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CHAPTER 12Motor Learning in Practice: Skill Acquisition
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Conditions for Skill Acquisition
• Starting at a Young Age• Providing Sufficient Learning Time• Being Taught by Qualified Instructors• Following the Right Progression• Using Quality Equipment
Stages of Learning a Skill
• Cognitive Stage• Associative Stage• Autonomous Stage
Feedback for Skill Learning
• Intrinsic Feedback• Extrinsic Feedback• Motivational Properties of Feedback• Minimizing Feedback Dependency• Feedback Questions and Answers
Transfer in Motor Learning
• Types of Transfer• Transfer Strategies
Designing Effective Practice
• Blocked Versus Random Practice• Massed Versus Distributed Practice
TABLE OF CONTENTS
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Changes that occur as skill is learned and developed:
• Swifter and more fluid execution
• Less attention demand
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• Starting at a Young Age
• Providing Sufficient Learning Time
• Being Taught by Qualified Instructors
• Following the Right Progression
• Using Quality Equipment
CONDITIONS FOR SKILL ACQUISITION
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• Before becoming skilled, a basic movement repertoire consisting of certain fundamental skills is needed
• Several factors affect becoming skilled (i.e., movement intelligence)
• Learning fundamental skills (throwing, catching, climbing), as early as preschool
• Allows a child to incorporate into a repertoire of motor skills
• Movement patterns still being established -important to teach skills correctly the first time to avoid bad habits
STARTING AT YOUNG AGE
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• To improve motor skill development, sufficient time must be allotted to participating in activities that enhance movement skills
• Without physical experience, skills cannot be learned effectively or maintained
PROVIDING SUFFICIENT LEARNING TIME
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• Instructors, physical educators, and coaches
• Must be properly trained
• Must have experience with teaching physical activity
BEING TAUGHT BY QUALIFIED INSTRUCTORS
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• Has direct influence on the movement skills acquisition
• Organized action and the sequence of drills ensure that skills are easier to grasp
• Then effectively transferred to more complex tasks
FOLLOWING THE RIGHT PROGRESSION
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• Scaled down for children to their size
• Safe, appropriate, and well-maintained
• Makes learning effective for students
USING QUALITY EQUIPMENT
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• Cognitive Stage
• Associative Stage
• Autonomous Stage
STAGES OF LEARNING A SKILL
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Understand Practice Apply
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When?What? How?
• Begins when the task is first introduced
• Goal • Determine the general shape of the skill and its goals
• What, when, and how?
• Getting a feel
• To help convey skill’s general idea• Instruction,
• Demonstrations
• Films
• Videos
• Vivid descriptions
COGNITIVE STAGE
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• Self-talk • Demands concentration
• Does not allow other information to be processed
• Provides verbal reminders as attempting the skill
• Offers security
• Gives a rough idea of what the skill is all about
• Facilitates rapid learning and improvement
• Performance • Slow, jerky
• Highly variable
• Even awkward
• Serves as a good foundation on which to build
COGNITIVE STAGE
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• Practice stage• Movements more automatic and controlled
• Goal• Most stimuli related to the skill now defined
• Performing and refining the skill
• By organizing more appropriate movement patterns
• Variability of performance decreases• Anticipation and consistency improve
ASSOCIATIVE STAGE
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• Confidence increases
• Performance improves quite rapidly
• Self-talk diminishes
• Learner able to detect some of their own errors
• Lasts longer than the cognitive stage
ASSOCIATIVE STAGE
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• Application stage
• Movements almost automatic and very proficient
• Attention demands dramatically reduced• Focus on other aspects like creativity and strategy
• Ability to analyze environmental stimuli enhanced • Relevant cues quickly detected with increased accuracy
AUTONOMOUS STAGE
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• Expert performance• Result of a great deal of practice and
dedication
• Performance improvements slow• Already reached high level of proficiency
• Less obvious performance gains • Reduction in anxiety and mental effort
• Improvement in techniques
AUTONOMOUS STAGE
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• Intrinsic Feedback
• Extrinsic Feedback
• Motivational Properties of Feedback
• Minimizing Feedback Dependency
• Feedback Questions and Answers
FEEDBACK FOR SKILL LEARNING
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• Information that is provided as a natural consequence of performing an action
• Example: throwing a dart
• Feel arm extend
• See dart fly
• Hear dart make contact
INTRINSIC FEEDBACK
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• Success (or failure) of performance provides intrinsic feedback
• Examples: • Watching the tennis ball land in the opponent’s court• Covering an excellent distance in a 12-minute walk/run test
KNOWLEDGE OF RESULTS
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• Involves senses for obtaining more or less direct information
• Examples:• Finger sensations felt when playing piano• Pull in shoulders when pulling on the oar
• Particularly in the associative stage
KNOWLEDGE OF PERFORMANCE
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• Muscle Sense • Muscles gather information about movement • Stimuli are the result of muscles and tendons pressure and tension• Special receptors in the muscles, tendons, and joints supply information about
each joint ‘s position
• Other sensory organ receptors • Touch, balance, sight
KNOWLEDGE OF PERFORMANCE
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Development of Muscle Sense
• First learning stage• Muscles send contradictory information • Awareness of muscle signals not developed
• Second learning stage requires extensive practice
• Gradually, after a lot of practice relying more
KNOWLEDGE OF PERFORMANCE
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• Information provided to learner by external source at outcome
• Suggestions used to correct and refine the skill
• Can be controlled to a great extent,• Must adapt to particular situation
• Accommodating to differences among the learners
EXTRINSIC FEEDBACK
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• Information concerning the degree of success of a performance
• Ineffective when outcomes obvious • Redundant with intrinsic feedback
• More important when outcomes less obvious• Activities involving judging
KNOWLEDGE OF RESULTS
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• Feedback is given by teacher / coach concerning the correctness of a movement
• Example• “Make eye contact with the ball before a hit”
• Gives something to consider and improve on
KNOWLEDGE OF PERFORMANCE
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• Learning is unlikely to occur until proper motivation
• Appropriate feedback = motivation
• A skilled instructor is able to reinforce correct actions, and guide the learner to improved performance as errors are held to a minimum
• Movements that are learned early on have the greatest impression on students, so appropriate feedback must be given first time around
MOTIVATIONAL PROPERTIES OF FEEDBACK
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• Too frequent can lead to dependency
• Skills are executed well when feedback is present but suffer when performed independently
• Occasional feedback tends to enhance learning
• Various strategies can minimize feedback dependency
MINIMIZING FEEDBACK DEPENDENCY
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• Providing feedback at very high frequencies early on
• Then gradually reduced as skills begin to develop
• Allows to assess the needs of each individual learner and tailor
FADED FEEDBACK
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• Feedback delivered only when errors fall outside some defined range of correctness
• Ranges across various levels of performance
• Advantages• Eventually produces faded feedback• Positive reinforcement when no feedback occurs• Blocks tendency to correct every movement develops consistency
BANDWIDTH FEEDBACK
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• Feedback provided after a certain number of trials
• Blocks tendency to correct every movement consistency
• Avoids overloading information processing capacity
SUMMARY FEEDBACK
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Let us summarize some of the most important principles of effective feedback by answering several key questions:
FEEDBACK QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
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• Required throughout, vital early on (cognitive and associative stages)
• After experience gained, apply faded, bandwidth or summary feedback before withdrawing altogether
WHEN IS LEARNING PROCESS NEEDED?
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• Ability to process information can be overloaded when learning new skills
• Intense but selective instruction during the early stages
• Balanced feedback!
HOW MUCH FEEDBACK IS NECESSARY?
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HOW PRECISE SHOULD FEEDBACK BE?
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• Precise and specific information generates better results; prescriptive feedback
• During the early stages of learning, more appropriate to provide more general descriptive feedback
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WHAT IS THE BEST TIMING FOR FEEDBACK?
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• Short-term memory is susceptible to loss of information
• Immediate instruction is more beneficial to the development of skills than the provision of information feedback at the end of a lesson
• Types of Transfer
• Transfer Strategies
TRANSFER IN MOTOR LEARNING
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• Learning that can occur on a criterion task (present goal of learning) as a result of practising some other task (previous learning experiences)
TRANSFERS IN MOTOR LEARNING
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• Transfer of learning generally increases as similarity between tasks increases
• Some important differences may prove significant
• Distinguishing among types of
TYPES OF TRANSFER
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• When dissonance between learned and new skill results in negative transfer to the new skill
• Example• Tennis forehand may make it more challenging to learn squash forehand
(different wrist action)
• Essential to avoid activities that may transfer negatively when performance is critical
NEGATIVE TRANSFER
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• Fundamental movement skills in practice applied to game situations
• Drills will only be effective if the transfer from the drill to the actual game is strong or positive
POSITIVE TRANSFER
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Near Transfer • Desired when the learning goal is a task similar to training task• Example: volleyball• Transfer of learning is fairly specific and closely approximates the
ultimate situation
POSITIVE TRANSFER
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Far Transfer• Learning more general capabilities for a wider variety of skills• From one task to another very different task or setting• Goal of practice is general• Best applied when beginning to learn a skill
POSITIVE TRANSFER
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• Based on positive transfer
• Include use of simulators, slow-motion practice, drills and training devices
TRANSFER STRATEGIES
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• Overall goal of simulation is the expected positive transfer of learning
• Effectiveness depends upon ability to simulate not only the motor elements but also perceptual, conceptual (tactical), and biomotor(strength, speed, endurance) elements
TRAINING MACHINES AND SIMULATORS
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PART VS. WHOLE PRACTICE
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• To integrate units into fluid performance
• More effective• Serial skills • Tasks long in duration• Components are independent
• Segmentation (or progressive part practice)• Forward chaining: 1st part practised to some criterion level before next• Backward chaining: Last part is learned first
PART PRACTICE
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• Most appropriate for • Actions that are rapid• Components will most likely interact intensely
• Practising parts separately may change skill’s character
• Begin using as soon as skill is performed with some degree of success
• Simplification• Variation that reduces skill’s difficulty or complexity within a particular environment• Altering speed• Lighter ball
WHOLE PRACTICE
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• For developing movement patterns, speed, balance, and visual skills to transfer to target sporting activity
• Basketball: starting and stopping, turning, evading and faking, and skipping and jumping
• Soccer: passing, shooting, dribbling, and faking drills
• Football: stepping through tires, speed ladders
LEAD-UP ACTIVITIES AND DRILLS
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• Involves constructing model situations and going through the motions
• Useful supplement in developing timing and rhythm and in aiding concentration and preparation for competition
• Staying on top of skills between physical practice trials
MENTAL REHEARSAL
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• Blocked Versus Random Practice
• Massed Versus Distributed Practice
DESIGNING EFFECTIVE PRACTICE
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Blocked practice
• Task is practised on many consecutive trials before setting about to the next task
• Allows to concentrate on one task at a time until well learned
• Enables to correct and refine one skill at a time
BLOCKED VS. RANDOM PRACTICE
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Random practice
• Ordering of tasks is randomized
• Tasks from different classes are mixed
• Important for open skills where environment is dynamic
BLOCKED VS. RANDOM PRACTICE
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Massed practice
• Amount of rest between practice trials is short relative to the trial length
• Example
• 5 seconds of rest for a practice trial lasting 60 seconds.
• Lay-up drills in basketball
MASSED VS. DISTRIBUTED PRACTICE
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Distributed practice
• Allows more rest between trials
• Rest period may last as long as the trial reducing the amount of rest between trials will also reduce the amount of
• Need time for the body and central nervous system have to recover from physical and mental
MASSED VS. DISTRIBUTED PRACTICE
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• For short discrete tasks, reducing the rest has no effect on learning or performance and may even provide a slight benefit
• Continuous skills, by contrast, has a negative impact• Fatigue
• Consider energy requirements
SKILL CHARACTERISTICS AND SCHEDULING
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• Acquiring basic movement skills is achieved most effectively under certain conditions
• There are three stages of learning skills: cognitive, associative, and autonomous
• Numerous factors affect motor learning and performance, such as the conditions of practice, the feedback provided, and learning capacity
• Designing effective practice is also critical for developing skills and improving performance
PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER
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