HK: Motor Learning and Performance (Chapter 10)

modeling

showing an athlete how to do something correctly (positive modeling) or what a typical error would look like in the movement (negative modeling).

Discrete Tasks and Rest

For discrete tasks, there is no evidence that reducing the rest time through massed practice affects learning.

Directing attentional focus

For most performers, instructing them to pay attention to the intended result of an action produces more skilled performance than an instruction to pay attention to aspects of the movement itself

Instructions

Usually spoken (although they can be written or demonstrated), and they provide information about the very first aspects of the skill. Considering the difficulty students have with no instructions at all, these procedures are critical for raising skill level in very early practice. Simple, direct statements that start people off on the right track can be effective in reducing early confusion in the learning process.

Continuous Tasks and Rest

1. Longer rest periods generally lead to more skill performance during practice (i.e. distribution of practice has a performance effect) 2. When measuring learning, the size of the differences between groups is generally reduced as measured after a retention interval. 3. The positive effect of longer rest intervals on performance remains large on retention test (i.e. distribution of practice has a learning effect).

Benefits of Random Practice over Blocked Practice

1. Random practice forces the learner to become more actively engaged in the learning process by preventing simple repetitions of actions. 2. Random practice gives the learner more meaningful and distinguishable memories of the various tasks, increasing memory strength and decreasing confusion among tasks. 3. Random practice causes the learner to forget the short-term solutions (from working memory) to the movement problems after each task change. 4. Forgetting the short-term solution forces the learner to generate the solution again on the task's next trial, which is beneficial to learning.

Blocked Practice

All the trials of a given task (for that day) are completed before moving on to the next task. Typical of some drills in which a skill is repeated over and over, with minimal interruption by other activities. This kind of practice seems to make sense in that it allows the learners to concentrate on one particular task at a time and refine and correct it.

Instructions

As discussed in a previous module, with the possible exception of beginners, it is usually best to direct a learner's attention to an external focus rather than an internal focus. When you are instructing athletes in a drill or activity, you are directing their attention to key parts of the skill, which are objectives of the drill or activity or what you want them to work on. Research suggests that the best results on performance and learning are a mixture of internal and external cues. Demonstrations and modeling, introduced in the next panel, provide an advantage for transmitting knowledge without the limitation of words. Many factors can influence how the effectiveness of a model can be maximized.

Verbal descriptions

Best suited for only the more elementary features

Distributed Practice

Calls for much more rest, perhaps with a rest period between trials that is as long as a trial itself.

Practice

Can occur at many different times and places, under varying conditions and it can be either almost unintentional or highly guided and structured.

Motivated Learner

Devotes greater effort to the task with more serious practice and longer practice periods, leading to more effective learning

Members of a Class

Have these characteristics: 1. Common movement sequencing exists among the elements. 2. Common temporal, or rhythmical, organization exists. 3. The same action can often be carried out with different effectors (e.g. limbs). 4. The same action can differ in surface features (e.g. speed) on two different occasions, which is specified by different movement parameters.

Goal Setting

Important motivational method whereby learners are encouraged to adopt specific performance goals. Important that instructors encourage their learners to set realistic goals, ones that can be reasonably achieved with practice and effort. The learner can become discouraged by not even approaching goal levels that are too high. Yet goals that are too easily met can result in boredom and reduced motivation. Being encouraged to commit oneself to a specific, "challenging" (nut not impossible) goal is strongly motivating and has positive benefits on performance and learning.

Elaboration Hypothesis

Increased meaningfulness and distinctiveness produce more durable memories for the tasks, and thus increased performance capabilities in tests of retention and transfer. the idea that frequent switching of tasks (e.g., in random practice) renders the tasks more distinct from each other and more meaningful, resulting in stronger memory representations; it is one explanation of the contextual-interference effect

Augmented Feedback

Information that is provided to the learner from an external source.

motivation

Intrinsic motivation for learning deals with the learner's internalized drive to learn a skill that can be influenced in these ways: Goal setting: Being encouraged to commit oneself to a specific challenging goal is strongly motivating Augmented feedback: Can provide a boost to motor learning, even if the feedback is not entirely true Self-regulation of practice: Providing some control over the learning environment is a factor thought to influence motivation and enhance learning

Observational Learning

Learner gains information by watching another's performance

Mental practice

Learner rehearses skills to be learned mentally, without performing actual, overt physical practice. Learner thinks about the skills being learned, rehearses each of the steps sequentially, and imagines doing the actions that would result in achieving the goal.

Intrinsic motivation

Learner's internalized drive, a drive to learn a skill Deci and Ryan (2000) suggest that intrinsic motivation is largely determined by 3 basic needs 1. autonomy (control of one's own destiny) 2. Competence (skill mastery) 3. Relatedness (being accepted within a social context) The relative weighting of each of these basic needs differs in every individual.

Modeling

Live demonstrations by an instructor or by the learners themselves

Practice Variables

Motivation for learning Instructions Demonstrations Mental practice and imagery

Forgetting Hypothesis

New solutions are required frequently in random practice, but not in blocked practice; thus, the development of the solution for the task is the key feature that facilitates learning. The FH suggests that somewhat ironic and counterintuitive idea that "forgetting facilitates learning" the hypothesis that frequent task switching in random practice leads to the performer forgetting the previous trial and planning for that performance. Thus, it results in stronger memory representations. It is a hypothesis that explains the contextual interference effect.

Unmotivated Learner

Not likely to practice and the result can be little or no learning

Constant-Practice

Practicing only a single member of a class of tasks

Variable-Practice

Practicing several members of the class of tasks (for the football passing example, this would mean practicing varying football passing distances). Variable practice is a schedule of practice in which many variations of a class of actions are practiced Learners acquire schemas when they practice; variable practice enhances their development, allowing more effective novel task performance in the future Caveats to Variable Practice Special skills Spacing of practice Variable practice scheduled in blocks of trials produced small or no advantages when compared with constant-practice conditions Studies in which variable practice was scheduled in a random order showed rather large advantages compared to constant practice

Massed practice

Provides relatively little rest between trials. For example, if a task has practice trials 30s long, a massed-practice schedule might call for rest periods of only 5s or perhaps no rest at all (so-called continuous practice).

Self-Regulation

Refers to giving learners "ownership" over some of the components of practice. In studies of this type, learners are typically told that they can control how much practice to undertake, when augmented feedback will be provided, or how to organize the practice schedule (reviewed by Sanli et al., 2012). An important component of these studies is the inclusion of (yoked) control groups that provide the same schedule of feedback delivery as the self-selected group. However, these yoked conditions are determined entirely in advance and are not under the control of the learner. These studies have revealed more learning under self-regulated feedback conditions, leading some to speculate that giving learners control over their learning environment provides an extra incentive to learn. This seems to satisfy the need for autonomy.

Hybrid schedules

Some researchers have found that moderate levels of random practice are beneficial for performance and learning

Constant vs Variable Practice

The constant group typically outperforms the variable group during the acquisition phase. Typically a learner can produce instances of a single version of a movement more effectively than multiple versions, particularly if these versions are interleaved. However, when subjects in both groups are switched to a novel version of the task on a transfer test, the group that received variable practice performs as well as the constant group, and frequently they do so much more skillfully. This evidence has been interpreted to mean that learners acquire schemas when they practice and that variable practice enhances their development, allowing more effective novel-task performance in the future. In other words, variable practice enhances generalizability, allowing the performer to apply past learning to actions not specifically experienced before in practice.

Schema Theory

The learner acquires a set of rules, called the schemas, that relate the surface features of throwing (e.g. distances, speeds) to the parameter values necessary to produce these actions. To avoid the storage problem the learner stores these values just long enough to update the schema after each throw, and then these are discarded or forgotten. According to schema theory, this process is responsible for motor learning associated with learning to parameterize the GMPs - a common problem for the player using the same GMP over and over again.

Random (Interleaved) Practice

The order of task presentation is mixed, or interleaved, across the practice period. Learners rotate among the three sample tasks so that, in the more extreme cases, they never (or rarely) practice the same task on two consecutive attempts. And from a common-sense perspective, the random method, with its high level of trial-to-trial variability, its high level of contextual interference would not seem optimal for learning.

Practice contingencies

This schedule is more sensitive to individual differences when the difficulty of the task and the decision to repeat the same task or switch to an easier or more difficult task depend on the performance successes of the individual

Random Practice Limitation

When individuals are practicing a very "difficult" task, or when the learners themselves are in some way not "appropriate" for the task to be learned. A good example might be attempting to teach a very young learner an "adult" task that demands too much. In such cases, random practice would make the practice environment too challenging and perhaps counterproductive to effective learning. The beneficial effects of random practice are not universal Guadagnoli and Lee (2004) reviewed the varieties of evidence and suggested that random practice is likely to be least effective when the task demands are sufficiently high enough that performers have a difficult time producing even a single trial of the behavior

Observational learning

a learning process that occurs when watching others perform skills. Observational learning can occur when watching others perform well as well as those that do not perform motor skills well. Observational learning that occurs by watching others that do not perform skills well is a best fit for novice performers observing the executed skill. In essence, the novice is observing what not to do. Even elite level performers can learn by observing what not to do.

modeling skill

important factor influencing observational learning, other model characteristics may impact learning. For example, the model's attractiveness or likability can have an impact on the observer's attention. The model's arousal level is another characteristic that could impact learning. When the model's arousal level is low when performing the skill, the learner many not be motivated to observe and learn. The model's response to reward and punishment is another characteristic that can influences observational learning. Learners could be less likely to reproduce a skill if the model is punished or reprimanded in some way when performing the skill. Finally, the model's motivation when performing the skill is a characteristic that is observed and can have an impact on the learner.

Mental practice

occurs when the learner thinks about the skills being learned and moves through each of the steps sequentially mentally, imagining performing the actions successfully. Mental practice, when executed efficiently, can be beneficial to learning, and has the advantage of not requiring equipment or a large amount of space. These activities below give students some experience with mental practice (imagery)

social learning theory (Bandura, 1977)

one way individuals learn is through the observations of others. The model being observed by the learner often possesses many characteristics that influence learning. Research has explored how certain model attractiveness influences observational learning in the general population, however there is a lack of research exploring model attractiveness' impact on learning motor skills.