knowledge & Attention

Declarative knowledge

Knowledge of facts / events, explicit knowledge of a skill

Procedural knowledge

Implicit knowledge supporting skilled execution, expressed through doing & often difficult to describe verbally

Exogenous declarative knowledge

Consciously accessible knowledge acquired from an external source, such as verbal instructions, demonstrations or explicit feedback

Autogenous declarative knowledge

Consciously accessible knowledge generated through one's own experience, observation, or reasoning

Declarative memory

Involves interacting brain networks that support attention, working memory, & the formation & retrieval of long-term memories

Medial temporal lobe MTL

Supports long. Term memory storage

Hippocampal formation

Supports long term memory retrieval

MTL & hippocampal formation

Work together to take transient things & transform into long term memory & helps bring out of long term memory

Prefrontal cortex

Supports maintaining & manipulating info ( including knowledge retrieved from LTM ) to formulate & test explicit hypotheses based on past experience

Procedural memory

Involves interacting brain networks that support learning & performance of skills, allows movements to become more coordinated & less dependent on deliberate control with practice

Cortical motor areas

Translate movement goals into motor commands that organize coordinated muscle activity; final output before sent out to muscles

Basal ganglia

Interacts with cortical motor areas to support the selection, initiation & sequencing of learned movements; sends sequences of movements to MCA

Cerebellum

Supports internal models that predict movement consequences & uses error signals to refine motor commands; comparator

Procedural memory brain area roles redo

BG sends out sequences of movement to CMA where the final & cerebellum is the comparator

Slide 6 on memory systems interacting

Attention

Allocation of the limited processing resources to information / tasks; withdraw from one source of info to focus on another

Limited pool of resources

Have to be allocated to different information processing demands in multiple ways

Divided attention

Ability to respond simultaneously to multiple tasks/demands : divide resources evenly among demands

Selective attention

Ability to select a smaller subset of important information from a larger set; give resources to important info while suppressing the rest

Sustained attention

Ability to maintain a consistent & stable level of attention during continuous / repetitive activities

Focusing on the body increases the cortical excitability of the attended body part

Consciously thinking changes excitability of the brain which boosts signals & reduces noise

Focusing on the body increases the

Potential for plasticity in the attended body part cortical representation

Associative

Focus on bodily sensations generated by performance

Dissociative

Block out bodily sensations generated by performance

Broad

Focus on multiple aspects of performance

Narrow

Focus on a subset of performance aspects ( one specific )

External

Focus on the effects of your movements / body on the environment ( how the ball is approaching the setter

Internal

Focus on the bodily movement during skill ( drop shoulder for better platform )

Reinvestment theory

Consciously controlling an already automated skill can disrupt performance

RT internal focus

Through the promotion of explicit monitoring & rule-based control we increase reliance on working memory & attentional resources which ultimately disrupts automaticity

RT external focus

Reduces reliance on conscious, rule based control & support move automatic coordination

Recall schema internal

Recalls body mechanics to produce movement

Recall schema external

Movement solutions based on desired outcome (external )

Recognition schema internal

Judge success based on the position of the body & movement feel

Recognition schema external

Judge success based on the movements effects on the environment

Under pressure

Individuals more likely to reinvest cog resources in controlling their movements

Constrained action hypothesis

Proposes an internal focus of attention puts limits on the motor system interfering with automatic processes

Constraint action hypothesis beliefs

Over emphasizing one movement sacrifices resources allocated to others by placing artificial constraints

CAH proposes

Internal attention gets in the way of optimal movement while an external focus allows automatic processes to operate freely resulting in better performance & learning

Internal focus expense

By minimizing variability in the bodily movement you sacrifice overall performance ( how you achieve goal)

External focus expense

By minimizing variability in outcome you increase trial by trial movement variability ( if you achieve goal )

Considerations

Skill level & cognitive ability

Skill level

A proximal external focus may help beginners attend to relevant technique effects as you gain experience shift to a move distal focus to facilitate automaticity

Cognitive ability

Learner needs to understand the instruction, maintain the intended focus, & interpret the relevant sensory info

Kids benefit

External focus of attention because they don't have prior experience

Chocking under pressure

Unexpected break down in the performance of а well learned skill under high levels of pressure when the desire for superior performance is maximal