Motor Skill Learning and Performance: A Comprehensive Guide
Motor Skill Learning and Performance
Types of Motor Skills
Gross Motor Skills
Large muscle groups used in activities like running, throwing, and swimming.
Fine Motor Skills
Delicate and intricate muscle groups used in activities like writing, typing, and painting.
Discrete Motor Skills
Specific beginning and end points.
Continuous Motor Skills
No defined beginning or end; involves repetitive movement.
Serial Motor Skills
A series of discrete skills performed in a specific order, such as shifting gears in a car.
Open Motor Skills
Performed in a dynamic environment where objects, surfaces, or people are in motion, like driving a car or catching a ball.
Closed Motor Skills
Performed in a stable environment where objects, surfaces, or people are stationary, like shooting a free throw or buttoning a shirt.
Gentile’s Taxonomy and Performance Measures
Performance Outcome Measures
Measures the result of performing a motor skill, without providing information about the movements involved.
Performance Production Measures
Measures specific performance characteristics that produce the outcome, such as limb or joint movements, nervous system activity, and muscle operation.
Reaction Time (RT) and Movement Time
Reaction Time (RT)
The time between the onset of a stimulus and the initiation of movement.
- Simple RT: One signal – one response (e.g., a sprinter starting a race).
- Choice RT: More than one signal, each with a specific response (e.g., reacting to a traffic signal).
- Discrimination RT: More than one signal, but only one response (e.g., a four-way stop sign).
Movement Time
The time between the start and end of a movement.
Error Measures
Absolute Error (AE)
The absolute difference between actual performance and the target.
Constant Error (CE)
The signed (+/-) deviation from the target.
Variable Error (VE)
The standard deviation of the Constant Error (CE) score, indicating performance consistency.
Kinematics and Electromyography
Displacement
Spatial position of a limb or joint over time.
Velocity
Rate of change in position with respect to time.
Acceleration
Change of speed during movement.
Electromyography (EMG)
Measures electrical activity in muscles and nerves.
Ability and Motor Ability
Ability
A general trait or capacity that determines a person’s achievement potential.
Motor Ability
An ability specifically related to motor skill performance.
Hypotheses about Motor Abilities
General Motor Ability Hypothesis
All motor abilities are highly related, suggesting a general motor ability factor.
Specificity of Motor Abilities Hypothesis
Motor abilities are relatively independent, suggesting a profile of specific abilities.
Research on Motor Abilities
Research by Drowatzky & Zuccato supports the specificity of motor abilities hypothesis, showing low correlations between static and dynamic balance tests.
Types of Motor Abilities
Perceptual-Motor Abilities
Include reaction time, manual dexterity, finger dexterity, arm-hand steadiness, and multi-limb coordination.
Physical Proficiency Abilities
Include explosive strength, dynamic strength, extent flexibility, and stamina, often related to gross motor skill performance.
Timing and Coordination
External Timing
Movement timing based on an external source (e.g., hitting a baseball).
Internal Timing
Timing based on a person’s internal representation of time (e.g., jogging).
Theories of Motor Control
Theory
Accurately describes a large class of observations.
Coordination
Patterning of body movements relative to environmental objects and events.
Degrees of Freedom (DOF) Problem
Controlling the many degrees of freedom of the body to produce specific movements.
Open-Loop Control System
No feedback is used during movement execution.
Closed-Loop Control System
Feedback and error correction are used during movement execution.
Generalized Motor Program (GMP)
Generalized Motor Program (GMP)
A memory-based mechanism responsible for adaptive and flexible movement.
Motor Program Theory
Memory-based mechanism that controls coordinated movement.
Invariant Features
Consistent features of a movement, stored in memory.
Parameters
Specific movement features added to invariant features to adapt to different situations.
Dynamic Pattern Theory
Characteristics of Dynamic Pattern Theory
Behavior changes can be abrupt, behavior is influenced by the environment and task, and behaviors are self-organized.
Attractor
A stable state of the motor control system that leads to preferred coordination patterns.
Order Parameters
Parameters that define the overall behavior of the system.
Control Parameters
Parameters that influence the stability and transitions between different movement patterns.
Self-Organization
Emergence of specific movement patterns based on the interaction of system components and environmental constraints.