KIN 322 - Midterm

Motor skills

activities or tasks that require voluntary head, body, and/or limb movement to achieve a purpose or goal

Motor learning

-the acquisition of motor skills
-the performance enhancement of learned or highly experienced motor skills
-the reacquisition of skills that are difficult to perform or cannot be performed due to injury, disease, etc.

Motor control

how the neuromuscular system functions to enable coordinated movements of the muscles and limbs during a motor skill

Motor development

the study of human development from infancy to old age with specific interest in issues related to either motor learning or motor control

What are the 3 factors that influence motor skill learning and performance?

1. the person
2. the skill
3. the environment

The person (factors that influence motor skill learning and performance)

-what they bring to the table
-motor abilities, genetics, past experiences, desire, attention span, etc.

The skill (factors that influence motor skill learning and performance)

difficulty level

The environment (factors that influence motor skill learning and performance)

competition vs practice, spectators, pressure, playing surface, weather etc.

What happens if a stabilizer is in pain?

a mover will become a stabilizer

Can a muscle be both a mover and a stabilizer?

no

Skills

-tasks or activities that have specific goals
-motor skills vs cognitive skills

Actions

synonymous with "motor skills"

Movements

-behavioural characteristics of a specific limb or combination of limbs
-movements make up the action

What are the 3 reasons movements are distinguished from skills?

1. people learn actions when they begin to learn or relearn motor skills
2. people adapt movement characteristics to achieve the common action goal
3. motor skill performance and movements are evaluated with different types of measures

How is performance distinguished from learning?

-Performance: is observable behaviour- execution of a skill at a specific time in a specific situation
-Learning: a change in the capability to perform a skill as a result of practice or experience (inferred from a relatively improvement change in performance)

Performance is \___ behaviour

observable

Learning is \___ from practice

inferred

Performance is \___ while learning is relatively \___

temporary, permanent

Learning is always due to \___

practice

Performance variable

anything that may influence performance at any given time

Examples of performance variables

alertness, anxiety, fatigue, uniqueness of the setting

What are the 6 general performance characteristics of skill learning?

1. improvement
2. consistency
3. stability
4. persistence
5. adaptability
6. reduced attention demand

Improvement

-performance of skill generally improves over time
-practice usually positively affects performance (practicing incorrectly can lead to decreased performance)

Consistency

-less variability over time
-from one attempt to another, performance characteristics become more similar
-starts off as being variable, with time it becomes more consistent

Stability

-the influence of perturbations on the skill
-internal or external conditions can disrupt performance
-as learning happens, increased ability to perform the skill despite perturbations

Internal stability example

stress (being able to perform the skill even when stressed)

External stability example

environmental conditions (being able to pass the ball when it's wet)

Persistence

-improved performance lasts over increasing lengths of time ie) between rehearsals, practices, games

Persistence shows \___ of performance improvement

permanence

Adaptability

-performer is able to adapt performance to different personal, task, environmental situations
-as learning increases, the ability to perform tasks in different contexts increases
-changing locations, arenas, different stages

Adaptability is also referred to as \___ of performance

generalizability

Reduced attention demand

as learner progresses, the amount of attention needed to perform the skill decreases
-can perform another skill simultaneously

What does a linear performance curve represent?

proportional increases over time (improvement)

What does a negatively accelerated performance curve represent?

large improvement early, small improvements later

What does a positively accelerated performance curve represent?

slight improvements early, large improvements later

What does an ogive/S-shaped performance curve represent?

combination of all 3 curves (linear in nature)

What is the most common performance curve observed in motor learning?

negatively accelerated curve

What are the 2 ways we can assess motor learning?

1. performance in practice
2. learning tests

What are the 2 kinds of learning tests?

1. retention tests
2. transfer tests

The general direction of the curve illustrates \___

improvement

What are the 4 performance characteristics that demonstrate learning?

criterion, improvement, consistency, and persistence

What are the 2 ways we can assess performance in practice?

1. performance curves
2. coordination dynamics

What are the 2 learning tests?

1. retention tests
2. transfer tests

What do performance curves assess?

-performance changes over time
-improvement: compare performance to criterion
-consistency: decreased SD from first to last black

Coordination dynamics assess:

What are coordination dynamics?

-developing new temporal and spatial patterns
-creating a new pattern from an old pattern

Learning tests assess the amount of performance \___

improvements

Retention test purpose

-Assess permanence of the performance level achieved during practice
-assess persistence of improved performance

Retention tests assess \___ and \___

permanence, persistence

How are retention tests measured?

-test performance of the skill following a period of not performing the skill
-if the difference between first day of practice and the test is significant, then learning has occurred

The recommended minimum time for a retention test is \___ hours

24

Transfer tests assess \___ of performance

adaptability

Transfer tests

performing the practiced skill in a performance context or situation different from practice

Transfer tests consist of what 2 variations?

1. context variations
2. skill variations

What are novel context characteristics?

-availability of augmented feedback (game vs practice)
-physical environment (rehab to home)
-personal characteristics of the test taker (stress)

What are novel skill variations?

does the learning transfer from one variation of the skill to another (change of speed, passing ball vs puck)

What cautions should we take when observing performance curves?

-performance is measured, not capability
-performance plateaus: group averages are not sensitive to individual data
-ceiling and floor effect
-scoring criteria

Ceiling/floor effect

-floor effect: task if too difficult
-ceiling effect: task is too easy

Learning tests can control for \___ variables

performance

Concurrent feedback

received feedback all the time

Terminal feedback

knowledge of results after every trial

Concurrent feedback was beneficial for \___ performance improvements but not for \___

immediate, learning

How can practice performance misrepresent learning?

persistence may be there but retention is not

Performance plateaus

a period of time in which there is no improvement, but then experiences improvement with continued practice

What are the 2 possible causes of performance plateaus?

1. cessation of learning
2. a temporary performance artefact

What are the 3 causes of performance plateaus?

1. transition between 2 phases of learning
2. personal factors
3. limitation of performance measurement

What 2 reasons is performance measurement essential for?

1.evaluation/assessment
2. motor learning control and research

What are the 2 general categories of performance measurements?

1. performance outcome measures
2. performance production measures

Performance outcome measures

category of motor skill performance that indicates the outcome or result of performing a motor skill
ex. how far did the ball go

Performance production measures

measures of motor skill performance that indicate the performance of specific aspects of the motor control system during performance
ex. EMG, EEG

Performance outcome measures do not tell us anything about the \___ of the limbs of the body

behaviour

Error measures

allow us to evaluate performance for skills that have spatial or temporal accuracy action goals

Spatial vs temporal accuracy

-spatial: where something is occurring
ex. throwing darts
-temporal: when something is occurring of the timing of the skill
ex. volleyball spike

What are the 3 ways to assess error?

absolute error, constant error, and variable error

Absolute Error (AE)

-size of error
-absolute value of difference between the actual performance on each trial and the criterion for each trial

Absolute error tells us the \___ of error

magnitude

Constant Error (CE)

difference between the actual performance on each trial and the criterion for each trial

Constant error tells us the \___ of error

direction (did they overshoot or undershoot)

Variable Error (VE)

the standard deviation of the CE scores

Variable error tells us the \___ of error

consistency (may need to re-teach basic skills)

What are the two error measurements for two-dimensional accuracy?

1. radical error
2. qualitative assessment of bias and consistency

Consistency errors mean difficulty in \___ the skill

learning (highly variable)

Bias errors mean difficulty in \___ the skill

adapting

How is error assessed in continuous skills?

root mean-squared error (RMSE)

Root mean-squared error (RMSE)

-amount of error sampled at different times throughout the task
-difference between target and actual

Kinematics

description of motion without regards to force or mass (displacement, velocity, acceleration)

Displacement

spatial position of a limb or joint over a period of time

Velocity

rate of change in an object position with respect to time (speed)

Acceleration

change in velocity during movement

Kinetics

study of the role of force as a cause of motion

How are kinetics measured?

-force plates, strain gauges, force transducers
-fluid dynamics (lift and drag forces through water)

Electromyography (EMG)

-measurement of the electrical activity of muscle
-insight into neural control of movement

In what scenarios may there be muscle activity but no observable movement?

-isometric contractions
-post stroke: signal coming from nervous system but no muscle activity
-stabilizing muscles

Electroencephalography (EEG)

-detection of cortical activity via scalp electrodes
-active brain regions produce electrical activity

Limitations of EEG

-only records surface activity
-does not show which anatomical structures are active

Positron Emission Topography (PET)

-detection of metabolic brain activity
-radioactive positrons interact with blood
-scans detect activity in various locations

Limitations of PET

-subject must be stationary
-injection of isotope

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI)

-brain activity detected by changes in blood oxygenation

Limitation to fMRI

subject must be stationary

Magnetoencephalography (MEG)

-measures magnetic fields created by neuronal activity
-higher temporal resolution compared to fMRI and PET
-increased accuracy of activity location compared to EEG