KNES 370 Exam 2 Study Guide

There are two components of throwing which appear to be valid developmental sequences. What does it mean to be "valid?"

A confirmed event

What is a secular trend? And what does this type of trend mean for height and motor skill development?

A secular trend shows the height difference across countries for mean height. Showing how motor skill development is more easily adapted depending on the trend of the graph.

Humans are 'immature' for a long time (~20 years or more). What are the advantages and disadvantages of this immaturity for motor skill development?

Advantages (adaptiveness, versatility, flexibility, unique (ontogenetic), longer period of developmental plasticity, more time for growth, and can't wander far from parent). Disadvantages (helpless for physical survival, dependency on parents for food, dependent on parents for what is learned, open to "bad" environmental stimulation, early specialization harms later development of other skill).

Define age, aging and senescence. Compare and contrast these three terms.

Aging = gaining of age, changes in the system. Senescence: damage, harm, loss, fragility or failure associated with aging systems.

In order to walk, what are the challenges that the infant must solve? And how are these challenges related to postural control?

Baby must maximize base of support as COM is over base = stable posture. Noting that as you walk, only one foot on earth = single leg support = turn right muscles on

The objection projection skills (most notably throwing) are sometimes classified as phylogenetic skills and sometimes as ontogenetic skills. Phylogenetic skills are also called 'fundamental' skills. Why are they confused in terminology?

Because people think that their species specific skills are fundamental. When in turn, fundamental skills can be species specific, but not generic.

Why is becoming an expert a "developmental" problem?

Because subjects are unwilling to put in the necessary time to develop their skill to becoming an expert.

Worldwide life expectancies vary. How do they vary and why might we explain these differences?

Better health care (antibiotics)

In the catching experiment and the skating with hockey stick experiment, what are the findings and how do they relate to the perception-action map?

Both found that as the child ages, they're ability to complete the skill efficiently increased. Even with adding other aspects

Ericsson argues that his results demonstrate that practicing is not enough, it must be "deliberate" practice. What does that mean? Define and give examples.

Both studies: 10K hrs of deliberate practice -> motivation to attend to task, task matched to performer's capability, immediate informative feedback as well as knowledge of results, repeatedly perform the task, better performance with a tutor

What is a "pre-longitudinal probabilistic model" for studying a developmental sequence? What would be the advantage of this type of research design?

Can look at how kids begin to throw -> different stages where they transition to each. The advantage is that it allows you to trace the transition in age within the subject along with the specific phase if they didn't transition.

How does culture interact with the development of manipulative skills? Offer specific details for eating, writing, drawing, dressing, etc.

Children are greatly influenced by the art in their society and schooling for drawing and writing. For food, they develop manipulative skills based on the food and tools they use to eat. Similar to dressing where children learn how to dress themselves correctly and develop fine motor skills.

Are children faster or slower to respond than adults on a simple reaction time? And if so, by what magnitude?

Children are only slightly slower at half the time in ms, and gets more severe based on experience.

What are the major characteristics of movement in the FMP period? How do these characteristics differ from those in the Preadapted Period and the Skillful Period?

Considered phylogenetic, building block for motor skills, necessary for later context-specific skills, REQUIRE experience. They're not as context-specific, nor as nonspecific as preadapted

What is the "language" of the nervous system? And why is that important?

Constraints (organism and environment) b/c they "set the scene" around the action/task so the system 'self-organizes' to achieve the task within its constraints

Developmentally, what changes across time with regard to motor skill development?

Constraints and coordinative structures.

Describe how the multi-segmented body is constrained into coordinative structures (CS):

Developmental chronology; each one of the deformable segments all form coordinative units

So why aren't we all experts in motor skills?

Differences in constraints (organism, environment, task) and development (time, timing-sensitive periods, cumulative)

Define postural control. What are the components of postural control and how are they important?

Dual purpose (stability and orientation); postural stability = ability to control COM in relationship to base of support where base of support (where mass focuses self on)

From a Dynamical Systems perspective, how does change occur developmentally and how does this perspective explain how we get to the "top of the mountain?"

Dynamical systems perspective (scientific explanations of how and why motor behaviors change across the lifespan) -> so change occurs with each year as the motor behaviors change getting us to the top of the mountain.

Describe the two Ericsson studies including the purpose, the procedures, the results, and the implications of these results for motor skill development?

Ericsson study 1: Purpose (compare levels of practice in 3 groups in Germany), procedures (biographical data, everyday activity log, rating of activity), and results (found that to be a professional students must've practiced 7410 hours by the age of 18, # of sessions matter, before lunch practice, and naps during the day. Ericsson study 2: purpose (extend findings form violinists to piano), procedures (same), and results (experts put significantly more time on music related activities, practicing 7606 hr > 1606)

"Posture follows movement like a shadow" - a quote from Sherrington: Explain what it means.

Everything has posture in it -> posture makes things happen

The manipulative skills are classified as either fine motor or gross motor. Define, compare and contrast these types of manipulative skills.

Fine motor skills (dexterity is the coordination of the small muscles of the hands and fingers). Gross motor skills (whole body activities involving the large muscles of the body).

Flexor and extensor muscles play different roles in our actions. What are these roles? And do these roles change developmentally?

Flexor (skill muscles), used for fine motor in hands (baby comes into world flexed. Extensor (postural muscles), used for posture utilizing core, knee, hips, back muscles, abdominal muscles (baby figures out how to get core to work)

There are two components of throwing which appear to be valid developmental sequences. What are the other components that have been proposed, but have yet to be shown to be valid?

Forearm action (no forearm lag, forearm lag, delayed forearm lag)

Describe the growth curves for males and females including their velocities. What impact would physical growth have on the motor skills of the Context-Specific Motor Skills Period?

Girls start with a higher velocity on their growth curve, but slow down as they age and end a much lower average height. Males have a slower velocity o=until they hit a major growth period and get much taller average height. The motor skills develop off if the individual has a large growth spurt and doesn't keep tuning their motor skills.

Change in our behavior occurs on many time scales. What are these time scales and why are they important to understanding changes in motor behavior?

Goes from short to long (adaptation, learning, development, and evolution. They help us understand how motor behavior develops and adapts over time to become more proficient.

What is the developmental sequence for handwriting? What does this tell us about how hand-eye coordination emerges in children? Offer specific details about how this co-ordination between trunk, hands, and vision interact and develop.

Hold and mark with a pencil/crayon (16-18 months) -> dynamic tripod (4 years) ->>>> 4 developmental steps: palmer -> incomplete tripod -> tripod -> dynamic tripod. As the child develops they learn to copy line and circles (3-4), copy triangles, crosses and letters (4-5), and copy numbers and simple words (5-6) which indicates the perception-to-action.

The 'proficiency barrier' is said to be a major rate limiter to improving one's motor skills during the Context-Specific Motor Skill Period. Why?

Immature CS or "not optimum" CS make it difficult to become motor proficient in context-specific situation (limited by a functional organism constraint)

Differentiate inter-limb and intra-limb coordination and give an example of each.

Inter-limb coordination (between limbs, one leg with the other leg or leg co-ordered with arm) = two legs. Intra-limb coordination (within a limb, one segment co-ordered with another, or one joint co-ordered with another) = same leg, looking at shin and thigh.

Being a physically active senior has what effect on your motor development? Be specific.

It effects the aging process, but more so the quality of life one has as it fights against debilitating chronic disease and the need for assisted care.

"Use it or lose it" - is an oft said expression to seniors. What does it mean? Can it be supported by research studies?

It means that if seniors don't use their motor skills then they will lose the ability to perform them at the same level if at all and everyday life becomes more challenging. Research shows that the more active seniors are, the better reaction time, balancing, and general motor skills.

The "mountain" is actually a mountain range. What does that mean for how different motor skills develop?

It means that you can develop one motor skill more than another or alongside each other while others aren't used as much.

What is a "phasing relationship" and how is it defined in terms of two moving legs? That is, when we say that walking and running both show a 50% symmetrical interlimb coordination and galloping shows a 60/40% asymmetrical interlimb timing relationship, what exactly does that mean?

It means the amount of time spent in stance (40%) and swing (60%) while moving.

Roberton, in studying the developmental sequence of throwing, devised a system for studying this skill called the "component approach." What is the component approach and why would this be important to understanding the development of a motor skill such as throwing?

It says component (a specific body part), developmental steps (qualitative change in the component's action), and a rationale for component approach vs whole body approach (components advance at different rates). This helps us break down each aspect of throwing as a motor skill. His specific components for throwing = trunk action (preparatory arm backswing) and humerus during forward swing (forearm action during forward swing and action of the feet)

The Compensation Period is not exactly "on the mountain" but it is important period for understanding motor skill development. For what reason(s) is it important? How does one get into this period? Can one leave this period?

It's important because its an organismic constraint where the individual is compensating for a change either from injury/disease or aging associated.

Does "body scaling" to a task mean? Give an example.

It's making the object equal for the person playing based on their size. Similar to how a basketball hoop can be adjusted based on height.

Define what is meant by the FMP period. When are the onset and end of the fundamental motor patterns period?

It's the "base camp" on the mountain which may always be returned to when learning a new behavior/skill. ONSET (after achievement of self-feeding/independent walking about 1 year (9-18 mon). ENDS (with application of FMP to specific context about 7 years, not all patterns0

What is the proficiency barrier? How does it impact the manipulative skills?

It's the barrier that stops a motor skill from developing further into the context-specific period where they can perform the skill but not at the maximum potential. It makes it so manipulative skills work, but may not work as quickly/proficiently as if they were able to get to the context-specific period.

What is the proficiency barrier? Give an example of how it would delay or diminish the development of a motor skill.

It's the barrier that stops you before it become context specific, so somebody can play a sport during this point and even do well with the skill, but they haven't developed to the skillful level yet. The barrier can delay the development of a motor skill by keeping something like a serve in tennis at the basic level, so they never get to a real proficient serve.

What is the 'cone of stability' and what does it mean for postural equilibrium?

It's the suspensory strategy when the baby sinks to gain stability dropping the COM towards the BoS

Name and define the memory strategies that develop and influence motor skill performance.

Labeling (ROYGBIV, clock face experiment), rehearsal, organization, selective attention

Describe the hand-eye coordination of reaching from start to obtaining the object you are reaching for in adults. How does reaching differ in infants and children?

Locating the target (moving head/eye and body to orient toward object), transport (moving hand to object), homing (slower phase of reach used to guide reach for accuracy, grasping (hand movement to make contact with object), in-hand manipulation.

Fundamental motor skills are classified into 3 types. What are these types of FMS. Compare and contrast the 3 types by their purpose and CS used in each.

Locomotor (CS = limbs), nonlocomotor (body management skills; CS = postural control), and manipulative skills (fine/gross motor skills; CS = muscles).

Research designs for studying motor development are usually either longitudinal or cross-sectional.Define each of these designs and explain the advantages and disadvantages of each.

Longitudinal = studying same people over and over again, they get into it (contaminated) as they are studied all the time vs cross-sectional (cohort effect = people born at a certain time) so they have things specific to them.

There are four levels of task constraints in the Context-Specific Motor Skills Period, name the four levels, describe each and discuss how they influence the motor behaviors we see during this period.

MACRO (goals), prescribed by the sport/dance/game, from the coach/teacher/parent, and the "task itself"

Describe the imaging study of string player (Pantev et al., 1995). Why is this study important to those studying brain plasticity and motor expertise?

Magnetic source imaging used on the individual fingers as superficial pressure applied found an increased area of brain activated with stimulation, more in left hand than their own right hand, more in string players than controls, and more in those who had played longer.

What is a "knowledge base" and how is it related to motor skill development?

Memory = amount of information, organization of information, routes of information

What are the components of the developing "perception-action' map? How do these components change individually and together as we develop motor skills? What is the time scale of these changes?

Motor commands, body dynamics, sensors (vision, somatosensation, vestibular) -> as you age, everything improves and makes motor skills more efficient

What is the relationship of motor performance and age? Is it age-determined or age-related? Give examples to support your argument.

Motor performance and aging is directly correlated to each other. You can see it in Car driving, Olympic records, and differences across sports. As the motor skill demands more from the athlete, being younger generally helps so long as the skill is the same.

What are the characteristics of motor behavior in the Compensation Period?

Motor skill performance shows a compensation form previous level of skillfulness, not optimal but still skillful, particularly vulnerable gross motor skills that require large forces/sustained aerobic effort, and due to changes in organismic constraints

Define skillful motor behavior and describe the "continuum" of skillfulness.

Must be voluntary, efficient (physiological, psychological, mechanical), adaptive, and consistent. Continuum of skillfulness goes from unskilled->beginner->intermediate->competent->proficient->expert

On average after puberty males are stronger than females (at least by grip strength). But does this mean that all men are stronger than women? If you respond 'yes' - why? If no, why?

No because women can develop their grip strength to be stronger and just as strong if the male doesn't develop his strength.

Are the terms life expectancy and lifespan equivalent? If so, why? If not, why not?

No life expectancy is how long you are projected to live, while lifespan is how long you actually lived.

What is the difference between an object deflection skill and an object reception skill?

Object deflection skill (intercepting an object for the purpose of directing the object away-> striking or volleying ball). Object interception skill (intercepting an object for the purpose of collecting the object -> trapping, fielding, catching)

There are many task functions of the upper extremity coordinate structures. What are they and how are they organized?

Object projection and object interception (deflection and reception)

What is the role of the task in the development of throwing coordination? Give an example of a task that would "scale" with developmental level. Show how this task constraint could push the coordination toward a more and a less mature pattern?

Object to be thrown, target (stationary, moving, size), distance from the target, speed of throw, and stationary or moving (thrower). Throwing a baseball would be on a scale. Going from no step-> ipsilateral step-> contralateral short step-> contralateral long step

Following the Fundamental Motor Patterns period is the Context-Specific Skills Period. When does this period begin and end (i.e., what are the "markers" that would tell you when someone was in this period? Describe the characteristics of motor behavior in this period.

Observed from 7-11 years, where skills become unique to the individual (ontogenetic) promoted by friends, family, culture, coinciding with changes in cognitive capabilities, acquisition of skills dependent on context-based knowledges and experiences, includes both fine and gross motor skills.

What is a "fundamental" motor skill? And why is a skill called "fundamental?"

Phylogenetic (behaviors common to all members of the species) and Ontogenetic (behaviors unique to the individual).

What are the major organism constraints (structural & functional) during the Context-Specific Motor Skills period? How do they influence motor skills and motor skill development during this period?

Physical development (Structural = individual constraints related to body's structure and functional = individual constraints related to the behavioral and physiological functioning) and CNS development.

What are the developmental changes in reaction time and movement time? Locomotion? And balance?

Reaction time, locomotion, balance, throwing, and reaching all change with age. Reaction and movement time both increase with age. Locomotion becomes more challenging on uneven terrain along with shorter gait, toeing out, less pelvic rotation/ankle extension, slower walking speed. Balance also changes as they have increased postural sway, falls, delayed onset of muscle firing, and decreased self-efficacy

What is the developmental sequence for eating food from a bowl or plate? Describe the actions.

Repetitive actions (spoon to dish and out and spoon to mouth and out), action sequence (spoon to dish-remove-lift-bring to mouth), function incorporated (sequence results in food on spoon and in mouth), function plus correction loops (checks that spoon has food and picks up spilled food)

What is the embodied self? And how does it develop?

Representation of moving self which comes from moving and sensing -> identifies present location, feedforward, and feedback along with the inverse dynamics (plan for action and make correction)

During the Context-Specific Motor Skills Period, there are organism constraints that include the psychosocial constraints that influence motor skill development. What are two examples of these types of constraints - describe and explain how they would influence motor skill development during this period?

Self-perception (how you perceive your skillfulness and how you make your attributions about success and failure) and motivation (competence, expectancy, achievement motivation)

There are two components of throwing which appear to be valid developmental sequences. What are these components and what is the developmental sequence for each?

Shoulder and pelvis (no trunk action/forward-back, block rotation (move as one), and differentiated rotation (move separately) vs. humerus action (humerus oblique "chicken-winger", aligned but independent, lag "whipper)

What are the socio-cultural constraints on the Context-Specific Motor Skills Period and how are these different from the importance of these constraints during the previous period (Fundamental Motor Skills Period)?

Socioeconomic class, geographic location, country, family, peer group. Here they have the major influence of pushing you towards being skillful in a task.

What are the 3 sources of information that an individual uses for the control and coordination of posture and action? What type of information does it supply?

Somatosensation (all sensations pertaining to body/soma = touch, pressure, temp, pain, kinesthesia), cutaneous sensation (sensation from the skin), and proprioception (sensation from joints and muscles).

With development, children learn to 'estimate' where their actions will go and what the actions will be? There are 3 parts to this "internal model" of estimation. What are these 3 elements?

State estimation/perception (present location), deviations must be senses/feedback (error detection), and account for time delays/anticipation (future location)

Describe the Chi chess playing experiment including what did subjects have to do, what were the results and what were the implications of these results for motor skill development? Answers these same questions for the da Silva Pac-Man playing experiment.

Subjects had to look at a chess board, memorize where pieces where, then put them back where they were. It showed that the more experienced the chess player the more they put pieces into positions where things made sense. Pac-Man: looking at speed differences of response decisions, where controls where switched, found that the more experience the better reaction time.

What are symmetric and asymmetric interlimb gait? What are the rate limiters for each type of gait?

Symmetric gait (gait in which two limbs are doing the same either at the same time or 180 degrees out-of-phase; easier to manage = walk, run, jump) -> limiters = postural control and extensor strength. Asymmetric gait (gait as in which two limbs are out-of-phase with each other 2:1 or 3:1); gallop, hop, slide) -> limiters = "uncoupling" the symmetrical gait, posture, and extensor strength -Note that running comes before galloping b/c gallop is asymmetric gait (forces/control) and one limb walks and other runs (2:1 or 3:1)

Postural control emerges from the constraint triangle. What are the constraints that are important to postural control and how do these change developmentally?

Task (steady state, proactive, reactive), Organism (sensory/motor function, bodily structure), and environment (others in environment, sensory cues, and support surface). As the baby ages the constraints change with the baby growing and understanding what is se going on better and better.

What are the constraints (task, organism, and environment) for locomotor patterns in the fundamental motor patterns period?

Task (visual model/imitation, verbal feedback, speed), environment (available model, culturally promoted), and organism (strength, postural control, cognitive development)

Explain the experiment in which the perception-action map was "distorted" during exposure. What were the results and what do they mean with regard to how the perception-action map develops in children?

The children were asked to draw/trace shapes where they could see the shape they were to make, but had distorted action. The experiment showed that with age, they became much better at compensating for the distorted action to their perception, indicating that the perception-actin map develops as children age.

What constraints would you try to change to get seniors to be physically active? How would you do it and why those constraints?

The environmental constraints, because they promote and constrain the seniors to being sedentary. If they can be actively performing motor skills, promoting their mental capacity, then they are way better off.

Describe the changes in the CNS with development (including myelination, connections, networks, areas of the brain, reflexes).

The myelination density increases. Gray matter wanes as the brain matures, decreasing.

Compare the brain of an 8-year-old with the brain of a 16-year-old. Who has more neurons? Who has a more efficient and effective brain for motor skills? Why?

The younger child has less neurons and lower motor skills as their brain attempts to make more and more connections.

During the Context-Specific Motor Skills period, many changes are seen in the child's perceptual-cognitive processes. What are these processes (describe, compare, contrast)? How would these processes develop?

There are age-related differences in perceptual-cognitive processes. Which means that the sensory registers, perceptual processes, and response processes all develop to be more effective in both short/long-term memory.

Mark Kelly (one of the twins who went into space for a year) returned to earth's gravitational field having spent a year in the microgravity of space, what characterized his motor skills? How can we explain this behavior? Weeks, months, and maybe as long as a year - Kelly's motor behavior returned to "normal" - what occurred to affect this change?

They became weak and unskilled as he stumbled and almost fell when trying to walk. The behavior comes from the loss of gravity forcing his body to maintain posture and apply forces on the ground. His body started to regain it's skillfulness as time progressed.

Can someone be in the Context-Specific Motor Skills Period, the Fundamental Motor Skills Period, and the Skillful Period - all at the same time? If so, why & how? And If not, why not?

They could be depending on the skill you are looking at. One skill could be in the context-specific while another skill could be stuck at fundamental motor b/c of the proficiency barrier.

From a dynamical systems perspective, if you want to become more skillful what do you need to do?

They need to look at where motor skills come from (constraints), how do we change motor skill (self-organizing system that seeks equilibrium), and what changes developmentally (constraints and coordinative structures).

Older subjects in a study of throwing and reaching/tapping/grasping show age-related declines? What are these changes? If you wanted to improve their motor skills or stop the decline, what would you propose to change?

Throwing: poor trunk rotation, humerus aligned, and weak ball velocity. Reaching: 30-90% velocity reduction, more movement adjustments, longer absolute adjustment time, and longer reversal time b/w 2 targets, relied on slower feedback process Grasping: older adults used grasp forces 2xs larger than young adults, and greater variability in grip forces.

Postural control plays an important role in reaching and its development. Explain this role and how it changes developmentally.

Upright challenge becomes even harder as baby reaches and COM moves away from BoS. As the baby develops, it learns how to balance better and thus work with the changing COM.

What is the developmental sequence for the later-emerging locomotor patterns (after walking)? How does each antecedent pattern (the one that comes before) relate to the consequent pattern (the one that comes after)? Using the concept of coordinative structures, discuss how walking, running and hopping might explain galloping and skipping?

Walk-> run-> gallop double jump -> vertical jump -> standing long jump (2 feet together) -> hop -> skip. Each is needed to develop and be expressed as the child learns to move their legs better and better. As each sequence is completed, they learn more and more about CS. Walking is the simplest as their limbs move opposing and they walk. With running, they just speed up the CS and limbs. Then for hopping they learn to move them at the same time together. Through this development of events their limb control is established and they understand how their CS can move independently and different within each limb, leading to galloping and skipping.

Within the walking and running gait, there is a time spent in swing and stance portions of the gait cycle. What are these portions or phases for the two gaits and how do they change as we go from walking to running and back again?

Walking (stance>60% and swing<40%) Running (stance<40% and swing>60%).

How do we manage "multiple" sources of information coming in from our "sensors" and how does this 'management' develop?

We filter them and learn to pay attention to one thing more so than another. This helps us develop our senses with action so we understand how to react to different things. -> Perception-and-action develop together

Being old is not a unitary concept. Gerontologists usually divide the older population into three groups. What are these groups and what might distinguish them? Should we assume that if you are 85 you're a the "oldest old" and if so, what would that mean and if not, why not?

Young-old (65-74 years), old-old (75-84 years), and oldest-old (85+). What distinguishes them is their ability to perform skillful actions and how much compensation they must apply. If you are 85 and still able to run or perform a skilled action, then you can be be in the oldest-old category but physically be in the young-old.

What are the problems that a robot has to solve (and so humans) to: a) reach for an object and grasp it and move it to another location; and, b) locomote from here to there including going over uneven terrain and with other moving objects/people near them.

a.) (must be able to locate object, move hand towards object, form hand to object shape, grasp object, and move it). b.) (needs somatosensation and proprioception to understand body compared to environment, which allows them to balance and get up if they fall.

One's zip code can predict one's life probable life expectancy. Is that really true? And why? Y

es it is, just observing D.C. you can see based on what county you live in helps determine life expectancy because of the available resources and economic status pertaining to lifestyle.