Motor Learning and Performance: From Principles to Application / Edition 5

by Richard A. Schmidt, Timothy D. Lee

Overview

Motor Learning and Performance: From Principles to Application, Fifth Edition With Web Study Guide, describes the principles of motor performance and learning in a style that is accessible even to students with little or no knowledge of physiology, psychology, statistical methods, and other basic sciences. Constructing an easy-to-understand conceptual model of motor performance along the way, this text outlines the principles of motor skill learning, building a strong understanding of how skills are acquired and perfected with practice and showing students how to apply the concepts to a variety of real-world settings. Incorporating familiar scenarios brings the material to life for students, leading to better retention of information and greater interest in practical application of motor performance and learning in their everyday lives and future careers.

The fifth edition of Motor Learning and Performance features a more streamlined organization, with practice situations integrated directly into chapters rather than appearing at the end of the text, facilitating a stronger link between principles derived from research and practical applications. The addition of author Timothy Lee adds a fresh perspective to the text. Other key changes include the following:

• An improved web study guide offers a principles-to-application exercise and multiple interactive activities for each chapter, ensuring that students will be able to transfer core content from the book to various applied settings.

• A full-color interior provides a more engaging presentation.

• Focus on Research and Focus on Application sidebars deliver more detailed research information and make connections to real-world applications in areas such as teaching, coaching, and therapy.

• Updates to instructor ancillaries feature the addition of lab activities to the instructor guide and new chapter quizzes that assess students’ mastery of the most important concepts covered in the textbook.

• Pedagogical aids such as learning objectives, glossary of terms, and Check Your Understanding questions throughout help students stay on track with learning in each chapter.

Motor Learning and Performance, Fifth Edition, provides optimal student comprehension, offering a strong conceptual understanding of skills and then building on this with the intricacies of skilled motor performance. Part I investigates the principles of human performance, progressively developing a conceptual model of human actions. The focus is mainly on human performance as based on an information-processing perspective. In part II, the text uses the conceptual model to impart an understanding of human motor learning processes. The presentation style remains simple and straightforward for those without extensive backgrounds in motor performance.

The fifth edition of Motor Learning and Performance: From Principles to Application goes beyond simply presenting research, challenging students not only to grasp but also to apply the fundamental concepts of motor performance and learning. The fifth edition is a valuable tool for anyone who appreciates high-level skilled activity or would like to learn more about how such performances occur.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781450443616
Publisher:	Human Kinetics Publishers
Publication date:	11/05/2013
Edition description:	Fifth Edition
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	8.80(w) x 11.30(h) x 1.00(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Richard A. Schmidt, PhD, is professor emeritus in the department of psychology at UCLA. He currently runs his own consulting firm, Human Performance Research, working in the area of human factors and human performance. Known as one of the leaders in research on motor behavior, Dr. Schmidt has more than 35 years of experience in this area and has published widely.

The originator of schema theory, Schmidt founded the Journal of Motor Behavior in 1969 and was editor for 11 years. He authored the first edition of Motor Control and Learning in 1982 and the first edition of Motor Learning and Performance in 1991, and he has since followed up with new editions of both texts.

Schmidt received an honorary doctorate from Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium, in recognition of his work. He is a member of the North American Society for the Psychology of Sport and Physical Activity (NASPSPA), where he served as president in 1982 and received the organization’s two highest honors: the Distinguished Scholar Award for lifetime contributions to research in motor control and learning (in 1992) and the President’s Award for significant contributions to the development and growth of NASPSPA (in 2013). He is also a member of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society and the Psychonomic Society and received the C.H. McCloy Research Lectureship from the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance. His leisure-time activities include sailboat racing, amateur Porsche racing, and skiing.

Timothy D. Lee, PhD, is a professor in the department of kinesiology at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. He has published extensively in motor behavior and psychology journals since 1979. More recently, he has contributed as an editor to both Journal of Motor Behavior and Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport and as an editorial board member for Psychological Review. Since 1984 his research has been supported by grants from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.

Lee is a member and past president of the Canadian Society for Psychomotor Learning and Sport Psychology (SCAPPS) and a member of the North American Society for the Psychology of Sport and Physical Activity (NASPSPA), the Psychonomic Society, and the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society. In 1980 Lee received the inaugural Young Scientist Award from SCAPPS, and in 2011 he was named a fellow of the society—its highest honor. In 1991-92 he received a senior research fellowship from the Dienst Onderzoekscoordinatie, Catholic University in Leuven, Belgium, and in 2005 he presented a prestigious senior scientist lecture at NASPSPA.

In his leisure time, Lee enjoys playing hockey and golf. He has maintained a lifelong fascination with blues music and is currently putting years of research into practice by learning to play blues guitar.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1. Introduction to Motor Learning and Performance: How Skills Are Studied

Why Study Motor Skills?

The Science of Motor Learning and Performance

Focus on Research 1.1: Franklin M. Henry, Father of Motor Behavior Research

Defining Skills

Components of Skills

Classifying Skills

Focus on Research 1.2: Error Scores in Discrete Tasks

Focus on Research 1.3: Error Scores in Continuous Tasks

Understanding Performance and Learning

Summary

Learning Aids

Part I: Principles of Human Skilled Performance

Chapter 2. Processing Information and Making Decisions: The Mental Side of Human Performance

The Information-Processing Approach

Reaction Time and Decision Making

Focus on Research 2.1: Donders’ Stages of Processing

Focus on Research 2.2: Hick’s Law

Focus on Application 2.1: Light Switches

Focus on Application 2.2: Strategies for Anticipating

Focus on Research 2.3: Assessing Anticipation Skills

Memory Systems

Summary

Learning Aids

Chapter 3. Attention and Performance: Limitations on Information Processing

Focus on Application 3.1: William James on Attention

What Is Attention?

Limitations in Stimulus Identification

Limitations in Response Selection

Focus on Research 3.1: Distracted-Driving Research

Limitations in Movement Programming

Focus on Research 3.2: The Double-Stimulation Paradigm

Decision Making Under Stress

Focus on Application 3.2: Automotive Panic

Summary

Learning Aids

Chapter 4. Sensory Contributions to Skilled Performance: Feedback Processing in Motor Control

Sources of Sensory Information

Processing Sensory Information

Focus on Application 4.1: Error Correction in Batting

Principles of Visual Control

Focus on Research 4.1: “Blindsight” Reveals Dorsal and Ventral Stream Processing

Focus on Research 4.2: Gaze Control

Focus on Application 4.2: Visibility in Nighttime Car–Truck Accidents

Audition and Motor Control

Focus on Application 4.3: When Vision Degrades Performance

Summary

Learning Aids

Chapter 5. Motor Programs: Motor Control of Brief Actions

Motor Program Theory

Evidence for Motor Programs

Focus on Research 5.1: The Henry–Rogers Experiment

Focus on Application 5.1: Checked Swings in Baseball

Focus on Research 5.2: Initiating a Motor Program

Motor Programs and the Conceptual Model

Problems in Motor-Program Theory: Novelty and Storage Problems

Generalized Motor-Program Theory

Focus on Research 5.3: Invariances and Parameters

Focus on Research 5.4: Relative Timing in Locomotion

Focus on Application 5.2: Relative-Timing Fingerprints

Focus on Application 5.3: The Stereo-System Analogy

Summary

Learning Aids

Chapter 6. Principles of Speed, Accuracy, and Coordination: Controlling and Timing Movements

Speed–Accuracy Trade-Offs

Focus on Research 6.1: Fitts Tasks

Focus on Application 6.1: Fitts’ Law in Everyday Actions

Sources of Error in Rapid Movements

Exceptions to the Speed–Accuracy Trade-Off

Analyzing a Rapid Movement: Baseball Batting

Accuracy in Coordinated Actions

Focus on Application 6.2: Coordination in Golf Putting

Focus on Research 6.2: Coordination as a Self-Organization Process

Summary

Learning Aids

Chapter 7. Individual Differences: How People Differ in Their Performance Capabilities

The Study of Individual Differences

Abilities versus Skills

Is There a General Motor Ability?

Focus on Application 7.1: The Babe (Mildred “Babe” Zaharias)

Focus on Research 7.1: Correlation: The Statistic of Individual Differences

Abilities and the Production of Skills

Prediction and Selection Based on Ability

Focus on Application 7.2: Moneyball

Focus on Research 7.2: The Relative-Age Effect

Summary

Learning Aids

Part II: Principles of Skill Learning

Chapter 8. Introduction to Motor Learning: Concepts and Methods in Research and Application

Motor Learning Defined

How is Motor Learning Measured?

Focus on Research 8.1: Learning Curves: Facts or Artifacts?

Distinguishing Learning from Performance

Focus on Application 8.1: Self-Assessments of Learning

Transfer of Learning

Summary

Learning Aids

Chapter 9. Skill Acquisition, Retention, and Transfer: How Expertise is Gained

Skill Acquisition

Focus on Application 9.1: Principles of Golf Practice

Focus on Research 9.1: Learning Never Ends

Focus on Application 9.2: Fitts and Bernstein Learn to Play Ice Hockey

Skill Retention

Skill Transfer

Focus on Application 9.3: Teaching for Transfer of Learning

Focus on Research 9.2: Game Systems for Virtual Training

Summary

Learning Aids

Chapter 10. Organizing and Scheduling Practice: How the Structure of Practice Influences Learning

Off-Task Practice Considerations

Focus on Application 10.1: Mental Practice in Stroke Rehabilitation

Organizing Practice and Rest

Variable Versus Constant Practice

Focus on Research 10.1: Especial Skills: An Exception to Variable Practice?

Blocked Versus Random Practice

Summary

Learning Aids

Chapter 11. Augmented Feedback: How Providing Extra Information Influences Learning

Feedback Classifications

Functions of Augmented Feedback

Focus on Research 11.1: Revising Ideas About How Feedback Works

How Much Feedback Should Be Given?

Focus on Research 11.2: Augmented Feedback From Video Replays

When to Give Feedback

Focus on Application 11.1: Physical Guidance in Stroke Rehabilitation

Focus on Application 11.2: Physical Guidance in Learning to Swim

Summary

Learning Aids

Interviews

Introductory textbook for courses in motor learning, motor performance, and motor behavior; reference for movement practitioners including coaches, teachers, therapists, athletic trainers, and human-factors experts.