Overview
This lecture covers foundational concepts in motor learning, including definitions, skill classifications, stages of learning, experimental design basics, and key terms for research and assessment.
What is Motor Learning?
- Learning is a relatively permanent change in behavior due to practice or experience, not just maturation.
- Motor learning refers to internal changes that determine a person's capability to produce a motor task.
- Motor performance is the observable attempt to produce a voluntary movement, used to infer motor learning.
- Motor development studies movement behavior and biological changes across the lifespan.
- All these terms are part of the broader field of motor behavior.
Types and Classifications of Motor Skills
- A motor skill's success primarily depends on the quality of the performed movement.
- Discrete skills have a clear beginning and end (e.g., volleyball serve).
- Serial skills are sequences of discrete skills performed in order (e.g., gymnastics tumbling pass).
- Continuous skills have no clear beginning or end (e.g., cycling, running).
- Motor skills are determined mainly by movement quality, while cognitive skills rely on decision-making quality.
- Skills can also be categorized by environment: open skills occur in unpredictable settings; closed skills in predictable, stationary settings.
Characteristics of Skilled Performance
- Three characteristics: certainty of goal achievement, minimal energy expenditure, and minimal movement time.
- Skilled performers achieve goals reliably, efficiently, and quickly.
Stages of Motor Learning
- Cognitive stage: learners understand the task and talk themselves through steps.
- Associative stage: learners refine the skill, recognize errors, and make adjustments.
- Autonomous stage: performance becomes automatic with minimal conscious effort.
- Similar stage models by Gentile, Adams, and Newell describe process using different terminology.
Research and Experimental Design in Motor Learning
- Experimental design includes: introduction/literature review, methods (participants, apparatus, procedure), and data analysis.
- Reliability means consistent measurement; validity means measuring what is intended; objectivity means agreement among examiners.
- Assessment combines measurement (collecting data) and evaluation (making judgments based on data).
Key Research Terms and Concepts
- Control group: group not receiving experimental treatment, used for comparison.
- Novel task: a new/unfamiliar skill used in experiments to control for prior experience.
- Consistent instructions ensure fair testing conditions.
- Dual task paradigm: testing performance when doing two tasks simultaneously to study attention.
- Retention: ability to perform a skill after a delay.
- Transfer: applying a learned skill to a new but related task.
Key Terms & Definitions
- Motor Learning — Internal process change enabling improved motor task performance.
- Motor Performance — Observable execution of a movement or skill.
- Motor Development — Study of movement and biological changes throughout life.
- Motor Skill — Task where success depends on movement quality.
- Discrete Skill — Task with clear start/end.
- Serial Skill — Sequence of discrete skills.
- Continuous Skill — Task with no defined start/end.
- Open Skill — Performed in an unpredictable environment.
- Closed Skill — Performed in a predictable, stable environment.
- Reliability — Consistency of measurement.
- Validity — Measuring what is intended.
- Objectivity — Agreement among examiners.
- Assessment — Combination of measurement and evaluation.
- Control Group — Group used for comparison in experiments.
- Novel Task — Unfamiliar task used in research.
- Dual Task Paradigm — Performing two tasks at once to study attention.
- Retention — Maintaining learned skill over time.
- Transfer — Applying learned skill to a new context.
Action Items / Next Steps
- Read Chapter 1 and pages 202-203 from the textbook.
- Begin considering topics and methods for your motor learning experiment assignment.