MECHANISMS INVOLVED IN LEARNING A PHYSICAL SKILL

1. MECHANISMS INVOLVED IN LEARNING A PHYSICAL SKILL Input & Information Processing Week 3

2. Key Content • Input – the senses • Information processing • Perceptual mechanism • Single channel hypothesis • Selective attention • Role of memory

3. 4 Stage Model of Processing a Physical Skill Simplified Model • Input – received via the senses • Information processing • Output • Feedback • See page 19

4. Input – the senses • Your senses are responsible for detecting pieces of information (cue) and conveying them to the brain • The information and signals we receive about the skill from our senses • Vision • Hearing • Touch • Equilibrium: _________________________ ____________________________________ • Proprioception: ______________________ ____________________________________

5. Information Processing • Now that your _______ have detected cues and transferred them to the brain you need to process the information to make it useful • In this way we are very much like a ________ • Three very important devices carry out these processes: • Perceptual mechanism • Decision-making mechanism • Effector mechanism

6. Perceptual Mechanism • Responsible for interpretation of sensory information • Signal detection (ability to detect cues) is imperative for successful performance • Factors that affect your signal detection are: 1. Ability of the sense organs 2. Strength of the cue 3. Noise 4. Speed of the cue 5. Level of arousal

7. Signal Detection Activity (p.44 Nelson) • Discussion questions: • 1. What is signal detection? • 2. Explain which signal (or cue) was easier to respond to and how this affected the results • 3. Were the results for the second trial different from the first? Explain • 4. What implications does this have for the processing of information in a sporting situation?

8. Ability of the Sense Organs • Also known as sensory acuity • Affects your ability to initially detect the many cues that occur • Vision is most important

9. Strength of the Cue • Cues are easier to detect if the signal is very intense • Eg: yellow footballs for night, yellow tennis balls on a clay court • Other examples?

10. Noise • _________ cues in the environment that can distract a performer • Relevant cues vs. Noise • Need to be able to ignore noise and concentrate on the relevant signal detection • Not just audible distractions! • Sun • Crowd movement • Smell of a nearby BBQ! • Crowd cheering

11. Speed of the Cue • Or, length of time the cue is present • Longer a cue is available the more likely it is to be detected • Eg: 200km/hr serve doesn’t give much time to detect the spin, angle and speed

12. Level of Arousal • Arousal is the amount of mental energy or preparedness a person has prior to performance • Need to have _________ arousal so that you are ready to detect cues • Two types of arousal can impact negatively on performance • Under-aroused: too _________ or disinterested • Over-aroused: too _________ or over-excited

13. Optimal Arousal Level • At this point the highest degree of learning and performance occurs • Varies from person to person • Coach needs to have skills in detecting individual optimal arousal levels • Eg: Roger Federer now vs. early in his career

14. The Senses – Case Study • View the two photos 1. For each photo what skill is being depicted? 2. What are the senses and corresponding sensory cues needed to perform each skill? 3. How could you modify equipment to enhance the ability of the sense to detect cues from the environment?

15. Media Analysis – “The Zone” • Read the article on pages 24 & 25 • Your thoughts… • What is the zone referring to? • Do you believe in the zone? Why/why not? • What are some key parts to being in “the zone”? • Can you think of some elite performances of athletes being in “the zone”?

16. Single Channel Hypothesis • Human information processor can only deal with one cue at a time • Multiple cues must ______ • Therefore, if you reduce the amount of information (cues) you can decrease the processing time required

17. Selective Attention • It would take to long to process every cue and you often don’t have enough time on a sporting field to wait • An experienced athlete can filter out ________ information (selective attention) • This helps to focus more on the relevant cues • Selective attention is affected by: • Level of arousal • Experience and anticipation • Quality of instruction

18. Selective Attention • Experience and anticipation • Skilled performer trains to concentrate on relevant cues and disregard irrelevant cues • Past experiences help to enable the performer to respond to familiar cues (and anticipate the movements of team mates and opponents) • Quality of instruction • Beginners often don’t know what to concentrate on • A good coach can help to identify and direct learners to attend to the most appropriate cues by providing instructions on why they are important • What else can the coach do? • Page 27

19. Role of Memory • See diagram on page 28 • Information can be stored temporarily or permanently • Three types of memory • Short term sensory store • Short term memory • Long term memory

20. Short Term Sensory Store • _________ capacity • But can only remember for 1 second • Therefore, selective attention selects more relevant information and sends it the short term memory

21. Short Term Memory • Limited capacity • 5-9 items (7 plus or minus 2) • 60 seconds duration • ‘Working’ memory • Learner can use it to improve performance by remembering coaching information and making corrections and modifications

22. Short Term Memory • Short term memory is affected by: • Chunking (coding) • Way of increasing amount of information that can be remembered • Eg: Ph numbers – 5428 3691 not 54283691 • Noise (distraction, interference) • Meaningfulness (relevance) • More likely to remember if you believe it is relevant to your task • Rehearsal (practice) • Must rehearse information for it to be transferred into short term memory • Needs to occur as soon as possible

23. Long Term Memory • Unlimited capacity • ___________ stores information for future use • Rehearsal is necessary to allow for information transfer from short term memory • Retains experiences so that you can recognise and compare them with new incoming information • Motor programs can be stored and then modified as needed for new tasks

24. Memory Test • Activity 12, page 30 • Complete with a partner • Respond to questions

25. Decision-Making Mechanism • Final stage of information processing • Constructs a plan of action (motor program) to enact an appropriate physical response • Located in the short term memory • Long term memory can send a motor program to STM and it is compared to information located here to devise the most appropriate response

26. Homework Tasks • In your own words define the following key terms: • Proprioception • Perceptual mechanism • Signal detection • Noise • Optimal arousal • Selective attention • Chunking • Devise three questions to ask a partner regarding this section