KIN 386 1st Edition Exam 3 Study Guide This study guide includes additional notes from class that are not included in the power points on Canvas The additional notes are in red Skill Retention and Transfer Specificity of Practice In general specificity of learning suggests that what you learn depends largely on what you practice Practicing in a particular environment or workspace often leads to better performance mainly in that workspace specific practice is most important part of skill Learning Versus Performance During Practice The learner who attempts to perform as well as possible in practice tends to be inhibited from modifying movements from attempt to attempt Providing both practice sessions and test sessions during practice can help overcome the detriment to learning combo of skill practice variety and test performance Benefits of Practice improved capability to perform some skill on future demand improved perceptual skills improved attention through reduced capacity demands and reduced effector competition improved motor programs improved error detection Fitts and Bernstein Stages of Learning Fitts stages were specifically designed to consider perceptual motor learning placing heavy emphasis on how the cognitive processes invested in motor performance change as a function of practice Bernstein identified stages of learning from a combined motor control and biomechanical perspective Fitts Stage 1 Cognitive Stage The dominant questions concern goal identification performance evaluation what to do when to do it A lot of intructions questions and feedback cognitive Verbal and cognitive abilities dominate and verbalizable information is useful Gains in proficiency in this stage are very rapid and large indicating that more effective strategies for performance are being discovered improvements are big in this stage Fitts Stage 2 Associative Stage The learner s focus shifts to organizing more effective movement patterns In skills requiring quick movements such as a tennis stroke the learner begins to build a motor program to accomplish the movement requirements In slower movements such as balancing in gymnastics the learner constructs ways to use movement produced feedback anticipation occurs thinking ahead improves Fitts Stage 2 Fixation Stage Inconsistency gradually decreases closed skill movements begin to be more stereotypic and those open skill movements become more adaptable Enhanced movement efficiency reduces energy costs and self talk becomes less important for performance Learners begin to monitor their own feedback and detect their errors Fitts Stage 3 Autonomous Stage It is usually associated with the attainment of expert performance The decreased attention demanded by both perceptual and motor processes frees the individual to perform simultaneous higher order cognitive activities Self confidence increases and the capability to detect and correct one s own errors becomes more fine tuned Bernstein s Stage 1 Reduce Degrees of Freedom Degrees of freedom ability to slowly release all controls about movement so it is not so stiff The initial problem facing the learner is what to do with all of the possible degrees of freedom of movement that are available for the body Bernstein considered that the solution was to reduce the movement of nonessential or redundant body parts in the initial stage of learning by freezing degrees of freedom Bernstein s Stage 2 Release Degrees of Freedom The learner attempts to improve performance by releasing some of the degrees of freedom that had initially been frozen Particularly useful in tasks that require power or speed because the degrees of freedom that have been released could allow for faster and greater accumulation of forces Bernstein s Stage 3 Exploit Passive Dynamics The performer learns to exploit the passive dynamics of the body essentially the energy and motion that come for free with the help of physics The movement becomes maximally skilled in terms of effectiveness achieving the result with maximum assuredness and efficiency minimum outlay of energy Limitations of Fitts and Bernstein s Stages Neither was meant to describe learning as a series of discrete nonlinear and unidirectional stages Fitts considered performance change to be regressive as well as progressive Task differences also play an important role in the stage views of both Fitts and Bernstein Breaking Down Skills When should a skill be broken into parts When should it be practiced as a whole How do speed and accuracy influence skill acquisition How can one best learn skills that must be performed equally well on both the dominant and non dominant sides Part Practice Method Simplifies the skill Lets learners experience early success leading to increased motivation Lets learners practice on problem areas without wasting time on what s already been mastered Whole vs Part Practice Items to consider Nature of the skill Capability of the learner Part practice techniques Attention cueing Nature of the Skill Task complexity How many subcomponents How many information processing demands Task organization How much does the performance of each part of the skill depend on the component that precedes it Part Practice Techniques Part Practice Method simplifies the skill lets learner experience early success leading to increased motivation lets learners practice on problem areas without wasting time on what s already been mastered Segmentation part whole method practicing each part separately until a certain level of proficiency has been determined progressive part method same as part whole but there is more than one step chunking repetitive part method instead of studying independently you add to the parts and continue to add Fractionization Skill components that are typically performed simultaneously are partitioned and practiced independently Effectiveness is questionable Whole practice is recommended for some tasks such as those that require simultaneous use of arms and legs Simplification Reduce the level of difficulty of the task or some aspect of it Modify equipment Reduce coordination requirements Change the environment s complexity Use skill building activities and lead up games Sequence from simple to complex Speed Accuracy Tradeof Spatial accuracy An emphasis on speed negatively affects accuracy and vice versa Temporal timing accuracy Improves when a performer moves faster or movement distance is decreased Implications During early stages of skill acquisition de