Understanding Memory Types and Motor Learning Principles

Procedural Memory

Memory for how to perform skills, habits, and procedures. It's often unconscious (implicit) and difficult to verbalize. It's sometimes called 'muscle memory.'

Episodic Memory

Memory for specific events or episodes from one's own life, including details about when and where they occurred. It's conscious (explicit) and involves 'mental time travel.'

Semantic Memory

Memory for general knowledge, facts, concepts, and meanings, independent of personal experience. It's conscious (explicit) and includes things like vocabulary, mathematical formulas, and historical dates.

Explicit Monitoring Theory

Under pressure, experts start to consciously monitor and overtly control their movements, breaking down the smooth, integrated flow of their performance.

Attentional Control Theory

Pressure leads to anxiety, which biases attention towards threats and worries and away from task-relevant cues, reducing attentional efficiency.

Processing Efficiency Theory

Anxiety under pressure reduces processing efficiency, consuming working memory resources and leaving fewer resources for the task itself.

Sensory Memory

Duration: Very brief; fractions of a second to a few seconds. Capacity: Very large; holds a vast amount of sensory information from the environment.

Short-Term Memory (STM)

Duration: Typically around 20-30 seconds if not actively rehearsed. Capacity: Generally accepted as 7 ± 2 chunks of information.

Chunk

A 'chunk' can be a single letter, a digit, or a meaningful unit.

Function of Sensory Memory

Holds sensory information just long enough for it to be selectively attended to and transferred to the next stage.

Function of Short-Term Memory

Holds a small amount of information in an active, readily available state for current processing, manipulation, and conscious thought.

Muscle Memory

Another term for procedural memory, referring to the unconscious ability to perform tasks without actively thinking about them.

Mental Time Travel

A feature of episodic memory that allows individuals to recall specific events from their past.

Anxiety under Pressure

Leads to a focus on negative consequences, which can impair performance by disrupting attentional control.

Automatic Skill Execution

The efficient, unconscious performance of skills that can be disrupted under pressure.

Attention Bias

The tendency to focus on threats and worries rather than task-relevant cues under pressure.

Working Memory Resources

Cognitive resources available for processing tasks, which can be depleted by anxiety.

Atkinson-Shiffrin Model

A model that describes the three main stages of memory: sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory.

Iconic Memory

A type of sensory memory for visual stimuli, lasting approximately 0.5 seconds.

Echoic Memory

A type of sensory memory for auditory stimuli, lasting approximately 2-4 seconds.

Conscious Processing Hypothesis

Another name for explicit monitoring theory, emphasizing the conscious control of movements under pressure.

Performance Effectiveness

The outcome of a task, which may not be reduced by anxiety, but the efficiency of processing can be.

Cognitive Resources

Mental capabilities that are limited and can be consumed by anxiety, affecting performance.

Long-Term Memory (LTM)

Relatively permanent memory with a duration from minutes to a lifetime and potentially unlimited capacity, storing knowledge, experiences, and skills.

Interactive Workspace (or Working Memory)

The active, temporary mental workspace where information is held, manipulated, and processed, synonymous with working memory.

Temporary Storage

Involves holding information for a short period for current tasks, supported by the phonological loop and visuospatial sketchpad.

Active Manipulation/Processing

The part of working memory that involves actively processing and organizing information, primarily directed by the central executive.

Integration with Long-Term Memory

Working memory serves as a bridge between sensory input and long-term memory, integrating new information with existing knowledge.

Episodic Buffer

A component in Baddeley's updated model that temporarily integrates information from the phonological loop, visuospatial sketchpad, and long-term memory.

Consolidation

The neurobiological process that transforms a temporary memory into a stable, long-lasting memory resistant to forgetting.

Synaptic Consolidation

Occurs within hours after learning, involving changes at the synaptic level.

Systems Consolidation

Occurs over days, weeks, or years, involving the reorganization of brain regions involved in memory.

Explicit Memory Tests

Tests that require conscious recollection of past experiences or knowledge, where participants are explicitly asked to remember specific information.

Recall

A method of testing explicit memory where participants retrieve information without cues.

Phonological Loop

A component of working memory that processes auditory/verbal information.

Visuospatial Sketchpad

A component of working memory that processes visual and spatial information.

Central Executive

The component of working memory that directs and controls the flow of information.

Neural Circuits

Networks of neurons that are activated during the consolidation process to form stable memories.

Motor Learning

The process of acquiring and refining motor skills, which requires consolidation to convert movements into stable procedural memories.

Gene Expression

The process involved in consolidation that leads to structural and functional changes in neurons.

Protein Synthesis

A process involved in consolidation that is necessary for forming new synaptic connections.

New Synaptic Connections

Formations that occur during consolidation, contributing to the stability of long-term memories.

Rest and Sleep

Periods believed to facilitate the consolidation process through repeated activation of neural circuits.

Fragile Memory

A temporary memory initially stored in short-term or working memory before consolidation.

Automatic Memories

Memories that become stable and retrievable through the consolidation process.

Effortful Movements

Newly learned movements that are initially difficult and prone to decay before consolidation.

Recognition

Participants are shown items and asked to identify which ones they have seen before (e.g., 'Was this word on the list?').

Implicit Memory Tests

Tests that assess memory without requiring conscious recollection. Performance on a task is influenced by prior experience, even if the person doesn't consciously remember that experience.

Priming

Exposure to a stimulus influences the response to a later stimulus (e.g., seeing the word 'doctor' makes it faster to recognize the word 'nurse' later, even if the person doesn't recall seeing 'doctor').

Procedural Tasks

Measuring improvement in a motor skill over trials, even if the person cannot explicitly recall the learning experiences (e.g., reduced time or error in a pursuit rotor task after practice).

Perceptual-Motor Skills

Tasks that demonstrate learning through a change in performance (e.g., decreased reaction time in a sequence reaction time task), even if the sequence is not consciously remembered.

Interference

This occurs when other information (either learned previously or subsequently) disrupts the retrieval of the target information.

Proactive Interference

Older memories interfere with the retrieval of newer memories.

Retroactive Interference

Newer memories interfere with the retrieval of older memories.

Distributed Practice

Spreading out practice or study sessions over a longer period with breaks in between, rather than cramming all the practice into one long session (massed practice).

Spacing Effect

Distributed practice leads to better long-term retention and deeper learning.

Elaboration

Connecting new information to existing knowledge, understanding its meaning, creating analogies, or relating it to personal experiences.

Meaningful Encoding

When information is encoded meaningfully, it creates a richer and more interconnected network of neural associations in long-term memory.

Learning

Refers to a relatively permanent change in a person's capability to perform a skill.

Performance

Refers to the observable behavior of executing a skill at a specific time and context.

Motor Skills

Skills that involve the use of muscles to perform tasks.

Temporary Performance

Performance can be influenced by many transient factors (e.g., fatigue, motivation, anxiety, external distractions) that do not reflect a change in underlying capability.

Long-term Retention

The ability to retain information over extended periods.

Neural Consolidation

Processes that occur during rest periods that strengthen memory traces.

Retrieval Pathways

Connections that allow for easier access to stored information.

Decay

The gradual loss of memory over time.

Cramming

Studying intensively over a short period of time just before an exam.

Sustained Improvements

Improvements in performance that are maintained over time.

Improvement

An increase in overall performance proficiency (e.g., faster, more accurate, more consistent).

Consistency (Stability)

Less variability in performance from trial to trial, indicating greater stability in the underlying motor program.

Persistence (Retention)

The improved performance capability is maintained over periods of time when the skill is not being practiced.

Adaptability (Generalizability/Transferability)

The improved performance can be adapted to perform the skill effectively in different environmental contexts or variations of the task.

Performance Variable

A factor that affects performance during practice or a specific test session, but its effect is temporary and does not lead to a lasting change in the capability to perform the skill.

Learning Variable

A factor that affects performance in a way that leads to a relatively permanent change in the capability to perform the skill.

Power Law of Practice

A fundamental principle of motor learning that describes the relationship between practice and performance improvement. It states that the rate of improvement for any motor skill is greatest at the beginning of practice (when the learner is a novice) and decreases logarithmically as practice continues.

Mathematical Form of Power Law

Often expressed as T_n=aN−b, where T_n is the time to complete the nth trial, N is the trial number, and 'a' and 'b' are constants.

Performance Plateau

A period during the learning process where there is no apparent improvement in performance, or even a temporary decrement, after a period of consistent improvement.

Cognitive Fatigue/Loss of Attention

The learner might become mentally tired or lose focus and motivation for the task, leading to a temporary cessation of improvement.

Cessation of Progressing to New Strategies

The learner might have optimized the current strategy they are using, but to improve further, they need to discover or adopt a new, more advanced strategy.

Mathematical Expression of Performance

More generally, performance (P) is a power function of practice (N): P=aNb.

Implication of Power Law

This means that to achieve small increments of improvement later in learning, a disproportionately large amount of additional practice is required compared to the early stages.

Learning Curve

Typically looks like a negatively accelerating curve (steep initial improvement, then flattening out).

Plateau

Represents the time taken to search for and implement a new approach.

Physical Fatigue/Capacity Limits

Especially in physically demanding skills, fatigue can set in, or the learner might hit a temporary physiological ceiling.

Poor Practice Habits

Lack of focused practice, insufficient variability, or inappropriate feedback can hinder further improvement.

Lack of Motivation/Boredom

Without new challenges or clear goals, learners might lose motivation to push for further improvement.

"Floor" or "Ceiling" Effects

The task might be so easy that the learner quickly reaches maximum performance (floor effect if the scores are very low, ceiling if they are very high), or the measurement tool might not be sensitive enough to detect subtle improvements.

Consolidation/Restructuring

The plateau might represent a period where the brain is consolidating existing knowledge or reorganizing motor programs, rather than immediately showing outward performance gains.

Purpose of Retention and Transfer Tests

Both are critical tools used in motor learning research and practice to assess whether learning has actually occurred, as opposed to merely temporary performance effects during practice.

Retention Tests

Purpose: To assess the persistence of learned skill. It directly measures how much of the learned skill is retained over a period of time during which there has been no practice of the task.

Retention Interval

After a period of practice on a primary task, there is a retention interval (e.g., hours, days, weeks) with no practice.

Transfer Tests

Purpose: To assess the adaptability or generalizability of learned skill. It measures the extent to which the learned capability can be successfully applied to a novel situation or a variation of the practiced task.

Good Performance on Transfer Test

Indicates that the learner has acquired fundamental principles or flexible motor programs that can be generalized, rather than just memorizing a specific sequence of movements.

Stages of Learning

Fitts and Posner (1967) proposed three stages of motor skill learning.

Cognitive Stage (Beginner)

Learners are trying to understand the task, its goal, and how to achieve it. They rely heavily on verbal instructions and demonstrations.

High Cognitive Activity

A lot of conscious thinking, problem-solving, and attention are required.

Many Errors

Performance is inconsistent, often jerky, and has many gross errors.

Slow and Inefficient Movements

Movements are not fluid, and there's a lot of wasted effort.

High Variability

Performance changes significantly from trial to trial.

Rapid Improvement

Despite errors, this stage often sees the steepest initial learning curve.