Motor Behavior Exam #2 Study Guide

Test: Friday, 09 March, 2017

Motor Skills & Abilities (Magill chapters 1 & 3)
• Distinguish between motor skills, actions, movements, neuromotor processes, and
performance
- Motor Skills: activities or tasks that require voluntary control over movements of the
joints and body segments to achieve a goal
- Actions: intentional movement with goal
- Movements: specific patterns of motion among joint/muscle/bones; not voluntary
or goal intended
- Neuromotor Processes: processes that give us movement and contribute to our
actions
- Performance: accumulates to learning
- Action is goal we are trying to achieve with our skill; we can jump but is it an action
of a long jump? Is it an action of a high jump? Skill leads to action but action doesn’t
lead to skill
• Understand the importance of the above distinctions
- Actions, movements, & neuromotor processes represent the order in which motor
control & learning are prioritized
 1st priority is to understand the action goal & explore strategies to achieve it
 2nd priority is to discover best movement to accomplish action goal
 3rd priority is to refine movement and make it more efficient by modifying
neuromotor processes
- Not all people can accomplish the action goal using the same movement pattern or
perform the same movement using the same neuromotor processes
- Different measures are used to evaluate actions, movements, and neuromotor
processes
• Be able to apply the one-dimension motor skill classification systems and the two-
dimensional approach
- Why classify motor systems?
 Provides basis for identifying similarities/differences among skills
 Helps identify demands different skills places on performer/learner
 Provides basis for developing principles related to performing and learning
motor skills
- One dimension – identify one characteristic and divide into two categories; does not
always capture the complexity of many skills a practitioner must take into account
when making decisions about instruction, practice routines, or therapy regimens
 Characteristic: Muscle size
 Category: gross motor skills – large muscles; walking, jumping,
throwing, etc
 Category: fine motor skills – small muscles; typing, drawing, sewing,
etc.
 Characteristic: Specificity of where Actions Begin and End
 Category: Discrete motor skill – specified beginning and end location;
flipping a switch, hitting a piano key, etc
Motor Behavior Exam #2 Study Guide
Test: Friday, 09 March, 2017
 Category: Continuous motor skill- arbitrary beginning and end
locations or repetitive movements; steering a car, walking, swimming
 Characteristic: Stability of the Environmental Context
 Environmental context: specific physical location where a skill is
performed; 3 features  supporting surface, objects involved, other
people/animals
 Category: Closed Motor Skill – when the supporting surface, object, or
other people involved in performance of skill are stationary; picking
up a cup from a table while sitting in a chair, buttoning a shirt,
shooting a free throw
o Self-paced/Internal timing because performer initiates the
movements involved in performing the skill when he is ready
to do so
 Category: Open Motor Skill – supporting surfaces, objects, and/or
other people/animals are in motion while skill is performed; driving a
car, catching a thrown ball, walking on a crowded sidewalk
o Externally paced/External timing because performers of open
skills must time the initiation of their movement with an
external feature in the environment; initiation of movement
must conform to the movement of the supporting surface,
other people/animals, &/or objects involved in action
- Two dimension – Gentile’s two-dimensions taxonomy
 Characteristic: environmental context in which person performs the skill
 Regulatory Conditions: those features of the environmental context
to which movements must conform if they are to achieve the action
goal
 Category: Stationary Regulatory Conditions – timing is internally
paced; walking on sidewalk, hitting ball off tee (closed skills)
 Category: In-motion Regulatory Conditions – timing is externally
paced; stepping onto escalator, hitting a pitched ball (open skills)
 Intertrial variability: whether the regulatory conditions during
performance are the same or different from one attempt to perform
the skill to another
 Category: Presence of Intertrial Variability – someone walks through a
room several times in which various objects are located different
places each time
 Category: Absence of Intertrial Variability- person walks through an
uncluttered room several times
 Characteristic: function of the action characterizing the skill
 Category: body stability – skills that involve no change in body
location during skill performance; standing, drinking a cup, shoot a
arrow
 Category: body transport – skills that require the body to move from
one place to another; walking, running, rock climbing, swimming
Motor Behavior Exam #2 Study Guide
Test: Friday, 09 March, 2017
 Category: object manipulation – maintaining or changing the position
of an object; holding or using a ball or tool
 Category: no object manipulation – no object to manipulate
• Define the term ability and how it differs from skill
- Ability: general trait or capacity of an individual that is a relatively enduring
characteristic that serves as a determinant of a person’s achievement potential for
the performance of specific skills
Genetically predetermined characteristic that affect movement performance;
product of genetic and learning
- Skill: task that has a specific purpose or goal to achieve
- Ability: Finger dexterity; Motor Skill: buttoning a shirt
- Ability: Reaction time; Motor Skill: start a sprint in swimming
• Explain the differences between the general motor ability hypothesis & specific motor ability
hypothesis
- General motor ability hypothesis: The many motor abilities can be identified in an
individual are highly related and can be grouped as a singular, global motor ability
- Specific motor ability hypothesis: The many motor abilities are relatively
independent in an individual
- Experiment: Static balance vs. Dynamic balance; research evidence consistently
indicates that static and dynamic balance are relatively independent motor abilities,
it’s specific to the task at hand
• Describe how motor abilities relate to motor skill performance
- Motor abilities are the underlying, foundational components of motor skill
performance
- We can analyze complex motor skills by a process known as task analysis in order to
identify the abilities that underlie any motor skill

Neuromotor & Sensory Basis (Magill chapters 4 & 6)

• Describe general structure of a neuron and types and function of various neurons
- Neuron = nerve cell; provide means for receiving and sending information through
the entire nervous system
- Cell body - contains nucleus
- Dendrites – extensions from the cell body primarily responsible for receiving
information from other neurons
- Axon – nerve fiber responsible for sending information from the neuron
- Dendrites  Cell body  axon  axon terminal  synapse
Types
- Sensory Neurons (afferent neurons) – send neural impulses to CNS
 Only have one axon and no dendrites
 Most of the axon in peripheral nervous system
- Motor Neurons (efferent neurons) – send neural impulses from CNS to skeletal
muscle fibers
 Alpha motor neurons – in spinal cord
Motor Behavior Exam #2 Study Guide
Test: Friday, 09 March, 2017
 Gamma motor neurons – supply a portion of the skeletal muscle called
intrafusal fibers
- Interneurons – function within the CNS, reflexes; most prevalent neuron
 Interneurons are connected to thousands of different neurons giving us
many different pathways for a signal to travel, making it complex by giving
many DOF options
• Structural components of the brain most directly involved in movement control and their
primary functions (Don’t need to be this specific; think generally)
- Cerebrum – consists of two halves connected by the corpus callosum
 Frontal lobe – control of voluntary movement
 Primary motor cortex – contains motor neurons that send axons to
specific skeletal muscles throughout the body; critical for movement
initiation, fine motor skills, postural coordination
 Premotor area – controls the organization of movements before they
are initiated and rhythmic coordination during movement, enabling
transitioning, planning of eye movements
 Supplementary motor area – plays essential role in the control of
sequential movements & preparation/organization of movement
 Parietal lobe – control of perception & integration of sensory information
 Involved in control of voluntary movement
 Control of visual and auditory selective attention
 Sensory cortex – specific types of sensory information are transmitted via
sensory nerves to sensory-specific areas
 Motor cortex - the region of the cerebral cortex involved in the planning,
control, and execution of voluntary movements
 Association areas – where the brain associates information from the several
different sensory cortex areas; allow for interaction between perceptual and
higher-order cognitive functions
 Basal ganglia – receive neural information from cerebral cortex and
brainstem; role in the planning and initiation of movement and the control
of antagonist muscles during movement
 Parkinson’s disease – lack of dopamine production leads to tremors,
resting rigidity, and muscle spasticity
- Diencephalon
 Thalamus – receiving and integrating most of the sensory neural inputs from
CNS and then passing them through to the cerebral cortex
 Control of attention, mood, and perception of pain
 Hypothalamus – control of endocrine system and regulation of homeostasis
- Cerebellum
 Plays a key role in the execution of smooth and accurate movements
 Type of movement error detection and correction system
 Involved in learning motor skills
- Brainstem
 Pons – control of body functions like chewing, swallowing, breathing
Motor Behavior Exam #2 Study Guide
Test: Friday, 09 March, 2017
 Medulla – regulatory agent for various internal physiologic processes like
respiration
 Reticular formation – integrator of sensory and motor neural impulses
• Identify the role of ascending and descending neural pathways.
- Ascending tracts – sensory neural pathways in the CNS that connect with the various
sensory areas of the cerebral cortex and cerebellum
 Dorsal column – transmits proprioception, touch, and pressure information
 Anterolateral system – transmits pain and temperature information
 Spinocerebellar tracts – transmit proprioception information to the
cerebellum
- Descending tracts – motor neural pathways that descend from the brain through the
spinal cord
 Pyramidal tracts – transmits information that is primarily involved in the
control of movements associated with the performance of fine motor skills
 Extrapyramidal tracts – involved in postural control and flexion and extension
of hands and fingers
• Understand the basic components (i.e., receptors) of tactile, proprioception, visual
information
- Tactile: CNS receives information like pain, temperature, and movement from
mechanoreceptors in the skin
- Proprioception: proprioceptors = sensory neurons located in the muscles (muscle
spindles), tendons (Golgi-tendon organs), ligaments, and joints (joint receptors)
- Visual: retina – extension of the brain, optic nerve – information transmission from
the retina to the brain, optic chiasm – where optic nerve fibers meet and either
continue to the same side or cross over to the opposite side of the brain
• Discuss movement-related characteristics associated with tactile, proprioception, visual
information
- Tactile information improves:
 Movement accuracy
 Movement consistency
 Movement timing
 Movement force adjustments
 Estimate movement distance
- Proprioception – important source of feedback; influences:
 Movement accuracy
 Timing of the onset of motor commands ex. Basing finger movement on the
onset of your heel movement
 Postural Control
 Spatial-temporal coupling between limbs and limb segments (arm and
forearm) where you are in space
- Visual
 Motor control operates more effectively and efficiently with both eyes
 Accuracy and efficiency of movement decreases as distance to object
increases
Motor Behavior Exam #2 Study Guide
Test: Friday, 09 March, 2017
 Binocular vision is important for depth perception
 Central vision – detects information only in the middle of the visual field;
provides info that guides us to stay on pathway
 Peripheral vision – detects information in the visual field outside central
vision; provide and update our knowledge about the spatial features of the
walking environment
 Kinetic visual channel – responsible for processing visual information in the
peripheral vision
 Focal visual system – responsible for the detection of static objects by central
vision
• Identify key procedures used to investigate the role of tactile, proprioception, visual
information
- Tactile:
 Ex. Typing without tactile sensory feedback; typing errors increased and
movement consistency from one trial to another also decreased
- Proprioception:
 Deafferentation – proprioceptive pathways to the CNS are not available
 Surgical deafferentation – afferent neural pathways associated with
the movements of interests have been surgically severed or removed
 Deafferentation due to sensory neuropathy – observe movement
characteristics of people with peripheral afferent nerves in various
parts of the body that are not functioning properly
 Tendon vibration technique – proprioceptive feedback is distorted rather
than removed
- Visual:
 Eye movement recording – recording a person’s eye movements
 Temporal occlusion procedure – prevent an observer from seeing what is
going to happen next in an action sequence by stopping a video recording
the observer is watching or blocking vision by activating specialized goggles
that are worn by the observer
 Event Occlusion Procedure – used to identify the specific visual information a
person uses to make a response

Defining & Assessing Learning (Magill chapter 11 & Davids ch. 4 81-97)
Learning – a change in the capacity of a person to perform a skill that must be inferred from a
relatively permanent improvement in performance as a result of practice or experience
• Identify six general performance characteristics observable with motor learning
- Improvement – performance of the skill shows improvement over a period of time
 Performance plateau – period of time during which there appears to be no
further performance improvement; learning continues during this time
- Consistency – performance becomes increasingly more consistent; from
performance to performance, performance characteristics become inc. similar; how
often you’re performing right
- Stability – refers to the influence of perturbations on skill performance; how you
Motor Behavior Exam #2 Study Guide
Test: Friday, 09 March, 2017
perform/movement patterns (ex. Running form still good when tired)
- Persistence – relatively permanent improvement in performance; continued
improvement
 Retention tests – determine degree of persistence/ how much you know or
have retained from your study;
- Adaptability – improved performance is adaptable to a variety of performance
context characteristics
 Transfer tests – involve novel situations to which people must adapt their
performance to the skill they have been practicing to the characteristics of
this new situation
 New context characteristics – conditions in which a skill is performed
 Novel skill variation – new variation of an already learned skill
- Reduction of attention demand – the learner can more easily perform another
activity simultaneously
 Asking an athlete to perform a task while talking or answering a question
Augmented feedback – additional feedback that’s different from our internal feedback;
ex. when coach gives feedback to player
• Understand the metaphor of a perceptual-motor landscape and the key characteristics
related to motor learning
- Ongoing dynamic process involving a search for and stabilization of specific
functional movement pattern across perceptual motor landscape as the individual
adapts to the changing constraints
- Ex. - At the beginning, motor skills available to a baby are few. As the baby gets older
and interacts with others, it develops more skills and the landscape develops more
wells. Wells develop from our experiences. The deeper the wells indicate more
stable coordination patterns. The more improvement in our coordination patterns
the higher performance
Key Characteristics
- Individual intrinsic dynamics – functional patterns that each person can produce
- Dynamic – constantly changing, usually draws from previous knowledge; change
from each coordination pattern/temporary state/performance
- Temporary states – trying to see how person is performing in “X” situation; snapshot
of someone completing a coordination pattern with all task constraints
- Stable & functional states – in terms of the graph, the more stable state is more
smooth at the top & the little whipples at the bottom are the functional states
- Time scales – the adaptation for a skill could be fast or slow depending on previous
skill/knowledge
 Rate of change 
 Skill acquisition – I’m performing task A many times and I want to see how
the coordination pattern changes as a result of repetition/practice
 Seeing how coordination pattern develops through the years ‘
• Draw connections between indicators and the landscape
- Improvement – the creation of wells
- *Consistency/Stability – well’s depth of shallowness shows inconsistent or stability
Motor Behavior Exam #2 Study Guide
Test: Friday, 09 March, 2017
because it is able to be produced over and over again
- Persistence – as the wells keep going down the landscape we see the continued
improvement of a skill
- Effort – the effort is less and we can focus on other things besides our motor pattern
- *Attention – attention can be divided amongst task physically and cognitively
- *Adaptability – well’s depth can change showing adapting and learning
You want a balance between adapting our movement pattern and stability in our
movement pattern; you want to rely on your stable movement pattern, but it may
not be the most successful

Stages of Learning (Magill chapter 12)

• Different types of measurement (qualitative, quantitative, etc.)
- Qualitative – gathers information that is not in numerical form; typically, descriptive
data and is harder to analyze than quantitative data
- Quantitative – gathers data in numerical form which can be put into categories, or
rank order, or measures in units of measurement
 Nominal – name the attribute, no ordering; basketball jerseys
Classifying motor skills/abilities
 Ordinal – can be rank-ordered, interval between values is not interpretable;
ranking education level - some, little, lot
Continuum; fine vs. gross
 Interval – distance between attributes does have meaning; temperatures
 Ratio – meaningful absolute zero
Biomechanical measures, measures of performance, most data in this field
• Key similarities and differences between the three models of learning
- Fitts and Posner 3-stage model
- A human performance law specifying the movement time for an aiming movement
when the distance to move and the target size are known
- Fitts showed we could mathematically predict movement time for speed-accuracy
skills if we know the spatial dimensions of two variables: movement distance and
target size
1. Cognitive Stage
a. Realize goal
b. Initial strategy
c. A lot of thought processes are occurring that are preparing for the task
d. High number of error/ inconsistencies
e. Increased improvement
f. Juggling: focusing intently on where you need to be and how you need to catch and
throw the ball
2. Associative Stage – The REFINING STAGE; person attempts to associate specific
environmental cues with the movements required to achieve the goal of the skill
a. More consistent performance
b. Less errors; less performance variability
c. Less attentional demand
Motor Behavior Exam #2 Study Guide
Test: Friday, 09 March, 2017
d. Gradual improvement motor stages
e. Able to detect and identify own errors
f. Juggling: you can focus a bit less
3. Autonomous Stage – skill is automatic
a. Focusing on certain strategies
b. Movement is automatic; not focused on detail
c. Skill level increase
d. Less errors & more consistent performance
e. Ex. Michael Moschen triangle- he's not focus on each ball that he throws, he's
focusing on strategy
- Bernstein (see Davids ch. 4 p. 85-93)
1. Freezing
a. We freeze/limit our degrees of freedom
b. Why? To make movements simpler
2. Freeing/Releasing
a. Release our degrees of freedom and gain control of them as practice continues
3. Exploiting
a. Exploit kinetics and kinematics of our movement
b. Reduce effort
c. Kicking soccer ball: accelerate our foot and flex our hip and engage our ankle
- Gentile
1. Stage 1: Initial
a. Organizing the movement pattern
b. Regulatory/ Non-regulatory
i. Regulatory: Spatial and temporal organization of our movements are directed
by aspect of our environment
ii. Soccer kicking a goal: angle, other defenders, goalie's position
iii. Non-regulatory: conditions that do not affect the movement pattern; ie. Color
2. Stage 2: Later Stages
a. Fixation
i. Closed skills in a fixed environment
ii. Ex. Shooting a free throw
iii. Focus of consistency because it doesn’t need to be adaptable
iv. Fix properties you want to promote a consistency in our movement pattern
b. Diversification
i. Open skills in a varying environment
ii. Ex. juggling: the trajectory of the balls is inconsistent with variation on how the
ball is tossed so how we react to catch the ball is an open skill. We don’t want
to be fixed so that we can’t adapt to catch the ball in each attempt

Describe performance-related changes that occur through the stages of motor skill learning
- Brain plasticity – functional changes that are happening throughout your body