Chapter 8 Introduction to Motor Learning

1. Chapter 8 Introduction to Motor Learning C H A P T E R 8 Introduction to Motor Learning

2. Objectives • This chapter will help you to understand the following: • Motor learning and how it differs from motor performance • Temporary and relatively permanent effects of practice variables • Transfer designs and their importance in learning research • Measurement of transfer of motor skills

3. Motor Learning Defined • Improved performance does not, by itself, define learning. • Improved performance is an indication that learning may have occurred. • Motor learning is a set of processes associated with practice or experience leading to relatively permanent gains in the capability for skilled performance.

4. Figure 8.1

5. Motor Learning Defined • To emphasize the features of the definition of learning, the following statements are important to keep in mind: • Learning results from practice or experience. • Learning is not directly observable. • Learning changes are inferred from certain performance changes. (continued)

6. Motor Learning Defined (continued) • Learning involves a set of processes in the central nervous system. • Learning produces an acquired capability for skilled performance. • Learning changes are relatively permanent, not transitory.

7. Performance Curves • Performance curves are plots of individual or average performance against practice trials. • Such curves can either increase or decrease with practice, depending on the particular way the task is scored. • The law of practice says that improvements are rapid at first and much slower later in practice.

8. Figure 8.3

9. Limitations of Performance Curves • Performance curves are not learning curves. • Between-subject effects are masked. • Within-subject variability is masked.

10. Temporary and Relatively Permanent Effects of Practice • Practice can have numerous effects on the learner: • Relatively permanent effects that persist across many days, even years • Temporary effects that vanish with time or a change in conditions (positive or negative) • Simultaneous temporary and relatively permanent effects

11. Separating Temporary and Relatively Permanent Effects of Practice • Whenever learners practice, and especially when instructors intervene to enhance learning, it is important to have a way to separate the relatively permanent practice effects from the temporary effects. • A transfer design can analyze whether a change that improves performance in practice also improves learning.

12. Transfer Designs • Essential features of transfer designs: • Allow sufficient time for the supposed temporary effects of practice to dissipate. • The time needed will vary depending on the nature of the temporary effects. (continued)

13. Transfer Designs (continued) • Evaluate learners again in a transfer or retention test, with all groups performing under identical conditions. • Any differences observed in this transfer test are due to a difference in the relatively permanent capability for performance acquired during earlier practice.

14. Figure 8.6

15. Transfer of Learning • Transfer, closely related to learning, is seen when practice on one task contributes to performance capability in some other task. • Important in many instructional situations: • Complex skills may be broken down into simpler elements for beginning learners. • For safety or other reasons, the conditions under which practice is conducted are obviously quite different than the conditions in a real situation.

16. How Is Transfer Measured? • We want to estimate the performance level of the criterion task, with the relatively permanent effects of learning separated from any temporary performance effects. • Transfer concerns how performance on the transfer task is influenced by practice on some other task.

17. Figure 8.7

18. Positive and Negative Transfer • Positive transfer occurs when a treatment (e.g., practice on another skill) facilitates performance over and above no practice. • Negative transfer occurs when a treatment (e.g., practice on another skill) degrades performance in comparison to those that received no additional practice.

19. Specific and Generalized Transfer • Specific transfer is a useful measure in cases in which the criterion for learning is performance on a specific task • Measured by delayed retention tests on that task • For generalized transfer, transfer to relatively different activities is the goal • Measured by some transfer test performed in the future that may involve a different task

20. Near and Far Transfer • Near transfer is transfer of learning from one task or setting to another that is very similar. • Far transfer is transfer of learning from one task to another very different task or setting. • Both are types of generalized transfer.