MOTOR BEHAVIORCHAPTER 7

Katherine T. Thomas and Jerry R. Thomas

Chapter Objectives

• Explain what a motor behavior researcher does.• Present the goals of motor behavior, including motor

learning, motor control, and motor development.• Explain the research process used by scholars in motor

behavior.• Present some of the principles of motor learning, motor

control, and motor development.

Goals of Motor Behavior

• To understand how motor skills are learned, how processes such as feedback and practice improve learning and performance of skills, and how response selection and execution become more efficient and effective• To understand how motor skills are controlled, how the

mechanisms in response selection and execution control movement, and how environmental and individual factors affect mechanisms of response selection and execution• To understand how the learning and control of motor skills

change across the life span, improving in youth and deteriorating with aging

Three Subdisciplines of the Subdiscipline

1. Motor learning (acquisition of skilled movements as a result of practice)

2. Motor control (the neural, physical, and behavioral aspects of movement)

3. Motor development (developmental view of motor learning and motor control across a lifespan)

• Contrasting motor learning and motor control• Shift from learning a skill versus automatic skill• Motor control essential for every movement—from poorly skilled

to well skilled• Motor learning responsible for shift to well skilled

Why Use Motor Behavior?

• The study of how motor skills are learned, controlled, and developed across the lifespan• Applications often focus on what, how, and how much to

practice• Guides us in providing better situations for learning and

practice, including the selection of effective of cues and feedback• Valuable to performers and those who teach motor skills

(e.g., physical education teachers, adapted physical educators, gerontologists, physical therapists, and coaches)

What Do Motor Behaviorists Do?

• Colleges or universities• Teach (motor behavior or related courses such as biomechanics

or sport psychology, research methods, measurement and evaluation, and pedagogy and youth sport)• Research• Service

• Other research facilities: hospitals, industry, military• Research with applications related to setting• Grant writing

Motor Movements Beyond Sport

• Babies learning to use a fork and spoon• Dentists learning to control drill while looking in a mirror• Surgeons controlling a scalpel; microsurgeons using laser • Children learning to ride a bicycle or to roller skate• Teenagers learning to drive• Dancers performing choreographed movements• Pilots learning to control an airplane• Children learning to control a pencil or type on a keyboard

History of Motor Behavior

Five themes have persisted in motor behavior research.1. Knowledge of results (feedback)2. Distribution of practice3. Transfer of training4. Retention5. Individual differences

(continued)

History of Motor Behavior (continued)• Late 1800s-early 1900s: motor skills to understand

cognition and neural control• 1939-1945: World War II era meant great research interest• 1940s-1960s: Glassow, Rarick, Espenschade—research

focused on how children acquire motor skills

(continued)

History of Motor Behavior (continued)

• 1960s • Memory drum theory: Franklin Henry, father of motor behavior• Motor behavior as a subdiscipline of kinesiology

• 1970s-present • The influence of growth and maturation on motor performance• Developmental patterns of fundamental movements

Research Methods for Motor Behavior

• Types of studies (experimental designs)• Between group • Within group • Descriptive (participants receive no treatment)

• Studying the early stages of learning (novel tasks)• Studying expert performers• Measuring movements (kinematics)• Movement task characteristics (continuous vs. discreet)• Measuring learning and transfer (retention and transfer)

Novel Learning Tasks

• Ensure that no participant has tried the task before.• Tasks tend to be simple (see figure 7.2).• Allows us to study improvement and how movements are

learned.• However, limits what researcher can learn; this approach

studies outcome of the movement (the product) rather than nature of the movement (the process).• Novel learning experiments are not helpful for physical

activity tasks in which performers have had many trials.

Figure 7.2

Studying Expert Performers

• This is an alternative to studying novel learning tasks.• What do expert performers do during practice and

competition? How does it differ from novices? • Decision-making• Skill • Game-performance variables

• Knowledge and skills of sport are often highly specific to that sport. • Information helps us understand how learning occurs

across many other skills.

Overview of Knowledge in Motor Behavior

• Information processing• Concept formed to help scientists understand how the central

nervous system works.• Conceptualizes brain as a computer, master controller.• Commands sent from brain (CPU) through spinal cord (wiring),

which reduces complexity of information for the muscles and muscle groups (printer, screen).

• Goal of motor behavior is to explain response selection and response execution.

Motor Learning

• Goal: understand the role of practice, feedback (intrinsic and extrinsic), and individual differences• Before practice: goal setting, instructions, modeling, and

mental practice• During practice: scheduling practice and context of

practice• “[P]ractice is a necessary but not sufficient condition for

learning” and “practice the results of which are known makes perfect” • Skill acquisition variables versus performance variables

Motor Control

• Motor programs are proposed memory mechanisms that allow movements to be controlled.• As motor programs are developed, they become more automatic,

allowing the performer to concentrate on the use of the movement in performance situations.• Schema theory

• Dynamical systems theory has challenged the motor program theory.• Dynamical systems theorists believe that a more direct link

(coordinated structure) exists between perception and action, bypassing the need for motor programs.

Motor Control Areas of Study

• Degrees of freedom: coordination of movement• Motor equivalency• Serial order of movements: coarticulation• Perceptual integration during movement• Skill acquisition

Developmental Motor Learning and Control

• Goal: understand skill acquisition across the life span• The two principles of motor development• Children are not miniature adults.• Children are more alike than different.

Topics studied• Developmental changes in the mechanics of movement• Life span development• Experience• Changing neuromuscular systems across the life span• Growth and gender in the development of overhand throwing

Wrap-Up• Knowledge developed through motor behavior has become

increasingly important in all aspects of society.• The study of motor behavior is aimed at understanding the

development, learning, and control of these and other motor skills so that people can use them more effectively.• Knowledge of motor behavior is essential in several

professions, including physical therapy, occupational therapy, physical education, coaching, and working with children in community organizations (e.g., YMCA, YWCA, Boys & Girls Clubs)