowledge of results from the environment enables the performer to compare their movement with the ideal movement and can help the performer improve the movement of the skill

Question 20

What are Criticisms of the Closed Loop Theory?

Answer 20

• Individual performing the skill is not aware of all the possible mistakes they are making, which may slow down improvement
• Many movements are performed really quickly and it may be difficult for the individual to perform the skill accurately

Question 21

What is Schmidt’s Schema Theory?

Answer 21

Rather than storing an infinite number of references of correctness, the brain stores relationships between certain elements; referred to as a schema

Question 22

What is Nominal task difficulty?

Answer 22

Includes only the characteristics of the task, irrespective of the person performing it or the conditions under which the task is performed

Question 23

What is Functional task difficulty?

Answer 23

Refers to how challenging the task is relative to the skill of the individual performing the task and to the conditions under which it is being performed

Question 24

What are Explicit and Implicit practises?

Answer 24

Explicit practises include the coach being the main source of fixing errors and helping improve skills by being declarative
Implicit practises include the athlete fixing his own errors with practise and with little to no instructions

Question 25

What is Intrinsic Feedback?

Answer 25

Information athletes receive as a natural consequence of moving, provided by the athletes’ own knowledge

Question 26

What is Extrinsic Feedback?

Answer 26

Not a natural consequence of executing a response; must be provided by an external source such as a teammate or a coach

Question 27

What 4 possible functions could extrinsic feedback serve?

Answer 27

1) Motivation- energises learners to increase their efforts to achieve the goals they have set for themselves
2) Reinforcement- learners repeat actions they have produced, or, in the case of punishment, to avoid repeating the actions
3) Information- indicates the kinds of things learners should do to refine their movement patterns and correct their errors
4) Dependence- learners are too reliant on instructional feedback and do not perform as well when the feedback is removed

Question 28

What is Associative Learning?

Answer 28

The process by which an association between two stimuli or a behaviour and a stimuli is learned