Motor control and learning

• Motor control involves the study of the neural, behavioral, environmental, and synergistic mechanisms responsible for human movement and stability.
• Motor learning is the study of the processes involved in acquiring motor skills and of the variables that promote or inhibit such acquisition.
• Edgar dale - cone of experiences, execute then order
• In defining motor skills, we said that they are movement capacities that are learned rather than gained through normal growth and development.
• Learning is a relatively permanent change in a person’s ability to execute a motor skill as a result of practice or experience doing a skill.
• PERFORMANCE- is the execution of the skill.
• Inferences must be accurate
• FINE MOTOR SKILL

     - Involving very precise movements normally accomplished using smaller musculature
• GROSS MOTOR SKILL

     - Places less emphasis on precision and is typically the result of multi-limb movements
• DISCRETE

     - Beginning and end points are clearly defined
• SERIAL 

     - Composed of a number of discrete skills whose integrated performance is crucial for goal achievement
• CONTINUOUS 

     - Beginning and ending points are arbitrary
• CLOSED SKILL

     - Environmental context is stable and predictable (does not change from trial to trial)

     - Consistency is the objective 

     - Technique refinement is emphasized
• OPEN SKILL

     - Performer must adapt performance to the ever changing environment. 

     - Practice should emphasized responding to the changing demands
• Self (internally) Paced Skills - the performer decides when the skill starts and the rate of procession.
• Externally Paced Skills - the control of these skills is not determined by the performer but by the environment – often opponents that the performer must react to.
• Simple Skills - they involve little decision making, have a low perceptual load but can remain difficult to learn and perform.
• Complex Skills - they have a high perpetual load, involve lots of decision making and significant use of feedback, and contain many sub-routines.
• Fixed practice is drilling a specific movement repeatedly, which allows the motor sequence to be perfected. Ideal for closed, interactive & coactive skills.
• Individual- perform in isolation
• Coactive - perform with others
• Interactive - perform with other, direct confrontation
• Variable practice is training a skill using a variety of techniques. This is effective for developing skill and adaptability, and is vital for open & interactive skills.
• Massed practice is training a skill until it’s been fully learned, with no break. This is good for athletes possessing high levels of fitness, and is suited for fixed practice.
• Distributed practice is training interspersed with rest, or another skill. This is more appropriate for athletes with lower fitness levels, and useful for variable practice.
• Cognitive stage - mental
• Associative stage - body involvement
• Autonomous stage - performed repeatedly
• Transfer of learning - relate and connect
• Vertical learning - continuous, can notice the error
• Horizontal learning - right the error
• Negative learning - error noticed by other and yourself, but your choice to correct the error
• Zero learning - no information learned
• Edward thorndike - if you did A situation, you can do B situation, especially if alike and similar
• John locke - blank slate
• Edgar dale - learning through senses, observation and actions
• Albert bandura - social experiment theory, imitation
• Charles judd - if did A, then can do B thing, similar and alike
• Solomon and perkins, 1988

  low-road transfer, automatic

  high-road transfer, “mindfully” conscious