Reinvestment

• Novice:

  • Inconsistent, error-prone performance
  • Unable to diversify / perform under novel conditions
  • Conscious control using verbal cues
  • Underlying mechanisms:
  • Inability to detect and correct errors: Knowing you made an error but not why
  • High cognitive load/effort
  • Drained attentional resources
  • Easily fatigued
• Expert:

  • Consistent performance
  • Able to diversify
  • Skillful, automatic, habitual
  • Underlying mechanisms:
  • Reduction in attention demands → able to multi-task
  • Able to detect and correct the (infrequent) errors
  • Reduction in muscle activity & improved timing of muscle activation
  • Reduced energy costs
  • Changes in visual selective attention → focus on information in the environment most useful for achieving the goal
• From going from novice to expert be aware of:

  • Rate of improvement decreases with time
  • Learner may experience a period of instability if learning a preferred co-ordination pattern – overcoming a distinct movement bias
• Theory of Reinvestment:

  • In some situations, performers ‘reinvest’ cognitive effort into using movement knowledge from earlier stages of learning
  • Common cause = anxiety
• Examples from the clinic:

  • Stroke patients, older adults fallers, and people with MSK injuries often self-report higher reinvestment → They (feel the need to) think about how they should move
  • Provides a rationale for why these populations:
  • have difficulty multi-tasking (e.g. stop walking when talking)
  • will reduce visual search when walking