Classification of Motor Skills and Learning
Foundations of Motor Behavior and Learning
Motor learning and motor control are the two primary pillars used to understand how humans acquire and execute movement.
Motor Learning: This field emphasizes a relatively permanent change in skill acquisition. When a person learns a skill, their motor coordination has adapted to the environment. This represents a lasting change rather than a temporary fluctuation in performance.
Inference vs. Measurement: Learning cannot be directly measured. One cannot look into the brain and see a specific file folder for a skill like riding a bike. Instead, learning must be inferred through exams, tests, and performance measures. It is not directly observable.
The Role of Feedback: The type of feedback provided to a learner significantly influences their development. Research in this area often explores how constructive feedback (e.g., "Great job, just put your elbow up more next time") compares to destructive feedback (e.g., "You suck, try again") in the context of skill acquisition.
Motor Control: This focuses on the execution of movement through the interaction between the brain and the body. It involves the entire process from perceiving a stimulus to the physical response.
Stimulus Response: If a driver sees a red light, motor control involves the speed of perceiving the light, the brain sending the signal to the foot, and the physical act of stepping on the brake.
Key Components: Research in motor control examines reaction time, coordination, and how the brain tells limbs to move.
Bimanual Coordination: A common research area is how coordination is altered at different speeds. For example, sprinting at requires higher cadence, more frequent ground contact, and faster arm pumping compared to running at .
Defining and Categorizing Motor Skills
For a task to be officially classified as a motor skill, it must fulfill four specific requirements simultaneously:
Goal-Oriented: The task must have a specific goal or objective (e.g., walking to a destination or eating a spoonful of yogurt).
Required Body or Limb Movement: The action must involve physical movement. For example, solving mentally is not a motor skill, but writing it down is.
Voluntary: The movement must be a matter of choice. Reflexes, such as pulling a hand away from a hot stove, are not motor skills because they occur without thinking.
Developed Through Practice: A skill must be learned. Natural behaviors like blinking or the initial ability to swallow are not considered motor skills in this context, whereas grasping or specialized movements are.
Examples of Motor Skill Classification
Tapping a pencil on a desk: Yes (Goal, movement, voluntary, practiced).
Solving a word problem in your head: No (No movement).
Taping an athlete's ankle: Yes.
Removing a hand from a hot stove: No (Reflexive, not voluntary).
Sewing a button: Yes.
Walking: Yes.
Playing the trumpet: Yes.
Parachute reflex of an infant: No (Reflexive; the infant braces for impact automatically).
The Dynamics of Motor Behavior: Learner, Task, and Environment
Movement is the result of three factors working in tandem: the individual (learner), the task, and the environment.
The Learner
Abilities vs. Skills: Abilities are innate traits (height, wingspan, etc.) that you are born with. Skills are developed through practice using those abilities.
Developmental Appropriateness: Tasks must match the learner's physical stage. For example, using a full-sized football for a child is inappropriate because their hands are too small.
Past Experience: Previous skills can influence new ones. A person with experience surfing or snowboarding may have an advantage when learning to skateboard due to similar balance requirements.
Motivation: The learner must want to improve. A Lack of motivation (e.g., a skier who is content staying on green slopes and has no desire to move to black diamonds) limits skill acquisition.
The Environment
Context: Transitions between performing alone versus in front of a crowd, or using a mirror versus not.
Predictability: Is the environment stable (a solo track race) or unpredictable (a basketball game)?
Constraints: Time limitations can impact performance without necessarily changing the underlying skill level.
The Task
Perceptual Component: Does the task require quick environment-based decisions (like chess or reactive sports)?
Object Manipulation: Does the task involve throwing, kicking, or moving objects/people?
Movements and Neuromotor Processes
There is a distinction between the external movement and the internal mechanism:
Movements: These are the specific patterns of motion surrounding joints and body segments used to achieve a goal (e.g., the visible act of walking).
Neuromotor Processes: These occur within the central and peripheral nervous systems. They are the underlying mechanisms that control movement.
Example: Flexing a bicep in isolation versus using that same muscle to lift a table. The muscle activation is similar, but the neuromotor process and the final movement outcome differ based on the goal.
Taxonomies of Motor Skills
A taxonomy is a system for categorizing skills to help practitioners prioritize instruction and assessment.
Size of Musculature
Fine Motor Skills: Require small muscles (fingers, wrists, toes). These are manipulative in nature (e.g., playing piano, texting, or typing).
Gross Motor Skills: Require large muscles to create big movements. Precision is less critical than the movement itself (e.g., running or jumping).
The Continuum: Skills are rarely 100% fine or gross. Throwing a ball is primarily gross (legs/back for power) but involves fine muscles (grip/fingers).
Specificity of Start and End Points
Discrete Skills: Have a clearly defined beginning and end (e.g., a golf swing, a kick, or a lunge).
Continuous Skills: Repetitive and cyclical. You cannot easily identify a start or stop point (e.g., the act of steering a car, running, or swimming).
Note: A "race" is an event, but "running" is the skill.
Serial Skills: A series of discrete movements tied together to create a more complex action (e.g., a triple jump, a gymnastics floor routine, or transferring from a wheelchair to a bed).
Stability of the Environment
Closed Skills: Performed in a highly predictable environment where the performer is in control (e.g., a free throw or a penalty kick).
Open Skills: Performed in an unpredictable environment where the performer must react to changing external factors (e.g., blocking a shot in soccer or a tennis rally).
Gentile’s Two-Dimensional Taxonomy
Developed in 2000, this system categorizes skills based on two layers: the environmental context and the function of the action.
Dimension 1: Environmental Context
Regulatory Conditions: Environmental factors that regulate or influence the movement pattern.
Running on sand vs. concrete: Sand changes the gait and energy expenditure; thus, the surface is a regulatory condition.
Non-regulatory Conditions: Factors that might affect performance or strategy but do not change the underlying physical skill/mechanics.
Crowd noise, the color of a ball, or the current score of a game do not change your hip's physical ability to kick a ball.
Intertrial Variability: Does the task change from one attempt to the next?
Fixed: Every trial is the same (e.g., hitting a ball off a tee).
Variable: Every trial is different (e.g., hitting a tennis ball during a rally).
Stationary vs. In Motion: Are the regulatory conditions moving?
Picking up a cup (Stationary).
Stepping onto a moving escalator (In Motion).
Dimension 2: Action Function
Body Stability vs. Transport:
Stability: The performer stays in one spot (e.g., archery, push-ups).
Transport: The performer moves from one location to another (e.g., walking up stairs, a long jump).
Object Manipulation:
Manipulation: The performer must control an object or opponent (e.g., wrestling, throwing a shot put).
No Manipulation: The performer is only moving their own body (e.g., a cheerleader in a stationary pose).