Motor Learning Exam All Questions and Answers with
complete solution
Describe how expertise is related to problem solving and mental representations.
Expertise is elite problem solving abilities and mental representations are responsible
for problem solving ability.
What is the nature of expertise (i.e. what features characterize expertise)?
Describe the advantages experts enjoy thanks to the mental representations they
have developed.
Skill and knowledge characterize expertise. Experts enjoy faster and better solutions
due to mental representations. They are able to recognize patterns, predict, better
structure knowledge, plan ahead, auto process, self-monitor and self-evaluate.
What did the study of violinists attending the music academy & music education
department at the Berlin University of the Arts lead Ericsson and colleagues to
conclude about the expertise? How is this related to the monotonic benefits
assumption?
The people that had accumulated the most hours of practice were the best.
Performance levels were seen to be equal for people with equal amounts of practice.
Describe the common features in nurturing expertise ("the recipe") that
demonstrated by Laszlo Polgar, Karl Witte Sr., Leopold Mozart, Richard Williams
and Earl Woods.
They created inner motivation, made it fun, kept expanding their base of knowledge and
created a hunger for more knowledge through extensive time, knowledge of pedagogy
and dedication.
Describe the characteristics of deliberate practice. According to Ericsson, what
characteristics differentiate deliberate from purposeful practice?
Purposeful practice: goals, focus, feedback, learn from mistakes, cognitive effort, error
minimizing
Deliberate practice: purposeful practice that knows where it's going and how to get
there, best training techniques + teachers
Describe the differences between deliberate practice, play and work.
Play: purpose is to enjoy not maximized for learning
Work: purpose is productivity not maximized for learning
Deliberate Practice: maximized for learning
Describe the stages, and the characteristics of each stage, of the "elite
performance through sampling" pathway in the Developmental Model of Sport
Participation. What implications does this pathway have for the development of
expertise in sport?
Entry into sport:
Sampling years: high delib. play, low dp, many sports
Specializing years: delib. play and dp balanced, less sports
investment years: high dp, low delib play, 1 sport
probable outcome: elite performance
, Describe how neural plasticity and myelin plasticity are related to deliberate
practice.
Neural plasticity is how the brain changes due to experience. The more a skill is
practiced means more neurons will fire together triggering myelination. Myelination
increases strength, speed, timing and fluidity.
Describe a motor skill. What are the key elements/phases of the skill? Describe
an OUTPUT (process) measure that captures performance of one of the key
elements. What type of rating did you describe? What other options are there?
Back dive: balance on side of pool, squat, jump, arch, entry. Measured by rate,
frequency, quality, accuracy.
Describe a motor skill. What are the key elements/phases of the skill? Describe
an OUTCOME measure that captures performance of the skill. What kind of
measure did you describe? What other options are there?
What are the advantages of identifying key elements in terms of motor skill
instruction and motor learning? What are the disadvantages of not knowing
these? How do you decide what key element to target first?
Describe the costs and benefits of measuring performance continuously and
intermittently. What strategy is most appropriate for the motor skill you are
learning? Explain your rationale.
Continuous: high-resolution data, requires practice of the whole skill
Intermittent: freedom to experiment and work on certain parts of the skill, low-resolution
data
Describe the issues associated with averaging performance over blocks of trials
when presenting data. How would you deal with these issues to make accurate
conclusions about learning, and what pattern would the data being presented
need to show for you to be confident that learning had occurred?
Identify the four types of performance curves and what they mean in terms of the
difficulty of the task being learned.
Negative Acceleration: easy skill
Linear: moderate skill
Positive Acceleration: 1 task to get the skill
Ogive Curve: hard skill
Describe the difference between retention and transfer tests. Why are they
important? What information does each of the three patterns of relative difference
provide about the conditions of practice or the state of the learner?
Retention vs temporary test to determine permanence of learning, if 0 no temporary
effect, if negative practice was enhanced, if positive practice was suppressed
What information do relative difference and absolute difference provide about
performance during an acquisition period, and learning?
Relative Difference: highlights influence of temporary factors on performance during
acquisition
Absolute Difference: highlights effectiveness of different methods/ practice conditions on
learning
What is attention? What are the characteristics of attention?
complete solution
Describe how expertise is related to problem solving and mental representations.
Expertise is elite problem solving abilities and mental representations are responsible
for problem solving ability.
What is the nature of expertise (i.e. what features characterize expertise)?
Describe the advantages experts enjoy thanks to the mental representations they
have developed.
Skill and knowledge characterize expertise. Experts enjoy faster and better solutions
due to mental representations. They are able to recognize patterns, predict, better
structure knowledge, plan ahead, auto process, self-monitor and self-evaluate.
What did the study of violinists attending the music academy & music education
department at the Berlin University of the Arts lead Ericsson and colleagues to
conclude about the expertise? How is this related to the monotonic benefits
assumption?
The people that had accumulated the most hours of practice were the best.
Performance levels were seen to be equal for people with equal amounts of practice.
Describe the common features in nurturing expertise ("the recipe") that
demonstrated by Laszlo Polgar, Karl Witte Sr., Leopold Mozart, Richard Williams
and Earl Woods.
They created inner motivation, made it fun, kept expanding their base of knowledge and
created a hunger for more knowledge through extensive time, knowledge of pedagogy
and dedication.
Describe the characteristics of deliberate practice. According to Ericsson, what
characteristics differentiate deliberate from purposeful practice?
Purposeful practice: goals, focus, feedback, learn from mistakes, cognitive effort, error
minimizing
Deliberate practice: purposeful practice that knows where it's going and how to get
there, best training techniques + teachers
Describe the differences between deliberate practice, play and work.
Play: purpose is to enjoy not maximized for learning
Work: purpose is productivity not maximized for learning
Deliberate Practice: maximized for learning
Describe the stages, and the characteristics of each stage, of the "elite
performance through sampling" pathway in the Developmental Model of Sport
Participation. What implications does this pathway have for the development of
expertise in sport?
Entry into sport:
Sampling years: high delib. play, low dp, many sports
Specializing years: delib. play and dp balanced, less sports
investment years: high dp, low delib play, 1 sport
probable outcome: elite performance
, Describe how neural plasticity and myelin plasticity are related to deliberate
practice.
Neural plasticity is how the brain changes due to experience. The more a skill is
practiced means more neurons will fire together triggering myelination. Myelination
increases strength, speed, timing and fluidity.
Describe a motor skill. What are the key elements/phases of the skill? Describe
an OUTPUT (process) measure that captures performance of one of the key
elements. What type of rating did you describe? What other options are there?
Back dive: balance on side of pool, squat, jump, arch, entry. Measured by rate,
frequency, quality, accuracy.
Describe a motor skill. What are the key elements/phases of the skill? Describe
an OUTCOME measure that captures performance of the skill. What kind of
measure did you describe? What other options are there?
What are the advantages of identifying key elements in terms of motor skill
instruction and motor learning? What are the disadvantages of not knowing
these? How do you decide what key element to target first?
Describe the costs and benefits of measuring performance continuously and
intermittently. What strategy is most appropriate for the motor skill you are
learning? Explain your rationale.
Continuous: high-resolution data, requires practice of the whole skill
Intermittent: freedom to experiment and work on certain parts of the skill, low-resolution
data
Describe the issues associated with averaging performance over blocks of trials
when presenting data. How would you deal with these issues to make accurate
conclusions about learning, and what pattern would the data being presented
need to show for you to be confident that learning had occurred?
Identify the four types of performance curves and what they mean in terms of the
difficulty of the task being learned.
Negative Acceleration: easy skill
Linear: moderate skill
Positive Acceleration: 1 task to get the skill
Ogive Curve: hard skill
Describe the difference between retention and transfer tests. Why are they
important? What information does each of the three patterns of relative difference
provide about the conditions of practice or the state of the learner?
Retention vs temporary test to determine permanence of learning, if 0 no temporary
effect, if negative practice was enhanced, if positive practice was suppressed
What information do relative difference and absolute difference provide about
performance during an acquisition period, and learning?
Relative Difference: highlights influence of temporary factors on performance during
acquisition
Absolute Difference: highlights effectiveness of different methods/ practice conditions on
learning
What is attention? What are the characteristics of attention?
