St John’s PE Revision CourseAQA AS PHED 1

Session 2Skill Acquisition

Skill

• Characteristics and definitions of skill • Difference between motor and perceptual

abilities • Difference between skill and ability • Types of skill – cognitive, perceptual and

psychomotor• Classification of skill, use of skill continua (open

– closed, discrete – serial – continuous, gross – fine, self paced – externally paced).

Characteristics of Skill

Learned

Aesthetic

Economic

Efficient,

effortless

Goal directed

Fluent, smooth

Coordinated

Predetermined

Skill is…….

A learned ability to bring about pre-determined results with maximum certainty often with the minimum outlay of time, energy, or both

behaviour

Ability is………

Motor abilities are innate inherited traits that determine an individual’s coordination, balance ability and speed of reactions

Skill and Ability

Motor or Perceptual Ability?

Skills require the combination of two or more of these motor abilitiesSometimes knows as psycho-motor abilitiesLeads to – perceptual skills, psycho-motor skill

Perceptual – receiving, recognising, selecting, organising information from our senses

Motor – Underlying characteristics, innate traits

Psychomotor AbilitiesGross Motor Abilities

Strength Flexibility

Extent

DynamicStatic

Explosive

Dynamic

Trunk

Psychomotor Abilities

Reaction Time - Simple, Choice

Dexterity -Manual, Finger

Limb Coordination

Control Precision

Rate Control

Arm Speed, Wrist Finger Speed

Arm Hand Steadiness Aiming

Skill Classification

Open Closed

Gross Fine

Self Paced Externally Paced

Discrete Serial Continuous

Jan03Q2Ans

Fundamental Motor Skills

Information Processing • Input – senses, receptors, proprioception, perception, selective

attention • Memory – functions and characteristics of short-term sensory store• Short-term memory and long-term memory;• Strategies to improve memory, chunking, chaining, mental

rehearsal and practice• Decision making – reaction time, simple reaction time, choice

reaction time, • Response time, movement time and the relationship between them• Anticipation temporal and spatial• Factors affecting reaction time, Hick’s law, psychological refractory

period, single channel hypothesis• Motor programmes and sub routines • Factors affecting efficiency information processing systems &

strategies for improvement

Proprioception/Kinaethesis (body awareness) Awareness of body’s position in space, sense of balance, limb position, limb movement

Touch – feel grip on racket/floor, ball

Vision (eyes) Most important - 90% of information Info on movement of objects (ball/ players etc) own position. Audition (ears)

Identification of what we cannot see (team-mate calling for ball)

Important in certain sports – hear racket make good strike on ball

Short-term memory

Long-term memory

Movement/

executive

Feedback

Decision making

PerceptionSensory Input

Selective Attention

DCR

STSS

Jan04Q5 badrallyAns

Kinaethesis

Perception

• Acquiring, selecting , interpreting, and organising sensory information

•Involves D C R – Detection Comparison Recognition

Short-term memory

Long-term memory

PerceptionSensory Input

Acquiring and selecting

Interpreting and organising

D C R

Feedback

Concurrent Intrinsic

Extrinsic

Terminal

Positive

Negative

Knowledge of Results

Knowledge of performance

Feedback – Stages of Learning

Cognitive Associative Autonomous

Intrinsic(KP)Extrinsic(KR)

Terminal Concurrent

Positive Negative

June02Q1 Ans

Open and Closed Loop Control

Decision Making

InputIdentifyStimulus

Select Response

Programme Response

Output

Long Term Memory

Short Term Memory

Improving memory

• Chunking

• Chaining

• Mental Rehearsal

Chunking is organising material into meaningful units by breaking information down, thereby greatly increasing recall capacity.

Parts of a skill are practised individually, in the correct order, before being linked together and expanded. This allows for the memorising of the whole movement

mental rehearsal of movement can produce effects similar to practising the actual movements, including memorising movement sequences.

Movement Time

Reaction Time

Response Time

“time between onset of stimulus and initiation of response”

“time from the initiation of the first movement to the end of the movement”

“from the onset of the stimulus to the completion of the response action or movement”

(Reaction Time + Movement Time)

Reaction Movement

Response

Jan04Q4 Ans

Reaction time is affected by the number of stimuli –:

Can I react faster?

Simple reaction time – one stimulus one response

Reaction Time

0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

0.7

0.8

0.9

1 2 4 8 16 32

No of alternatives

Sec

s

Reaction Time

Hicks LawChoice reaction time

Respond correctly when faced with several stimuli each requiring a different response

Respond correctly to a specific stimuli from a choice of many

Can I react faster?

Compatibility between the stimulus and response

By previous experience or practice – cue detection, set pieces

Anticipation

If the stimulus is predictable

Stimulus intensity

Age

Gender

Anxiety Management

Anticipation

Spatial anticipation - an athlete's ability to predict where an event will occur

Temporal anticipation is the ability to predict when the event will occur or the timing of an action

Event anticipation is the ability to predict what will occur

S1

S1

S2

R1

R2

0.2

0.05 0.15 0.2

0.35

S2S2 S1 S2

PRPJan02Q5 Ans

Single Channel Hypothesis

Psychological Refractory Period

Psychomotor abilities

Fundamental Motor Skills

Sport Specific Skills

Sustained Coordinated Skill Performances

From Standing to Scoring the Winning Goal

Limb Coordination, Control Precision, Arm Speed, rate Control, Aiming, Trunk Strength, Gross Coordination, Extent Flexibility

Sub-Routines

Executive Plan

GripStance

Ball drop

Backswing

Forward Swing

Contact

Follow Through

Recovery

Motor abilities

Learning and Performance • Learning – stages of learning, use of guidance, how feedback differs

between the different stages of learning• Learning plateaus – causes and solutions• Motivation – intrinsic, extrinsic, tangible and intangible• Learning theories – operant conditioning, positive and negative

reinforcement and punishment • Cognitive/insight theories• Bandura’s observational model of learning, social learning theory• Motor learning –Schmidt’s schema theory (recall, recognition, initial

conditions, response specifications, sensory consequences, response outcomes)

• Transfer of learning (positive, negative, zero, bilateral, proactive and retroactive) o impact of practice on improving learning

• Goal setting – benefits and types, principles of effective goal setting.

How do we get

…..to him?from him….. Developing and adapting our genetic traits through experience, guidance and maturation

What is learning?

A relatively permanent change in behaviour or performance due to past experience and/or practice

How is that change in behaviour achieved?

Does it happen all at once?

Learning Theories

• Get into pairs• Make 3 paper balls• Learn to juggle in pairs by using each of the

learning theories or forms of guidance

Stimulus responseObservational learningSchema theory

VerbalVisualMechanical

Making a connection between a stimulus and a response

Operant Conditioning or Associationist/Connectionist Theories

June03Q5

Associating a stimulus

with a response

S R bondAns

Shaping

Bond formed by success/reward

Conditioning or Associationist/Connectionist Theories

Positive reinforcement - strengthens bond

Punishment – weakens the bond

Negative reinforcement – strengthens bond – withdraw aversive actions

June02Q2 volleyballAns

Law of Readiness – physically and mentally ready/able to do task

Thorndike’s Laws of Learning

Law of Effect – if the effect is good it will be repeated

Law of Exercise – bond strengthened by repetition of stimulus/action reinforcement

Cognitive Theories

Understanding of relationship between process and outcome

InsightfulnessPeriods of

rapid progression and plateau

Constant reorganisation of response in the light

of new experiences

Not S R

Observational Learning/Modelling

Observation

Attention

Motivation

Performance

Retention

Motor reproduction

Receiving and processing stimuli

Athletic performance

Important cues

Model characteristics

Concentration span

Mental rehearsal

Physically able

Feedback

June02Q5Ans

Schmidt’s Schema TheorySchema – a set of

rules/relationships that allow the performer to decide upon

a solution to a problem

Does not accept that there is a motor

programme for every physical action

Learning is derived from past experience and an understanding

of the new situation

Jan04Q3 Ans

Recognition SchemaRecall Schema

Initial Conditions

Where we are – knowledge of environment

Body Position

Limb Position

Response Specification

What have I got to do?

Direction

Speed

Force

Sensory Consequences

Sensory Feedback

During and after movement

Use of all senses

KP

Response Outcomes

Compare actual with intended outcome

KR

Where am I starting?

What is my goal?

Select and adapt a response

Perform a motor action

How close did I get? KR

What does it feel like? KP

Modify my response

Recall Schema

Recognition Schema

Stages of LearningCognitive Associative Autonomous

Beginner

Understanding what to do

Cognitive images

Initial plan of action

Directed to important aspects

Short phase

Practice Phase

Basics acquired

Smoother, less errors

Can detect gross errors

Longer phase

Variety of conditions

Almost automatic

Performed easily

Little conscious control, habitual

Consistent, highly skilled

Detect & correct errors

Can give attention to other aspects of display

June04Q3 badsmash

Transfer of Learning

Positive

Pro-active

Bi-lateral

Zero

Negative

Retroactive

Old – New Situation

Forms of Guidance

Visual

Verbal

Manual/mechanical

Early Stages

Demo’s

Accurate

Highlight important cues

Mental Image Use with

visual

On own with experts

Cue words

Early Stages Remedial

SafetyPhysical Restriction

Forced Response

Jan05Q4

Ans

MotivationMotivation is why people do what they do

Arousal means how intense is our behaviour.

Internal mechanisms - our inner drives towards achieving a goal or outcome;

External stimuli mean the pressures and rewards that we gain, seek or avoid, from those around us

Jan02Q1 Ans

MotivationIntrinsic – from within – participation for sheer fun/enjoyment (self-satisfaction);

Extrinsic – from without/outside – playing for rewards

Intangible – untouchable such as praise from others

Table tennis

External rewardTangible –concrete, such as badges and medals;

Motivation

The vast majority of research into motivation has concluded that intrinsic motivation is far better than extrinsic

Performer may end up doing the activity just for the reward; Enjoyment of the activity is lost;Extrinsic reward if not valued will not develop intrinsic motivation;Extrinsic rewards can lose their power

Skill acquisition in practical situations

• Understand the advantages and disadvantages of the following factors and explain how to improve performance

• Factors to consider when developing skill and planning training/coaching sessions

• Teaching styles – command, reciprocal, discovery and problem solving

• Methods of presenting practice; whole, progressive part and whole-part-whole.

• Types of practice: massed, distributed, variable and mental practice.

• Methods of guidance: verbal, visual, manual and mechanical • Feedback – types of feedback, Knowledge of Performance,

Knowledge of Results, terminal, concurrent, delayed, positive and negative, intrinsic, extrinsic

Spectrum of teaching stylesAdapted from Mosston & Ashworth

A B C D E F G H I J

Teachers decisions

Learners decisions

Games for understandingGame

Game Appreciation

Performance

Tactical Awareness

Skill execution

Learner

Making appropriate decisions

What to do

How to do

Schema Theory - Teaching Implications

To develop recall schema

Practice in a wide variety of situations

Knowledge of wide variety of situations allows variety of response

More successful response

Use appropriate type of feedback to develop recognition

schema

Schema Theory relevant to both learning new

responses and adapting old responses to new

situations

Organising Practice

Massed Distributed

Simple Skill

Highly motivated

learner

Practice time is short

Learners are able, fit and experienced

To simulate fatigue

New Skill

Complex SkillFatigue may be

dangerous

Young learners -

short attention

Low motivation

Adverse conditions

June05Q5 Ans

Motivation & PracticeChallenging, Interesting, Attainable, Relevant, Evaluated

BeginnersUnderstand the relevance of training drills;Receive positive feedback based on knowledge of results;Selective simple feedback on knowledge of performance.

Skilled performersKnowledge of performance regarding fine precise movements;Help in developing kinaesthetic feedback;Some Negative feedback.

Types of goals

Outcome goals – relates to end resultMore unpredictable, less controlled, chose easy win/lose situations, lose motivation quickly

Performance goals – relates to performance judged against other performances – better the last performance e.g. timeFeel in control, selects realistic tasks, defeat not major set back – better.

Process goals – relates to technique or tacticsSimilar to performance goals

Goal Setting

SMART

specific

measurableachievable

recorded

time bound

How? Why?

Jan05Q1

Milestones/Targets

Clear route

Motivational

Develops self-efficacy

Helps monitor progress

Ans

Goal-settingBenefits:• Makes performer persist• Focuses attention on certain skills - directs• Motivates – sustains, diversifies• Boosts confidence• Reduces stress• Helps achievement of long-term goals• Reduces anxiety