Chapter 1 Perspectives In Motor Behavior

Action Slips

Performance-related errors that typically occur when the person is not consciously attending to the movement.

Aging

A process or group of processes occurring in living organisms that, with the passage of time, lead to a loss of adaptability, functional impairment, and eventually death.

Cephalocaudal

Proceeding from the head to distal structures; development begins with the head, and distal structures grow more slowly.

Coarticulation

Simultaneous motions that occur in sequential tasks.

Control

Manipulation of movements in such a way as to meet the demands of the task.

Coordination

The constraint of the number of degrees of freedom to decrease the complexity of the movement task to produce a movement pattern and achieve a task goal.

Degrees Of Freedom

The number of independent elements that must be constrained to produce coordinated motion.

Environmentalism Perspective

A perspective that assumes that heredity does not mold the maturational process; rather maturation occurs as humans are nurtures by their environment.

Maturation

The fixed transition or order of progression that enables a person to progress to higher levels of function.

Maturation Perspective

A perspective that development occurs as a function of nature (i.e., because of genetic or internal factors)

Motor Behavior

An umbrella term for the fields of motor control, motor learning, and motor development.

Motor Competence

The measurement aspect of a movement, either product or process.

Motor Control

The underlying neural, physical, and behavioral processes of movement.

Motor Development

The products and underlying processes of motor behavior changes across the life span.

Motor Learning

The process involved in the acquisition of a motor skill and the factors that enhance or inhibit the capability to perform a motor skill.

Motor Skills

Voluntary, goal-oriented physical elements that enable movement.

Ontogeny

The level of development occurring over the life span of one individual.

Perceptual-motor integration problem

Lines of research in motor control that examines how perception and motor control are integrated.

Performance

The act of executing a motor skill

Phylogeny

The evolutionary development of the history of a species, which can occur over many hundreds or thousands of years.

Physical growth

An increase in body size or in individual parts that occur through maturation.

Power law of practice

The learning improvement as a function of practice such that performance from extensive practice improves the most during the beginning stages of learning with improvements subsequently continuing at a much lower rate of improvement.

Process

A set of events or occurrences resulting in a change in the state or end product.

Product

The outcome of performance

Proximodistal

In relation to development the earlier advancement of the trunk than of the limbs.

Serial Order Problem

The study of the importance of the sequencing, order, and timing of movement behaviors.

Skillful

A criterion of excellence for performing a motor skill

Spoonerisms

Speech errors that occur because of exchanging letters in adjacent words.

Stability

The ability to maintain body position against forces of gravity, which may include other circumstances that increase the difficulty of the task.