apk3200 CH 16-19

Mental Practice Techniques

- 5 mental practice techniques 1) early learning stages (cognitive and into associative) 2) rehearsal and problem-solving prior to practice (encoding, storage, retrieval) 3) between trials (intermittent) - error detection and correction 4) site-specific visualization (movement or sequence) 5) practice in relaxed state - active subconscious mind (more autonomous, less active thinking)

Mental Practice

"rehearsing in the mind" - mind preparation (different from meditation or day dreaming) - cognitive rehearsal of a motor skill in the absence of overt physical movements - procedural aspects of skill - "how to do" - visual and/or kinesthetic imagery - "look" and "feel" of the movements

Distribution of practice - continuous vs discrete motor skills

*practice distribution schedule that is best for learning depends on type of skill* - continuous motor skills: rotary pursuit task; longer trials with longer rest periods b/w trials; found that distributed schedules were more effective than massed - discrete motor skills: usually simple tasks and short trials => massed schedules more effective than distributed

Accounting for CI effect

- CI effect occurs b/c of two reasons: 1) elaboration hypothesis: elaboration of the memory representation (aka cognitive processing) 2) action plan reconstruction hypothesis: high amounts of CI benefit learning; reconstruct action plan on new trials *high CI conditions require learners to engage more actively in problem-solving activity during practice* *performance deficit becomes a long-term benefit b/c it leads to better retention and transfer test performance (aka learning)*

Implementing practice variability

- Gentile says regulatory and non-regulatory conditions of test should be varied in practice (features of environmental context that determine how you move to perform) - when regulatory conditions vary from one performance to the next, practice variability should match conditions (supporting surface on which person performs the skill, objects involved in performing skill, other people involved in performance situation) ex: preparing to walk on ice => match this EC

Mental Practice and Imagery ability

- ability to imagine an action when requested to do so - individual is the difference variable - 'ability': achievement potential for the mind; high degree (vividness) vs low degree (difficulty) - evidence: movement imagery questionnaire

Movement Imagery Questionnaire (MIQ)

- action situations that a person is asked to physically perform - asked to perform mental tasks as an instructional set: 1) form a clear and vivid mental picture of the movement just performed -> visual imagery 2) attempt to positively feel yourself making the movement performed without actually doing it -> kinesthetic imagery - person performs mental task and rates how easy/difficult is was *imagery ability influences the success of mental practice* - groups: can be high visual/high kinesthetic (HH), high visual/low kinesthetic (HL), or low visual/high kinesthetic (LH) - different groups come from ability to activate brainwaves and produce mental movement images

Considerations for amount and distribution of practice

- after basics of skill is learned: -> how much time to devote to each activity in a session (how long are you practicing) -> length of each session? -> time of rest b/w activities in a session? - amount of practice may be limited by: -> the time of season or when practice can begin -> # of coaches to players ratio -> rehab usually restricted to insurance plan -> personal/group instruction: pay by the hr and cost

Practicing Parts of a skill - segmentation

- aka "progressive-part strategy" - begin practice with first part of skill and progressively add each part until skill is practiced as a whole ex: useful for dance routines and swim styles (isolate leg movement, then just arm movement, then combine) ex: breaststroke - divided into arm and leg action to reduce attention demands of the whole skill by practicing each part individually first -> after practicing each individually, put together to practice as a whole unit

Performance context characteristics

- association b/w encoding and retrieval - encoding specificity principle: encoding (practice) -> storage -> retrieval (rehearsal) -> retention test - involves both intentional and incidental rehearsing - we learn more incidentally than what we are instructed - cognitive processing characteristics: transfer appropriate theory: cognitive processing activity required during practice will be required for transfer test

Practicing Parts of a skill - fractionization

- asymmetric bimanual coordination skills => different movement patterns b/w limbs, practice each limb individually before performing the skill bimanually - limb that has to perform the more complex movement should be practiced first ex: used in musical instruments like guitar, piano, drums

Practice strategies

- based on complexity - whole practice: involves practicing a skill in its entirety - part practice: practicing parts of a skill before practicing the whole skill

Organizing variable practice

- best way to organize practice variability => contextual interference effect - blocked practice: constant order - random practice: variable order - serial practice: variable in sequence (both blocked and random practice) - interference: how you disrupt memory and performance - random practice leads to better learning than blocked practice

Mental Practice occurrence

- can occur while a person observes: -> another person live (mentally practicing while watching) -> another person on film/video -> himself/herself on film/video -> can occur w/out any visual observation

Learner characteristics

- challenge point hypothesis: implement practice conditions that will optimally challenge in a way to enhance learning - manipulate level of contextual interference based on age, skill and difficulty: for low level (unskilled beginners) start w/ low CI; for skilled individuals more CI is optimal

Practice variability for closed/open skills

- closed skills: is there intertrial variability? -> no intertrial variability (ex: free throw) => non-regulatory conditions (height of the ceiling, color of the walls, size of the gym, crowd noise, fatigue, length of game may all be novel and should be varied); regulatory conditions should remain constant (basket height, basket distance from free-throw line, basketball characteristics) -> intertrial variability (ex: golf shots) => both regulatory and non-regulatory conditions can be novel and should be varied - open skills: expect intertrial variability; each performance is unique (ex: hitting a tennis ball)

Constant vs. Variable practice

- constant: learn one skill variation during practice - variation: several variations of skill (simple) ex: pressing a handle; goal was to use 175 N of force when pressing a handle -> constant practice group practiced 175 N for 289 trials while the variable group practiced producing 4 diff amounts of force (none were 175 N) => constant was measured using retention; variable was measured using transfer test => variable group performed more accurately than constant group ex: basketball free throw experiment => showed that the variable combination group had the greatest % of improvement and that variability helps performance; constant practice had less errors and therefore less learning

Metacognition

- contextual interference during practice influences judgements about learning - metacognition: judging amount of learning during practice; "what we know about what we know" - during blocked practice schedules: learners overestimate their degree of learning b/c their practice performance is going well

Overlearning

- continuation of practice beyond the amount needed to achieve a certain performance criterion (more than this doesn't help) - two different views: 1) motor program based view: extra practice helps strengthen the GMP and response schema (closes loop-feedback) 2) dynamic pattern view: extra practice helps a learner increase the stability of the coordination patterns and control characteristics ex: study looked at the positive influence on retention for learning skills -> extra practice of 50 to 200% -> results in 'proportionate' higher retention test performance -> doesn't take into consideration different types of skills -> at some point more practice doesn't equal more learning

Continuous, serial, and discrete skills

- continuous and serial skills: higher level of complexity, differing levels of organization - discrete skills: lower in complexity (one identifiable part); high end of organization continuum

Skill complexity and organization

- decision to practice a skill as a whole or in parts can be based on characteristics of the skill (complexity and organization) - complexity: # of compartment parts; different from difficulty, a highly complex skill has many components and demands a lot of attention - organization: attention demanding

Learner Characteristics (cont)

- determine difficulty level of task: -> low: random practice -> higher: serial or block early - determine learning level: beginner, novice, or skilled -> beginner: low difficulty -> give mod-high CI (random practice); moderate difficulty -> serial moderate CI; high difficulty -> low CI (block and then transition to serial) -> skilled: high level of diff/random practice

Distributed practice learning advantage

- distributed practice lead to better learning and retention than massed practice - three hypotheses for why distributive practice is better: 1) fatigue hypothesis: fatigue negatively effects learning for massed practice schedules 2) cognitive effort hypothesis: massed practice reduces attentional and cognitive effort used on each trial b/c there's a threshold for where we can maintain cognitive efforts 3) memory consolidation hypothesis: LTM storage process; processing time requires time intervals; transform unstable memory representation into a permanent one; distributed practice offers better opp. for processing ex: class schedules - total time of 3 hr/wk => can be distributed into 3-d/wk: 3 sessions for 50 mins; 2-d/wk: 2 sessions (1 for 50 mins, 1 for 100 mins); 1-d/wk: 1 session for 150 mins

Overlearning strategies and types of motor skills

- dynamic balance skills (gross motor): -> requires sensory perception and motor integration -> point of diminishing returns for amount of extra practice ex: balance on platform that measured sway => found that 50% overlearning was just as effective as 100% and 200% OL

Mental Practice: rehearsal strategies

- effective for: -> skill learning (facilitating rehearsal is the link between encoding/storage to retrieval) -> action preparation -> motivation: "talk yourself into it" -> self-confidence -> reduce performance anxiety

Regulatory conditions

- environmental context: stable (stationary) or unstable (in-motion); inter-trial variability

Distributed practice evidence - baddeley and longman

- evidence for more frequent, shorter duration practice sessions from three experiments: 1) Baddeley and Longman: training time limits were 60 hrs total; 5 days/wk - distributed: 2 groups practiced 1 hr/session - group A practiced 1 session/day for 5 days/wk (12 wks total training time); group B practiced 2 session/day for 5 days/week ( 6 wks total training time) - massed: 2 groups practiced 2 hrs/sessions -> group C practiced 1 session/day for 5-d/wk (6 weeks) -> group D practiced 2 sessions/day each 2 hrs (3 weeks) - most massed group (3 weeks) liked their training schedule the most, but performed worse than the other groups - similar findings in keystroke experiment

Contextual interference: Badminton

- ex: college women w/ no prior badminton experience told to practice the short, long and drive serve from right service court - practice: 3 days/wk for 3 weeks; 36 trials per session (blocked had 1 serve each day; random practice) - result: retention and transfer tests favored random

MP aids learning

- ex: five step general preparation strategy for ball throw to target (overhand) and lawn dart throw to target (underhand) - underhand was not practiced and was indicative of transfer of learning result: improved throwing accuracy overhand as well as improved throwing accuracy for lawn dart underhand (transfer test)

Action Plan Reconstruction Hypothesis

- favors forgetting; matching motor program w/ movement - practice -> random practice -> interference -> forgetting - learner reconstructs and modifies action plan to attempt the skill on the next trial -> blocked practice doesn't allow action plan reconstruction - reinforces and refines motor programming process (encoding, storage, rehearsal): motor response schema - adapt to variable situations

Elaboration hypothesis

- favors remembering - learner develops a more elaborate memory representation (WM to LTM)

Specificity of practice

- goal of specificity is for refinement (or segmenting) of learned skills - focus on a specific context component: - performance context: simulate weather conditions or crowd noise during practice - skill context: take down or escape in wrestling; rapid decision making - closed skills focus more on refinement (ex: basketball free throw) - open skills focus more on segment (ex: wrestling take down)

Simplification Methods - add auditory cues

- helps when learning skills w/ a distinct rhythmic characteristic ex: adding music with metronome sounds embedded can assist Parkinson's patient when practicing walking - see improvement in gait velocity, stride length, and step cadence

Skill Organization Levels

- high level: ex: jump shot (chain of events) => spatial-temporal performance characteristics are interdependent; each part will depend on the manner in which he/she performed the parts that preceded it -*hard to practice a highly organized skill in parts* - low level: able to practice any one component by itself b/c they are independent parts => spatial-temporal characteristics do not depend on those of the part that precedes it

Complexity

- highly complex: skill w/ several component parts and has high attention demands -> ex: performing a dance routine, serving a tennis ball, getting out of bed and into a wheelchair - low complexity: have few component parts and demand relatively limited attention -> ex: shooting an arrow, shooting a free throw, picking up a cup

Amount and distribution of Practice

- how much practice should be engaged in by the performer? => "it all depends" - how much time to devote to various activities: both within and across practice sessions as well as within the total amount of practice time - consider the amount of practice needed to "learn" a motor skill and what type of level of "expertise" is desired

Distribution of practice for intertrial intervals

- how much rest period (recovery) b/w practice trials (sessions) is needed? => massed practice has very short rest periods, distributed has relatively long rest which gives time for retention - learning effects may be different based on what the skill is and what type of practice is used

Whole vs. Part Practice

- how to decide which practice to use: 1) analyze skill and determine level of complexity and organization => if the skill is low in complexity and high in organization: practice of the whole skill is best ex: buttoning a shirt, throwing a dart, putting a golf ball => if the skill is high in complexity and low in organization: practice by using the part method ex: reaching for, grasping, and drinking from a glass, shifting gears on a car ex: determine whether to practice juggling 3 balls as a whole or in parts => skill analysis and organization characteristics show that 3-ball juggling involves multiple component parts that are highly interdependent (high in complexity and in organization=> practice the whole skill)

Benefits of visual imagery/MP

- internal imaging: approximate real-life situations; imagine being inside one's own body w/ actual experience of sensations - external imaging: viewing oneself as observer aka watching yourself

Contextual Interference Effect limits

- lack of generalizability - doesn't apply to all motor skill learning situations -> motor skill (simple, complex): task difficult -> learning characteristics (age, skill level): age and skill level are most limiting

Distributed practice evidence - Shea et. al

- more distributed practice is more beneficial ex: continuous dynamic balance task (3 sessions) -> 1-day: completed 2 sessions -> 2-day: completed 1 session/day over 2 day period two day period had less error than one day period and better retention

Research evidence for contextual interference effect

- non-laboratory experiments: - skilled athletes practicing to improve performance of multiple skill variations - ex: baseball players hitting diff types of pitches (had both a random and blocked schedule for hitting pitches); random schedule had better results

Poor learning from overlearning

- overlearning and negative transfer ex: distance learning to draw horizontal line using a digitizing tablet w/ stylus; couldn't see line drawn but given KR for distance error -> range of trials performed: 42, 77, 102, 127, and 152 => transfer test showed that 77 and 102 produced the lowest error, 42 was not enough and 127 and 152 was too much

MP benefits power and speed training

- performance enhancement: mental practice helped improve power training in sprint cyclists

Identical Elements theory

- positive transfer is a function of similarities b/w skills, contexts, and cognitive processing requirements - if there's more overlap -> more similar -> more positive transfer - more experiences (variability) -> more similarities - when both practice and game regulatory conditions vary => more (+) transfer

Distribution of practice

- practice distribution problem: you have a specific amount of time to practice for a future "test" 1. practice session: how long and how often 2. rest/recovery intervals: both mental and physical; occur within and between practice sessions

Overlearning strategy examples

- procedural skills: combination of cognitive and motor components -> require manual dexterity and fine motor control: perceive instructions and perform w/ precision, speed, and techniques -> require performance of a series of relatively simple movements (ex: assembling a rifle) ex: US Army sponsored research found 100% overlearning strategy was effective for long-term retention (2x normal practice) -> the skill required a lot of cognitive effort, attention to detail and remembering (LTM) and doing precise fine motor skills w/ speed => a lot of practice needed

Simplification Methods - progressive sequences

- progressive sequences of increasing skill difficulty or complexity (easier -> harder) - learner practices variations of the skill in a sequence from less to more complex/difficult

Practicing Parts of a skill - simplification

- reduce skill difficulty by practicing an easier variation of the skill before practicing the skill itself

MP benefits skill acquisition

- rehabilitation settings: people w/ injuries, impairments, and deficiencies that are relearning motor skills - clinical cohorts: -> post-stroke patients: upper-limb fine motor control and strength -> aging improved gait and dynamic balance -> spine conditions: postural adjustments reduced pain and improved spine angles -> injured athletes: improvements in muscular endurance *benefits seem specific to visual/kinesthetic aspects*

OL and poor learning

- research has shown situations in which learning deficits resulted from excessive practice (aka OL) ex: groups learning to push a handle w/ 175 N force -> 1 group (constant) practiced 85 trials at 175 N -> group 2 (variable) practiced 85 trials at 175 N, and 51 trials at 125, 150, 200, and 220 -> group 3 practiced 289 trials at 175 N - retention test showed that group 3 had poorest performance on initial 5 trials; group 2 had the best

Simplification Methods - simulators

- simulators and virtual reality environments - advantages: people can practice skills w/out concerns about cost of accidents - degree of similarity is very important for positive transfer - control specific aspects of the performance environment - not many sports contexts

Skill Organization

- spatial and temporal relationships among the parts of the skill -> high level: parts are spatially and temporally interdependent (mesh together) -> low level: parts are relatively independent (distinct from one another)

Practice Specificity

- specificity of practice hypothesis: test performance is directly related to the similarity b/w characteristics of the practice and test conditions - practice specificity is circumstantial

Benefit of Practice Variability

- the effect of skill variation during practice and how it is reflected in retention/transfer tests - three ways to look at benefits: 1) Schmidt (schema theory): successful future performance of a skill depends on the amount of *movement variability* the learner experiences during practice 2) Gentile's learning stages: need for varying the regulatory and non-regulatory conditions during practice 3) dynamic pattern: explore the perceptual motor workspace and discover solutions for the df problems

Variability vs specificity in practice

- variability for beginners to allow for new strategies to be developed and adaptations to occur - specificity aka blocked practice for experts for refinement of skills

Practice variability vs specificity

- variability: variety of experiences (mvmts/contexts) during practice situations for the purpose of transfer - experiences should vary during practice to give the capability to adapt - specificity: focus on a single element of a skill or context

Skill acquisition

- which is better for skill acquisition => physical practice w/ mental practice; just physical practice; just mental practice - study showed that physical practice was best but similar results were seen for combined which had less physical effort (less fatigue and risk for injury)

Determining need for overlearning

- who determines need for extra practice: ex: PE class setting, 5th graders learning a two step kick; found that student-determined extra practice resulted in better learning than teacher-determined extra practice (student intuitively knew better than observer)

Poor learning from overlearning - explanation

- why does "extra" practice lead to poorer retention/transfer test? -> skill practiced is too simple => boredom and lack of attention to detail may have been a problem after a certain amount of practice -> lower levels of cognitive effort b/c attention demands are so low -> lack of practice variability: variability enhances capability to transfer to a related mvmt than constant practice *"practice doesn't make perfect; perfect practice makes perfect"* - length and distribution of practice is more critical to learning than the amount of practice

Types of distributed practice

1) massed practice: have longer and fewer sessions with very little to no time to rest between trial intervals 2) distributed practice: shorter and more sessions with relatively long between-trial rest intervals Better learning seen in practice sessions that are more frequent w/ shorter practice sessions - seen in three experiments

Imagery: why does it work

1) neuromuscular hypothesis: imagining movement (neuromuscular basis) reinforces neuromotor pathways used during physical performance and reduces demands on motor system ex: asked subjects to visualize bending right arm - saw EMG activity in ocular muscle not biceps; asked subjects to imagine bending right arm to lift weight - saw EMG activity in biceps 2) brain activity hypothesis: more centrally located; imagine movement (use EEG brain imaging studies); similarity in activity b/w imagining moving a limb and physically moving a limb => neurophysiological similarities b/w both processes 3) cognitive hypothesis: first stage of motor learning ("what to do"); strategy for acquiring new skills and relearning old ones; mental elements accelerate the learning process and are not fatigue inducing/ have a risk of injury - also can be used in later stages for refining movements and correcting errors

Simplification Methods - reduce object difficulty

1) reduce object difficulty: juggling substitute balls w/ scarves or bean bags -> objects move slower than balls so person has more time to make appropriate mvmts at the right times - positive transfer should occur 2) reduce attention demands 3) reduce movement speed

Practice Specificity Hypothesis

3 levels of support for hypothesis: 1) sensory/perceptual characteristics 2) performance context characteristics 3) cognitive processing characteristics *motor learning is specific to the sources of sensory perceptual info available during practice* - proprioception, tactile, and vision - emphasis on vision early on and then move on to feel and proprioception

Orthopedic Surgical Task

ex: first and second year med students w/ no experience in bone-plating - bone-plating: serial task, parts are distinct yet inter-related => performed in a specific order - 3 practice schedules: whole practice, blocked part practice, and random part practice - results: whole practice performed better in post-tests immediately after and 30 min later followed by those in random practice group => b/c skill is high in complexity and organization (multiple interdependent component parts)

Intertrial variability of RC: closed skills

ex: golf-shot using a 7-iron - RC that remain constant: 7-iron and golf ball characteristics - RC that can vary: goal for the shot, distance of required shot, location of ball -NRC that can vary: # of holes being played, # of strokes ahead/behind, cloudy/sunny, importance of particular shot

Distributed practice evidence - Dial & Christina

ex: novice golfers practice putting for 240 trials - two groups: massed (all 240 trials in 1-day) or distributed (spread out over 4 days; 60 trials/day) - results: metacognition - distributed group predicted performance on retention test more accurately than massed group

Practicing Parts of a skill

three part task strategies: 1) fractionization 2) segmentation 3) simplification