HK: Motor Learning and Performance (Chapter 11), Motor Learning Exam 3 (Chapters 9-11)

Knowledge of Performance (KP)

Augmented information about the movement pattern the learner has just made

Knowledge of Results (KR)

Augmented verbal (or at least verbalizable) information fed back to the learner about the success of an action with respect to the environmental goal.

Verbal feedback

provides information in verbal (spoken) form; it includes information that can be verbalized even if it isn't (e.g., a coach can call out the time on a stopwatch or show it to the athlete).

Visual feedback

provides information in a visual format, usually a video replay; practitioners should direct the learner's attention to specific aspects of the movement that are under consideration.

Guidance

refers to aiding a movement or skill to a degree in which it restricts a performer from making corrections in the motor program. In other words, a guided movement eliminates the error in the movement and thus does not elicit learning processes.

Functions of Augmented Feedback

1. Produces motivation, or energizes the learner to increase effort

2. Provides information about errors as a basis for corrections

3. Directs the learner's attention toward the movement or the movement goal

4. Creates a dependency, leading to problems at feedback withdrawal

Motivational Properties

1. The effects of feedback as a motivating tool are primarily indirect in their influence (e.g., KR encourages the learner to keep practicing, and the results of this additional practice are what influences learning)

2. Motivational feedback can also have a direct effect on learning: Learning was facilitated by "good" feedback (Chiviacowsky and Wulf, 2007)

Informational Properties

1. Probably the most important component of feedback for motor learning is the information it provides about patterns of action

2. This feedback about errors, giving direction for modifying future performance, is the focus that makes the instructor so important for motor learning

Attentional Focusing Properties

1. KR directs the learner to think about externally directed information

2. The information content of KP directs the learner's attention to process movement-related information, an internally focused process

Dependency-Producing Properties

1. When feedback that contains information for error correction is given frequently, it tends to guide behavior toward the goal movement

2. The learner can also become dependent on the guidance, resulting in poor performance when the guidance is removed (Salmoni, Schmidt, & Walter, 1984)

3. Researchers have studied ways of scheduling the provision of feedback so that the most useful information content can be delivered without detrimental effects

How much feedback should be given?

In general, too much information is not useful

A good rule is to decide what error is most fundamental and focus the feedback on that one issue

Absolute Frequency of Feedback

refers to the total amount of feedback given to a learner across a set of trials in practice

Relative frequency of feedback

refers to the percentage of trials receiving feedback

Faded Feedback

1. Faded frequency is a feedback schedule in which the relative frequency of feedback is high in early practice and reduced in later practice.

2. The instructor can adjust feedback scheduling to the proficiency and improvement rate of each learner separately, thus tailoring feedback to individual differences in capabilities

3. The ultimate goal is to generate capability for the learner to produce the action on theivr own without a dependency on feedback

Bandwidth Feedback

1. Bandwidth feedback is a procedure for delivering feedback in which errors are signaled only if they fall outside some range of correctness

2. Produces faded-feedback frequency as a by-product

3. Increased absence of error feedback can also be viewed as a form of rewarding feedback

4. Withholding information on a set of trials that fall within the bandwidth fosters more consistent actions

Summary Feedback

1. Summary feedback is information about the effectiveness of performance on a series of trials that is presented only after the series has been completed

2. Summary feedback is particularly helpful for learning for a number of reasons.

3. Summary feedback might reduce dependency-producing properties of feedback when learners are required to perform several trials without it

4. Summary feedback helps a more stable movement pattern to be developed because a lack of feedback does not provide information for changing the movement on a trial-by-trial basis

5. Summary feedback may encourage the learner to pay attention to and analyze his or her own inherent feedback.There is an optimal number of trials to include in summary feedback reports, with either too few or too many trials decreasing learning

Average Feedback

1. Average feedback is a type of augmented feedback that presents a statistical average of two or more trials rather than results on any one of them.

2. Might block dependency-producing effects

3. Allows the instructor to formulate a more complete idea of the learner's error tendency

4. Gives the learner more reliable information about what to change and how to change it

Learner-Determined Feedback Schedules

1. Learner-determined feedback is a schedule in which the provision of feedback is determined by the learner.

2. Learners likely need (or at least request) feedback far less frequently than instructors tend to provide it

3. There may be an important motivational component driving the request for feedback

When feedback should be given

An important concept discussed in this section of the text is guidance (both in the form of concurrent feedback and physical guidance), which can be helpful in some circumstances (e.g., for a dangerous skill) but often changes the feel of the movement to the detriment of learning. Different types of feedback schedules include learner determined feedback, feedback during the movement, and feedback after the movement.

Feedback During the Movement

The information can be used to regulate ongoing actions by providing a basis for correcting errors and pushing the movement closer to the action goals

Concurrent feedback is augmented feedback presented simultaneously with an ongoing action

Physical guidance techniques represent a large class of methods in which the learner is forced to produce the correct movement patterning

Feedback after the movement

When empty feedback delays have been examined, scientists rarely found systematic effects on learning

One exception to this generalization about feedback delay is instantaneous feedback. Situations in which feedback is presented very soon after a movement. Many instructors have tried to minimize feedback delays, essentially giving feedback that is almost simultaneous with the completion of movement. Instantaneous feedback is common in many simulators, for example, such as medical mannequins, in which feedback about pressure is displayed immediately after a chest compression is performed. Note that instantaneous feedback is not, technically, the same as concurrent feedback, because feedback is being delivered after the movement has finished.

Intervening activities of a different skill generally degrades learning as measured on retention tests (Marteniuk, 1986; Swinnen, 1990).

Trials-delay feedback is a procedure in which the presentation of feedback for a movement is delayed; during the delay the learner practices additional trials of the same skill

Evidence suggests that trials-delay technique is not detrimental, and it may be more effective for learning than presenting feedback after each trial

Intervening Subjective Estimations

A study by Guadagnoli and Kohl (2001) revealed that the negative effects of 100% KR frequency were reversed if learners made subjective estimates of error before the delivery of the feedback on each trial. ---So this means, let the athlete process (intrinsic feedback) what has happened after performance before you apply your feedback as a coach.

Providing extrinsic feedback

Providing extrinsic feedback (i.e., KR or KP) to a person can help both performance and learning. Interestingly, though, providing feedback after every attempt during practice is not always the best way to enhance learning.

Feedback and Dependency

one of the properties of feedback is that it can produce dependency in learners. In other words, learners who receive frequent extrinsic feedback might come to rely on this source of information and never fully develop capabilities to evaluate their own performances. When extrinsic feedback is no longer available, as is often the case outside of practice settings, those individuals often do not perform very well.

Withholding Extrinsic Feedback

the learner is encouraged to subjectively evaluate his or her own performance. Such self-evaluation will likely help the learner become more attuned to the sensory consequences of the movement (i.e., how it felt)

Extrinsic feedback is provided at a later point

the learner will be better able to relate the sensory consequences of his or her actions to the environmental outcome indicated by the extrinsic feedback

Focusing on sensory consequences and environmental outcome

the person will eventually learn how a correct performance feels and will be able to use that as a guide in future performances

Feedback when requested

Research suggests that learners benefit more from feedback that is provided only when it is requested. In addition, there are some indications that learners prefer feedback after trials on which they felt they performed well, but not after those on which they felt they performed poorly. This suggests that the information provided by feedback is not always used to correct errors, but may sometimes be used to reinforce correct behavior. One way this reinforcement may occur is by allowing the learners to pair the sensory consequences after an accurate trial with external feedback regarding the consequences of the movement.

Feedback

information about performance or errors that the learn can use from making future corrections

Guidance Hypothesis

Holds that the learner can become dependent on such feedback, so that he uses this augmented source of information instead of internally generated processes to keep the movement on target.

Precision of Feedback

Based on the level of accuracy with which the feedback describes the movement or outcome.

The level of feedback precision to provide seems to depend on the learner's skill. Early in practice, the learner's errors are so large that precise information about the exact size of the errors does not matter, simply because the learner does not have the movement-control precision to match the precision of correction specified by the feedback.

By the same argument, movement control will be much more precise at higher levels of skill, and more precise feedback can be used effectively as a consequence.

Practice

Can occur at many different times and places, under varying conditions and it can be either almost unintentional or highly guided and structured.

Unmotivated Learner

Not likely to practice and the result can be little or no learning

Motivated Learner

Devotes greater effort to the task with more serious practice and longer practice periods, leading to more effective learning

Intrinsic motivation

Learner's internalized drive, a drive to learn a skill

Deci and Ryan (2000) suggest that intrinsic motivation is largely determined by 3 basic needs

1. autonomy (control of one's own destiny)

2. Competence (skill mastery)

3. Relatedness (being accepted within a social context)

The relative weighting of each of these basic needs differs in every individual.

Goal Setting

Important motivational method whereby learners are encouraged to adopt specific performance goals.

Important that instructors encourage their learners to set realistic goals, ones that can be reasonably achieved with practice and effort. The learner can become discouraged by not even approaching goal levels that are too high. Yet goals that are too easily met can result in boredom and reduced motivation. Being encouraged to commit oneself to a specific, "challenging" (nut not impossible) goal is strongly motivating and has positive benefits on performance and learning.

Augmented Feedback

Information that is provided to the learner from an external source.

Self-Regulation

Refers to giving learners "ownership" over some of the components of practice.

In studies of this type, learners are typically told that they can control how much practice to undertake, when augmented feedback will be provided, or how to organize the practice schedule (reviewed by Sanli et al., 2012). An important component of these studies is the inclusion of (yoked) control groups that provide the same schedule of feedback delivery as the self-selected group. However, these yoked conditions are determined entirely in advance and are not under the control of the learner. These studies have revealed more learning under self-regulated feedback conditions, leading some to speculate that giving learners control over their learning environment provides an extra incentive to learn. This seems to satisfy the need for autonomy.

Instructions

Usually spoken (although they can be written or demonstrated), and they provide information about the very first aspects of the skill.

Considering the difficulty students have with no instructions at all, these procedures are critical for raising skill level in very early practice. Simple, direct statements that start people off on the right track can be effective in reducing early confusion in the learning process.

Verbal descriptions

Best suited for only the more elementary features

Modeling

Live demonstrations by an instructor or by the learners themselves

Observational Learning

Learner gains information by watching another's performance

Mental practice

Learner rehearses skills to be learned mentally, without performing actual, overt physical practice.

Learner thinks about the skills being learned, rehearses each of the steps sequentially, and imagines doing the actions that would result in achieving the goal.

Massed practice

Provides relatively little rest between trials.

For example, if a task has practice trials 30s long, a massed-practice schedule might call for rest periods of only 5s or perhaps no rest at all (so-called continuous practice).

Distributed Practice

Calls for much more rest, perhaps with a rest period between trials that is as long as a trial itself.

Discrete Tasks and Rest

For discrete tasks, there is no evidence that reducing the rest time through massed practice affects learning.

Continuous Tasks and Rest

1. Longer rest periods generally lead to more skill performance during practice (i.e. distribution of practice has a performance effect)

2. When measuring learning, the size of the differences between groups is generally reduced as measured after a retention interval.

3. The positive effect of longer rest intervals on performance remains large on retention test (i.e. distribution of practice has a learning effect).

Members of a Class

Have these characteristics:

1. Common movement sequencing exists among the elements.

2. Common temporal, or rhythmical, organization exists.

3. The same action can often be carried out with different effectors (e.g. limbs).

4. The same action can differ in surface features (e.g. speed) on two different occasions, which is specified by different movement parameters.

Schema Theory

The learner acquires a set of rules, called the schemas, that relate the surface features of throwing (e.g. distances, speeds) to the parameter values necessary to produce these actions.

To avoid the storage problem the learner stores these values just long enough to update the schema after each throw, and then these are discarded or forgotten.

According to schema theory, this process is responsible for motor learning associated with learning to parameterize the GMPs - a common problem for the player using the same GMP over and over again.

Constant-Practice

Practicing only a single member of a class of tasks

Variable-Practice

Practicing several members of the class of tasks (for the football passing example, this would mean practicing varying football passing distances).

Variable practice is a schedule of practice in which many variations of a class of actions are practiced

Learners acquire schemas when they practice; variable practice enhances their development, allowing more effective novel task performance in the future

Caveats to Variable Practice

Special skills

Spacing of practice

Variable practice scheduled in blocks of trials produced small or no advantages when compared with constant-practice conditions

Studies in which variable practice was scheduled in a random order showed rather large advantages compared to constant practice

Constant vs Variable Practice

The constant group typically outperforms the variable group during the acquisition phase. Typically a learner can produce instances of a single version of a movement more effectively than multiple versions, particularly if these versions are interleaved. However, when subjects in both groups are switched to a novel version of the task on a transfer test, the group that received variable practice performs as well as the constant group, and frequently they do so much more skillfully.

This evidence has been interpreted to mean that learners acquire schemas when they practice and that variable practice enhances their development, allowing more effective novel-task performance in the future. In other words, variable practice enhances generalizability, allowing the performer to apply past learning to actions not specifically experienced before in practice.

Blocked Practice

All the trials of a given task (for that day) are completed before moving on to the next task. Typical of some drills in which a skill is repeated over and over, with minimal interruption by other activities. This kind of practice seems to make sense in that it allows the learners to concentrate on one particular task at a time and refine and correct it.

Random (Interleaved) Practice

The order of task presentation is mixed, or interleaved, across the practice period. Learners rotate among the three sample tasks so that, in the more extreme cases, they never (or rarely) practice the same task on two consecutive attempts. And from a common-sense perspective, the random method, with its high level of trial-to-trial variability, its high level of contextual interference would not seem optimal for learning.

Elaboration Hypothesis

Increased meaningfulness and distinctiveness produce more durable memories for the tasks, and thus increased performance capabilities in tests of retention and transfer.

the idea that frequent switching of tasks (e.g., in random practice) renders the tasks more distinct from each other and more meaningful, resulting in stronger memory representations; it is one explanation of the contextual-interference effect

Forgetting Hypothesis

New solutions are required frequently in random practice, but not in blocked practice; thus, the development of the solution for the task is the key feature that facilitates learning.

The FH suggests that somewhat ironic and counterintuitive idea that "forgetting facilitates learning"

the hypothesis that frequent task switching in random practice leads to the performer forgetting the previous trial and planning for that performance. Thus, it results in stronger memory representations. It is a hypothesis that explains the contextual interference effect.

Benefits of Random Practice over Blocked Practice

1. Random practice forces the learner to become more actively engaged in the learning process by preventing simple repetitions of actions.

2. Random practice gives the learner more meaningful and distinguishable memories of the various tasks, increasing memory strength and decreasing confusion among tasks.

3. Random practice causes the learner to forget the short-term solutions (from working memory) to the movement problems after each task change.

4. Forgetting the short-term solution forces the learner to generate the solution again on the task's next trial, which is beneficial to learning.

Random Practice Limitation

When individuals are practicing a very "difficult" task, or when the learners themselves are in some way not "appropriate" for the task to be learned.

A good example might be attempting to teach a very young learner an "adult" task that demands too much.

In such cases, random practice would make the practice environment too challenging and perhaps counterproductive to effective learning.

The beneficial effects of random practice are not universal

Guadagnoli and Lee (2004) reviewed the varieties of evidence and suggested that random practice is likely to be least effective when the task demands are sufficiently high enough that performers have a difficult time producing even a single trial of the behavior

Practice Variables

Motivation for learning

Instructions

Demonstrations

Mental practice and imagery

motivation

Intrinsic motivation for learning deals with the learner's internalized drive to learn a skill that can be influenced in these ways:

Goal setting: Being encouraged to commit oneself to a specific challenging goal is strongly motivating

Augmented feedback: Can provide a boost to motor learning, even if the feedback is not entirely true

Self-regulation of practice: Providing some control over the learning environment is a factor thought to influence motivation and enhance learning

Instructions

As discussed in a previous module, with the possible exception of beginners, it is usually best to direct a learner's attention to an external focus rather than an internal focus.

When you are instructing athletes in a drill or activity, you are directing their attention to key parts of the skill, which are objectives of the drill or activity or what you want them to work on.

Research suggests that the best results on performance and learning are a mixture of internal and external cues.

Demonstrations and modeling, introduced in the next panel, provide an advantage for transmitting knowledge without the limitation of words. Many factors can influence how the effectiveness of a model can be maximized.

Directing attentional focus

For most performers, instructing them to pay attention to the intended result of an action produces more skilled performance than an instruction to pay attention to aspects of the movement itself

modeling

showing an athlete how to do something correctly (positive modeling) or what a typical error would look like in the movement (negative modeling).

Observational learning

a learning process that occurs when watching others perform skills. Observational learning can occur when watching others perform well as well as those that do not perform motor skills well. Observational learning that occurs by watching others that do not perform skills well is a best fit for novice performers observing the executed skill. In essence, the novice is observing what not to do. Even elite level performers can learn by observing what not to do.

modeling skill

important factor influencing observational learning, other model characteristics may impact learning. For example, the model's attractiveness or likability can have an impact on the observer's attention. The model's arousal level is another characteristic that could impact learning. When the model's arousal level is low when performing the skill, the learner many not be motivated to observe and learn. The model's response to reward and punishment is another characteristic that can influences observational learning. Learners could be less likely to reproduce a skill if the model is punished or reprimanded in some way when performing the skill. Finally, the model's motivation when performing the skill is a characteristic that is observed and can have an impact on the learner.

social learning theory (Bandura, 1977)

one way individuals learn is through the observations of others. The model being observed by the learner often possesses many characteristics that influence learning. Research has explored how certain model attractiveness influences observational learning in the general population, however there is a lack of research exploring model attractiveness' impact on learning motor skills.

Mental practice

occurs when the learner thinks about the skills being learned and moves through each of the steps sequentially mentally, imagining performing the actions successfully. Mental practice, when executed efficiently, can be beneficial to learning, and has the advantage of not requiring equipment or a large amount of space. These activities below give students some experience with mental practice (imagery)

Hybrid schedules

Some researchers have found that moderate levels of random practice are beneficial for performance and learning

Practice contingencies

This schedule is more sensitive to individual differences when the difficulty of the task and the decision to repeat the same task or switch to an easier or more difficult task depend on the performance successes of the individual

Deliberate Practice is:

- effortful

- goal oriented

- augmented feedback to improve performance

What does specificity of practice suggest?

What you learn depends largely on what you practice

Stages of Learning: Fitts' Stages

Designed to consider perceptual - motor learning

Heavy emphasis on how the cognitive processes invested in motor performance change as a function of practice

Stages of Learning: Bernstein's Stages

- From a combined motor control and biomechanical perspective

What are Fitts's stages?

- Cognitive Stage

- Fixation Stage

- Autonomous Stage

Fitts' Stage 1: Cognitive Stage

- concerns goal identification, performance evaluation, what to do, and when to do it

- verbal & cognitive abilities dominate & verbalizable information is useful

- gains in proficiency are very rapid & large, indicating that more effective strategies are being discovered

Fitts' Stage 2: Fixation Stage

- The learner's focus shifts to organizing more effective movement patterns.

- In skills requiring quick movements, such as a tennis stroke, the learner begins to build a motor program to accomplish the movement requirements.

- In slower movements, such as balancing in gymnastics, the learner constructs ways to use movement-produced feedback.

- Inconsistency gradually decreases

- Enhanced movement efficiency reduces energy costs, and self-talk becomes less important for performance.

- Learners begin to monitor their own feedback and detect their errors.

Fitts' Stage 3: Autonomous Stage

-Usually associated with the attainment of expert performance

-Decreased attention demanded by perceptual and motor processes

-Allows for simultaneous performance of higher-order cognitive activities

-Self-confidence increases

-Capability to detect and correct one's own errors becomes more fine tuned

Bernstein's Stage 1: Reduce Degrees of Freedom

- The initial problem is what to do with all of the possible degrees of freedom of movement that are available for the body

- Solution is to reduce the movement of nonessential or redundant body parts in the initial stage of learning by freezing degrees of freedom

Bernstein's Stage 2: Release Degrees of Freedom

- The learner attempts to improve performance by releasing some of the degrees of freedom that had initially been frozen.

- Particularly useful in tasks that require power or speed, because the degrees of freedom that have been released could allow for faster and greater accumulation of forces.

Bernstein's Stage 3: Exploit Passive Dynamics

- The performer learns to exploit the passive dynamics of the body

- The movement becomes maximally skilled in terms of effectiveness (achieving the result with maximum assuredness) and efficiency (minimum outlay of energy).

Constraints-Led Approach to Learning

-Does not highlight stages of progress

-Certain features act as boundaries to performance

-Motor-learning discovery process is shaped by constraints

-Organismic, environmental, and task constraints

Forgetting

Long-term retention depends largely on the nature of the task.

- Discrete tasks are forgotten relatively quickly

- Amount of original practice will influence the relative amount of retention

Transfer and Similarity

Transfer between skills depends on the concept of similarity among skills.

- common movement patterning

- common perceptual elements

- common strategic or conceptual elements

Principles of Part Practice

For very slow, serial tasks with no component interaction, part practice on the difficult elements is very efficient.

For very brief, programmed actions, practice on the parts in isolation is seldom useful and can be detrimental to learning.

The more the components of a task interact with each other, the less the effectiveness of part practice.