Perception and Affordances L&M Week 3

What is meant by perception?

Perception- 'the organisation, interpretation and integration of sensory information' (McMorris, 2014) 

• same for both information processing and ecological approaches to movement control 

What are the key elements to perception?

Signal - pick out informational signals from the environment. Sort the important information for what we are trying to do from the noise. 

Pattern Recognition- Where performers pick up informational cues about movement before it happens, e.g. where the ball is going to be kicked to. As we practice, we become better at recognising these cues.

Selective Attention- Elite sports people not only learn about pattern recognition but they pay attention to the important information in the environment.

What is meant by opportunity to act?

Person perceives how they can act on the world depending upon both relationship between their abilities and environment they are in

What is meant by affordances?

Person perceives how they act on the world depending upon both relationship between their abilities and the environment they are in

We accept these opportunities in the environment to move and interact with it – these do not cause our behaviour but constrain and control it 

What is meant by affordances for action?

We accept these opportunities in the environment to move and interact with it- these do not cause our behaviour to constrain or control it

What are dynamic systems?

Dynamic Systems 

Attempt to qualitatively describe the behaviour of constantly changing systems 

• Not an attempt to understand it mathematically or in terms of process 

What are attractors?

Attractors refer to traits that draw attention or interest, influencing behaviour and preference.

• Attractors play a crucial role in understanding how systems behave and evolve over time across different scientific periods

Stable interactions known as attractors- can be one or more  

What are attractor wells?

Attractor Wells

Stable- Unstable- Stability Forming  

• Can move individuals from stable to unstable by constraining the system to encourage the individual to explore and improve technique 

How do individuals move from attractor wells?

• Movements improving and technique getting better through continued practice  

Difficulty occurs when environmental conditions are such that old and relatively stronger attractor states reappear 

• Alternating an attractor state is likely to be long term process 

Coaches lead development through task demands, environmental condition and opponent pressure -Changing skilled behaviour - emergences of new stable attractors 

What is meant by a hands off practitioner?

Creation of learning environments for the optimal solutions by manipulating constraints

• interpretation of movement variability

What were David et al’s beliefs as a Hands off practitioner

• Identify significant limiting task constraints 

• Reaction of learners to subtle changes  

• Range of developmental stages 

• Modify degree & frequency of constraint changes 

• Movement variability – indicator of attractor stability 

What is the Constraints led approach? CLA

Coaching method that develops adaptable, problem-solving athletes by manipulating individual, task, and environmental constraints to guide learning rather than prescribing exact techniques. 

What is Differential Learning?

• Similar ideas to CLA framework but approach is different, acknowledges complexity of systems and non-linear learning  

• Actively make learners try new movement patterns to encourage self-organisation – ‘Noisy training sessions’ 

What is traditional learning?

Build up a methodical sequence of exercises/drills to allow students to reach an ‘endpoint’ 

• Traditional Learning- ‘The way we do things around here’- Schollhorn 

Ideas align with Bernstein’s ‘repetition without repetition’ but here we are looking to systematically make variability occur. 

What is meant by movement variations?

Movement variations not movement repetitions are the basis of learning 

Javelin throw - International performers do not follow a prescriptive biomechanical model but have their own highly individual movement patterns that are stable over several years 

•  No one general movement pattern 

What is a self-organised process?

Movement pattern is not specified- variation between movement exercises  

Movement variations not movement repetitions are the basis of learning- no one general movement pattern  

Ideas align with Bernstein repetition without repetition, but we are looking at systematically make variability occur.