KNES370 Exam 1

The relatively permanent changes in motor skill capability associated with practice or experience is referred to as:

Motor learning

Integration

Various muscle systems become differentiated they also “come together to become capable of functioning as a harmonious whole”

Ex: functioning of multiple limbs

On average, in western cultures an infant walks independently for the first time at about 12 months of age. As a developmentalist, this would indicate that development is:

a. Age-determined.

b. Age-related.

c. Age-cumulative.

d. Age-sequential.

b. Age-related.

If you put an object such as a finger or a bar in a newborn infant's hand, the infant will grasp the object. This is an example of a:

a. Spontaneous movement.

b. Reflex.

c. Fundamental movement pattern.

d. Both of the first two answers.

e. All of the above.

b. Reflex.

The 'building blocks' for later emerging motor skills emerge during which period on the Mountain of Motor Development?

a. Preadapted Period

b. Reflexive Period

c. Prenatal Period

d. Context-specific Motor Skill Period

e. Fundamental Motor Patterns Period

e. Fundamental Motor Patterns Period

A skilled performer who is in the compensation period is:

a. No longer skilled as they have to compensate for a change in their body

b. Skilled, but possibly not as skilled as before entering this period

c. Not skilled, as they never were skilled

b. Skilled, but possibly not as skilled as before entering this period

The study Atun-Einy et al. (2012) that we discussed in class examined the attainment of four motor milestones: hand & knees crawling, independent sitting, pull to stand, and cruising. The study showed that the attainment of these milestones is:

a. Strictly sequential.

b. Sequential in some respects but not strictly

sequential.

c. Not at all sequential.

d. None of the above.

b. Sequential in some respects but not strictly

sequential.

The reflexive period of motor development ends when:

Pre-adapted behaviors first emerge.

Nature is to nurture as heredity is to ______________.

a. a gene.

b. maturation.

c. an organism.

d. experience.

d. experience.

As humans, our developing brains anticipate certain experiences in order to develop appropriately. For example, our developing brains need to hear speech sounds of our species or encounter environmental stimuli such as the pull of gravity in order to develop typically. This type of developmental process is referred to as:

a. Experience-expectant development

b. Experience-dependent development

c. Experience-typical development

d. Experience-critical development

a. Experience-expectant development

Motor skills that are characteristic of an individual and are not typical for all humans are called:

a. Phylogenetic

b. Fundamental motor patterns

c. Ontogenetic

d. Adaptive

c. Ontogenetic

Learning a second language is easier before the age of 10 years, however, it is not impossible to learn the second language later in one's life. In humans, this period where something is easier to learn at a certain time in life is referred to as:

a. A critical period

b. A learning period

c. The context-specific skills period

d. A sensitive period

e. The preadapted period

d. A sensitive period

The randomized experiment of Zelazo et al. (1972) that we discussed in class demonstrated that the average onset age for independent walking:

a. Is different in different cultures due to different caregiver practices.

b. Is the same in all cultures despite differences in caregivers practices.

c. Can be affected by differences in caregiver practices within the same culture.

d. Does not depend on culture or caregiver practices.

c. Can be affected by differences in caregiver practices within the same culture.

Which of the following is most strongly emphasized in the neuromaturational perspective?

a. Individual variation in the attainment of motor milestones.

b. The orderly and sequential attainment of motor milestones.

c. The emergence of motor behaviors due to changes in environmental constraints.

d. The emergence of motor behaviors due to changes in task constraints.

b. The orderly and sequential attainment of motor milestones.

Suppose that two infants are born on the same day, one on her due date (the full term infant) and one 6 weeks before her due date (the preterm infant). Every week you ask the parents of each infant whether their baby ever smiles in social situations. Which of the following is most likely?

a. The full term infant will start social smiling about 6 weeks before the preterm infant.

b. Both infants will start social smiling at about the same time.

c. The preterm infant will start social smiling about 3 weeks before the full term infant.

d. The preterm infant will start social smiling about 6 weeks before the full term infant.

a. The full term infant will start social smiling about 6 weeks before the preterm infant.

From a dynamical systems perspective:

a. The brain dictates motor behavior.

b. The organism dictates motor behavior.

c. Motor behavior emerges due to interactions among the organism, environment and task.

d. None of the above.

c. Motor behavior emerges due to interactions among the organism, environment and task.

Suppose that you trip over an object while walking but are able to quickly recover and return to your normal walking pattern. This is direct evidence that:

a. Walking is sequential.

b. Walking is cumulative.

c. Walking is compensatory.

d. Walking is stable.

d. Walking is stable.

Which of the following statements about standing is true?

a. During standing there is a small amount of movement of the body due to "noise" (unpredictable variation) in sensory processes, neural processes, and force production by muscle. This demonstrates that standing is a stable motor behavior.

b. During standing there is a small amount of movement of the body due to "noise" in sensory processes, neural processes, and force production by muscle. This demonstrates that standing is an unstable motor behavior.

c. It is possible to stand perfectly still, because standing is a stable motor behavior.

d. When an infant first attains independent standing, he is unable to stand perfectly still because his standing behavior is only weakly stable. Later in development, standing becomes strongly stable and an adult can stand perfectly still.

a. During standing there is a small amount of movement of the body due to "noise" (unpredictable variation) in sensory processes, neural processes, and force production by muscle. This demonstrates that standing is a stable motor behavior.

In a "moving room" experiment, movement of the visual environment can typically cause falls for:

a. Healthy young adults.

b. Young children who have recently started standing and walking independently.

c. Both healthy young adults and young children.

d. Neither healthy young adults nor young children.

b. Young children who have recently started standing and walking independently.

Stance duty cycle, the percentage of time a given foot is touching the support source, can distinguish between walking and running. In dynamical systems terminology, stance duty cycle is:

a. A external perturbation.

b. An internal perturbation.

c. A control parameter.

d. A collective variable.

d. A collective variable.

Suppose you are walking to class and you realize that you will arrive late. You start to walk faster and faster and at some point you "naturally" break into a run. How would you expect your stance duty cycle to change at the walk-to-run transition and how is this interpreted from the dynamical systems perspective?

There is an abrupt change your stance duty cycle, indicating that the walk-to-run transition is a phase transition.

Suppose that one individual is able to balance a long stick on her fingertip for a long period of time, whereas a different individual is unable to balance a short stick on his finger tip. Based on our demonstration during class, which of the following most likely explains the difference in stick-balancing performance between the two individuals?

a. Differences in individual constraints, in particular those related to the nervous system.

b. Differences in individual constraints, in particular those related to the muscular system.

c. Differences in a task constraint.

d. Differences in the environmental constraint of gravity.

c. Differences in a task constraint.

The rules of a sport are considered:

a. An individual constraint.

b. An environmental constraint.

c. A task constraint.

d. None of the above.

c. A task constraint.

Optical illusions are due to errors in:

a. Transduction

b. Perception

c. Sensation

d. Sensory stimulation

b. Perception

Which of the following sensory systems helps us maintain balance?

a. Vision

b. Somatosensation

c. The vestibular system

d. All of the above

d. All of the above

Suppose you are on an airplane. Which of the following sensory systems provides the least information about your acceleration as the plane takes off?

Proprioception

Is there anything wrong with this diagram of the perception-action cycle? If so, how would you fix it?

a. The diagram is correct.

b. "Transduction" and "Difference" should be switched.

c. "Perception" and "Sensation" should be switched.

d. "Action" and "Sensory stimuli" should be switched.

c. "Perception" and "Sensation" should be switched.

Consider the experiment of Rovee-Collier & Sullivan (1980) in which a ribbon was attached to a 3-month-old infant's ankle at one end and was sometimes attached to a mobile at the other end. When the ribbon was attached to the mobile, movement of the infant's leg caused the mobile to move. Which of the following best describes the results of this experiment?

a. Infants often exhibited spontaneous leg movements, but the amount of movement did not depend on whether the ribbon was attached to the mobile.

b. Infants could see when the ribbon was attached to the mobile and immediately increased their leg movements.

c. When the ribbon was attached to the mobile, infants increased their leg movements over the course of a single testing session, indicating that motor learning had occurred. However, at the beginning each new testing session, the amount of leg movement always returned its original baseline value.

d. When the infants experienced repeated training sessions with the ribbon attached to the mobile, their leg movements increased over time. A week after training, the amount of leg movements was still higher than the original baseline value, even if the ribbon was not attached to the mobile.

d. When the infants experienced repeated training sessions with the ribbon attached to the mobile, their leg movements increased over time. A week after training, the amount of leg movements was still higher than the original baseline value, even if the ribbon was not attached to the mobile.

Held and Hein (1963) kept two groups of kittens in the dark except during training sessions. During training, the "active" group of kittens walked, creating a pattern of visual stimulation. During training, the "passive" group of kittens were moved passively, creating the same pattern of visual stimulation. Which of the following best describes the results of this experiment?

a. Both groups of kittens could perform normally in situations that required depth perception.

b. Only the active group of kittens could perform normally in situations that required depth perception.

c. Neither group of kittens could perform normally in situations that required depth perception.

d. The active group of kittens performed normally in situations that required depth perception. The passive group of kittens blinked when seeing an approaching object, a reflexive response that requires depth perception, but could not perform voluntary behaviors that required depth perception.

b. Only the active group of kittens could perform normally in situations that required depth perception.

Which of the following best describes when humans first exhibit spontaneous and reflexive movements?

a. Both spontaneous and reflexive movements occur prenatally.

b. Reflexive movements occur prenatally. Spontaneous movements first appear at birth.

c. Both spontaneous and reflexive movements first appear at birth.

d. Reflexive movements first appear at birth. Spontaneous movements first appear about two weeks after birth, the end of the reflexive period of motor development.

a. Both spontaneous and reflexive movements occur prenatally.

Which of the following is not an infantile reflex?

a. The Babinski reflex

b. The patellar tendon reflex

c. The swimming reflex

d. The Landau reflex

b. The patellar tendon reflex

Which of the following is true for the asymmetric tonic neck reflex?

a. The reflexive response is only seen if the head is passively rotated by, for example, another person. The reflexive response does not occur if the infant spontaneously or voluntarily rotates their own head.

b. The arm on the face side extends. The other arm flexes.

c. Only the arms show a reflexive response, not the legs.

d. All of the above.

b. The arm on the face side extends. The other arm flexes.

Suppose you are supporting an 8-month-old infant off the ground in a prone position by placing your hand under the infant's belly. Which of the following do you expect?

a. The infant will raise their head.

b. If you push the infant's head down, the infant will lower their legs.

c. the infant will raise their legs

d. all of the above

d. all of the above

Thelan et al. (1984) investigated the stepping reflex of infants under various conditions. Which of the following best describes their results?

a. Adding weight to the legs decreased the number of stepping responses. Submerging the legs in water also decreased the number of stepping responses.

b. Adding weight to the legs increased the number of stepping responses. Submerging the legs in water decreased the number of stepping responses.

c. Adding weight to the legs decreased the number of stepping responses. Submerging the legs in water increased the number of stepping responses.

d. Adding weight to the legs increased the number of stepping responses. Submerging the legs in water also increased the number of stepping responses.

c. Adding weight to the legs decreased the number of stepping responses. Submerging the legs in water increased the number of stepping responses.

Thelan et al. (1984) argued that their results were consistent with which of the following hypotheses?

a. The stepping reflex disappears during development because leg weight increases more quickly than leg muscle strength.

b. The stepping reflex disappears during development because leg muscle strength increases more quickly than leg weight.

c. The stepping reflex disappears during development because leg weight increases more quickly than the maturation of the nervous system.

d. The stepping reflex disappears during development because leg muscle strength increases more quickly than the maturation of the nervous system

a. The stepping reflex disappears during development because leg weight increases more quickly than leg muscle strength.

Consider the contraction of antagonistic muscles at a joint. Which of the following best describes developmental changes in the pattern of contraction.

a. Infants are less likely to co-contract antagonistic muscles at a joint compared to adults.

b. Infants are more likely to co-contract antagonistic muscles at a joint compared to adults.

c. Infants and adults are equally likely to co-contract antagonistic muscles.

d. Infants and adults never co-contract antagonistic muscles.

b. Infants are more likely to co-contract antagonistic muscles at a joint compared to adults.

Which of the following is true for a central pattern generator (CPG)?

a. It can produce the basic pattern of muscle activation for a motor behavior.

b. It requires sensory inputs to produce a pattern.

c. It is known that a CPG for walking exists in humans.

d. All of the above.

a. It can produce the basic pattern of muscle activation for a motor behavior.

Which of the following is typically true for the control of head movements in infants?

a. At birth, an infant in a prone position is unable to lift their head off the floor.

b. During the first few months after birth, if an infant in a supine position is pulled by the arms into a sitting position, the head will lag behind the trunk.

c. During the first few months after birth, an important constraint on head control is the weakness of an infant's neck muscles.

d. All of the above.

d. All of the above.

What is the term for a fast short-duration (20−40 ms) eye movement?

Saccade

The figure below shows how two infants track a moving visual target. In each subplot, the smooth sinusoidal curve indicates how the direction of the visual target changes over time. The other curve is infant's head direction (top row), eye direction relative to the head (middle row), or gaze direction (bottom row). Which of the following statements about the infants' ages best reflects the typical development of visual tracking?

a. Infant A is about 2 months old, whereas Infant B is about 5 months old.

b. Infant A is about 5 months old, whereas Infant B is about 2 months old.

c. Both infants are about 2 months old. The differences between the visual tracking of the two infants reflects typical individual variation at this age.

d. Both infants are about 5 months old. The differences between the visual tracking of the two infants reflects typical individual variation at this age.

b. Infant A is about 5 months old, whereas Infant B is about 2 months old.

Which of the following statements about motor redundancy is NOT true?

a. There is motor redundancy if the degrees of freedom (DOF) is greater than the number of task constraints.

b. Motor redundancy is often viewed as a problem that the nervous system must solve, "the degrees of freedom problem".

c. It has been argued that motor redundancy is useful for many aspects of motor behavior.

d. During the development of a motor behavior such as visual tracking, initially the individual uses all the DOF of a motor behavior. Later as more skillful behavior develops, some DOF are frozen.

d. During the development of a motor behavior such as visual tracking, initially the individual uses all the DOF of a motor behavior. Later as more skillful behavior develops, some DOF are frozen.

Which of the following statements about crawling is true?

a. A typically developing infant always exhibits belly crawling before hands and knees crawling.

b. A typically developing infant always exhibits hands and knees crawling before belly crawling.

c. A typically developing infant always exhibits some type of crawling before walking.

d. None of the above.

d. None of the above.

Consider the attainment of independent walking in an infant. Which of the following is believed to be a rate-limiting constraint?

a. Pattern generation

b. Balance (postural control)

c. Tonus control

d. None of the above

b. Balance (postural control)

Zelazo et al. (1972) showed that "exercising"

the stepping and placing reflexes during the

first 8 weeks after birth can increase the

amount of stepping reflex responses. How

did Thelan et al. (1984) explain this result?

Thelan et al. (1984) suggested that

stepping responses increased because

exercise increased leg muscle strength

relative to leg weight

motor development

the changes in motor behavior over the lifespan, the process(es) of these changes, and factors that influence them

Motor Learning

Motor learning is the relatively permanent

changes in motor skill capability associated with

practice or experience

motor milestone

• the first appearance of a type of motor behavior

• all individuals attain it in the same sequence

Developmental perspective: sequential

Do motor behaviors A and B develop sequentially?

Developmental change is not always strictly sequential, an example of developmental change being individual:

Sitting, pull to stand, cruising, hands & knees crawling

Developmental perspective: cumulative

Developmental change is built upon previous

capabilities. Early behaviors act as "building blocks" for later emerging skills. For example, running is built upon walking.

Mountain of Motor Development Periods

sequence is important

Bottom to top ---

Reflexive

Preadapted

Fundamental Motor Patterns

Context-Specific

Skillful

reflexive period:

how are movements?

ends?

birth to 2 weeks

Movements are reflexive or spontaneous

Insure the survival of the individual

Reflexive movements

a stereotypical response to a

specific stimulus

Spontaneous movements

movements that appear to be elicited by no known external stimulus

preadapted period

end?

• Predisposition for certain motor behaviors

• Species-typical behaviors (phylogenetic)

• Require very little specific environmental support

• Biological constraints play a very important role

when individual can walk and gather food

Fundamental Motor Patterns Period (1-7 years)

•Building Blocks (fundamental patterns of coordination)

•Necessary for later context-specific skills

•Considered phylogenetic skills

•Require experience, but not as specific as context-specific, nor as nonspecific as preadapted skills

Context-specific motor skills period (7-11 years)

Skills are unique to the individual (i.e.,ontogenetic)

• Promoted by family, friends, culture

• Coincide with changes in cognitive capabilities

• Acquisition of these skills is dependent on

context-based knowledges & experiences

• Practice and instruction become important mediators

• Both fine and gross motor skills

Skillful Period (11+++ years)

Near the peak of the mountain

Movement in consistently performed, both physiologically, and psychologically, and adaptively versatile.

Compensation Period

includes (context-specific & skillful periods)

The period of motor skill development in which a skilled individual is compensating for a change in an organism constraint

- Motor skill performance shows a compensation

from previous level of skillfulness

- Most often not optimal but can still be skillful

- Particularly vulnerable are gross motor skills that

require large forces or sustained aerobic effort

Two types of compensation:

a. injury induced

b. Aging-associated

a. a change in organism constraints associated with an injury

b. changes in organism constraints that are associated with the process of aging

Phylogenetic motor skills

motor skills that are typical for a species, such as humans

• Example: Walking in humans

Ontogenetic motor skills

motor skills that are characteristic of an individual

• Example: Skating in humans

nature

hereditary (genetic) information received from parents at the moment of conception that signals the body's growth and other changes

Heredity (nature)

- the transmission of physical and psychological characteristics from parents to offspring through genes

- Plays an important role in such traits as:

• Height (body proportion, hand size, etc)

• Eye color

• Gender

• Handedness

Environment (Nurture)

Nurture - factors in your environment

• family

• friends

• culture

• living conditions

• education

• socioeconomic status

• religion

• climate.......

Johnny & Jimmy (McGraw, 1930s)

A study of fraternal twins who had differential motoric environmental stimulation during the

day

Experience-expectant development

development that depends on typical interactions with the environment

interaction of nature and nurture

• Example: Development of vision

− Pruning of connections among neurons based

on typical visual interactions with the

environment

critical period

A specific time in the organism's life when it must

experience a particular task or environmental constraint.

Sensitive Period

when specific conditions/stimuli are required for optimal/typical development occur

phase transition

as well as quantitative

Transduction

conversion of one form of energy into another

Example: Energy from light is transduced into electrical activity of photoreceptors in the retina of the eye

Sensation

the initial neural activity triggered by a stimulus

sensory receptors

specialized cells or sub-cellular structures that transduce an environmental stimulus into electrical activity that can be interpreted by the nervous system

Perception

a multistage process that takes place in the brain and includes selecting, processing, organizing, and integrating information received from the senses

Primitive reflexes

- First appear before, at birth, or soon after birth

- Generally subcortical (cortex of brain not involved)

- Generally strong at birth and become weaker over

time

- Disappear by one year, often much sooner

Babinski reflex

Reflex in which a newborn fans out the toes when the sole of the foot is touched

Moro reflex

Stimulus: sudden backward movement of infant's head & shoulders

Response: infant abducts and extends her arms outward and then

brings them in towards her body

Rooting (searching) reflex

Stimulus: stroking cheek towards the lips

Response: open mouth and turn head towards the stimulus

Asymmetric Tonic Neck Reflex (ATNR)

Stimulus: head turns

Response: limbs on face side extend, limbs on other side flex

Symmetric tonic neck reflex

Stimulus: extend head and neck

Response: arms extend, legs flex

Stimulus: flex head and neck

Response: arms flex, legs extend

The study of Chi (1978) compared children with chess skill to adults with less chess skill. The study found that:

a. The children were worse than the adults at remembering chess positions.

b.The children's ability to remember chess positions was similar to that of the adults.

c. The children were better than the adults on a wide range of memory tests, including remembering chess positions.

d. The children were better than the adults at remembering chess positions, but were not better than the adults at remembering non-chess information.

Suppose you measure the time it takes someone to stand up from a chair, walk three meters, turn around, walk back to the chair, and then sit down. (This is called the Timed Up and Go test.) What is the level of measurement for this test?

a. Nominal.

b. Ordinal.

c. Interval.

d. Ratio.

A test of balance is valid if:

a. Repeated assessments of the same individual by the same tester produce similar scores.

b. Two testers assessing the same individual assign similar scores.

c. The assessment of an individual yields a score that actually reflects the individual's balance.

d. The test has an interval level of measurement.

individual constraint

development is age related but not age determined

what are the constraints?

• individual

• qualitative

• sequential

• cumulative

• directional

directional constraint

• developmental change is towards /away from some goal such as skillfulness

• change is towards goal in childhood into young adulthood

• often away from the goal during aging

multifactorial

many factors affect development

neuromaturational perspective

motor behavior develops as a result

gestational age

• time since 1st day of the mother’s last period

• describes age before birth

• conception at this age is about 2 weeks

chronological age

• time since due date

• age w/no adjective

corrected age

• time since due date

• number of weeks born prematurely (before due date)

• social smiling is determined by this

external perturbations

• often present

• sometimes small/large

internal perturbations

• always present

• errors in sensory signals, force production by muscle, neural processing

• usually small for healthy young adults but may be larger during other periods of development

what are the differences between dynamic systems and neuromaturational perspective?

dynamical systems perspective emphasizes the brain and doesn’t dictate behavior, developmental changes, environment, and task constraints are important since they interact to produce developmental changes.

what are the similarities between dynamic systems and neuromaturational perspective?

both concerned w/maturation of nervous system

why should we study motor development?

• helps spot early signs of abnormal developments and may need intervention

• helps create age-appropriate activities that build motor skills in people who are developing typically

growth

increases in physical size that occur w/age

maturation

qualitative functional changes that occur w/age

differentiation

progression from gross, immature movement to precise, well-controlled intentional movement

preadaptation

genetic predisposition for individuals to develop specific motor skills

ex: ability to crawl

experience-dependent

• development that depends on interactions w/environment that aren’t the same for everyone

• ex: upbringing may affect it