Human Motor Control and Learning

Lecture 7:
Introduction to Motor Skill
Learning

Dr. Nicholas T. Antony

Email: Nicholas.Antony@uoit.ca
 Lecture Outline

1. Defining and assessing learning

2. Learning assessment techniques

3. The stages of learning

4. Performer and performance changes across the stages of
learning
5. Expertise

6. Transfer of learning
7. Bilateral transfer
 Part 1:
Defining and Assessing Learning
 Introduction

The assessment of learning must

be achieved through inferences
from observing performance
during practice and tests
 The Distinction Between Performance and Learning

Performance:
• Observable behavior
• Execution of a skill at a specific time and in a specific location

Learning:
• Not directly observable
• Dependent on performance variables
Must be inferred from observable behavior

Learning → a change in the capability to perform a skill that must be inferred

from a relatively permanent improvement in performance as a result of
practice or experience
 General Performance Characteristics of Skill
Learning

Research has described six observable performance

characteristics that can be identified as learning takes
place

a. Improvement
b. Consistency
c. Stability
d. Persistence
e. Adaptability
f. Reduced attention demands
 General Performance Characteristics of Skill
Learning

a. Improvement:
• Performance shows improvement over time through an
increased ability to achieve goal
Learning is not limited to performance improvement because
practice can result in bad habits

b. Consistency:
• Performance becomes increasingly more consistent
• Performers characteristics become more similar with
successive attempts
 General Performance Characteristics of Skill
Learning

c. Stability:
• Performance stability increases with learning as internal and external
perturbations will have less of an influence on goal achievement
I. Internal perturbations include characteristics of the performer (ex. stress, arousal,
attention)
II. External perturbations involve environmental conditions that can disrupt performance

d. Persistence:
• The improved performance capability lasts over increasing periods of time of
inactivity
• Relates to the emphasis of learning as a relatively permanent improvement in
performance
 General Performance Characteristics of Skill
Learning

e. Adaptability:
• Improved performance is adaptable to a variety of
performance context characteristics (the person, the
task and the environment)

f. Reduction in Attention Demand:

• A common change with learning is a reduction in the
amount of attention demanded to perform the skill
Relates to automaticity
 Part 2:
Learning Assessment Techniques
 Learning Assessment Techniques

Research has utilized several different learning

assessment techniques

 Observing practice performance

 Retention tests
 Transfer tests
 Coordination dynamics
 Observing Practice Performance

Performance curves:
• Line graphs that plot performance measures across
practice trials or periods of time

Performance curves for outcome measures

• Ex. error, RT, distance, time, etc.
• Provide evidence of:
a. Improvement – general direction of the curve
b. Consistency – decreased variability of trial values
Performance Curve
 4 General Trends in Performance Curves

Linear
• Proportional increases over trials or
time

Negatively accelerated
• Early improvement but slows later
 Represents the most prominent type
of performance curve

Positively accelerated
• Slight improvement early but
substantial improvement later

Ogive or S-shaped
• Combination of above curves
 Performance Curves for Kinematic Measures

Performance Curves for Kinematic

Measures:
 Kinematic measures are difficult to
represent with a single value

• For these curves, kinematic measures

within a trial are graphed over time
• Assessment of improvement and
consistency by illustrating one performance
curve for a group (block or set) of trials
 Performance Curves for Kinematic Measures

Marteniuk & Romanow (1983)

 Illustrate 4 blocks of trials for lever

movement task

 To determine improvement in
performance: Compare the shapes of
the curves/patterns for early and later
practice
• Compare how the shape of
the produced pattern
corresponds to the shape of
the criterion pattern

 To assess changes in consistency

compare the width of the standard
deviation lines
 Retention Tests
Retention tests: are tests of a practiced skill that a learner performs following
an interval of time after practice has ceased
• Length of no-practice interval is arbitrary

• Purpose is to assess persistence or permanence of the performance level

achieved during practice

Example:
• Typical school assessment through quizzes and tests
• Provides information about how much the students have learned or
retained
 Transfer Tests

Transfer tests: involve using a novel situation which

the performer must adapt the skill they have been
practicing to the characteristics of the new situation

 Assesses the adaptability of what was learned

during practice
 Transfer Tests
Test can involve:
A. Performing the practiced skill in a context or situation
different from practice situation
• Availability of augmented feedback (ex. verbal feedback)
• Physical environment (ex. gait rehabilitation on different surfaces)
• Personal characteristics (ex. Increasing stress level of performer)

B. Performing a skill that is a novel variation of the practiced

skill
• Ex. Picking up and drinking from new cups of all shapes and sizes
without previous experience
• Allows adapting our learned motor skill to novel situation
 Coordination Dynamics
 Involves the measurement of movement coordination
characteristics related to performing a skill
• See figure (next slide)

 As a person begins to learn a new skill, they are evolving new

spatial and temporal coordination patterns from old ones

 Learning involves the transition from the initial movement

coordination pattern to the establishment of the new
coordination pattern
• Coordination dynamics allows observation of pattern stability and
transition from one pattern to another
 Coordination Dynamics
Lee, Swinnen and Verschueren (1995)

 Required participants to learn new

asymmetric bimanual coordination pattern

 Motor skill involved moving 2 levers to draw

ellipse on a monitor screen
• Participants had to coordinate arm movement so
that limbs were 90° out of phase (similar to etch-a-
sketch)

 Coordination diagrams show trials on

successive days
• Demonstrate the process of learning a new skill
• Initially arms preferred to move in phase
 Practice Performance May Misrepresent Learning

It may be misleading to base an inference about learning

solely on observed performance during practice

 Two reasons:
1. Practice may involve a performance variable that artificially
inflates or depresses performance
• Example: Winstein et al. (1996) – next slide

2. Practice may involve performance plateaus

• Example: Franks & Wilberg (1982) – slide after
 Performance Variable May Artificially Alter
Performance
Winstein et al. (1996)
 Participants support 30% of their
body weight while stepping on a
floor scale with the preferred leg
while on crutches

 Based on results at the end of

practice session it would be inferred
that the concurrent group had
learned the skill better (decreased
AE)

 However retention tests indicated

concurrent group performed
significantly worse
 Performance during practice
 Practice May Involve Performance Plateaus

 Performance plateau: is a period of

time during which there appears to be
no further performance improvement

• Researchers have debated whether

a plateau is a real learning
phenomenon or a temporary performance
artifact

 Reasons performance plateaus occur:

a. Plateau represents a period of transition between two phases of acquiring certain aspects of a
skill
b. May represent period of poor motivation, fatigue and lack of attention
c. Ceiling or floor effect – performance measure will not permit score to go above or below a
certain point
 Clinical Application of Learning Characteristics

Points for the practitioner:

 The amount of improvement during practice or therapy sessions may

be artificially influenced by characteristics of the practice sessions
• It is important to utilize retention or transfer tests and the dual-task procedure
to assess learning

 People who are learning a skill often experience performance plateaus

• It is important to provide encouragement to maintain level of practice to
improve performance
• Offer possible movement strategy alternatives
 Part 3:
The Stages of Learning
 The Stages of Learning

Distinct performance or performer characteristics change

during skill learning

 People will progress through specific stages or phases as

they learn a motor skill

 Several models have been proposed to identify and describe

these stages:
1. Fitts and Posner three-stage model
2. Gentile two-stage model
 The Fitts & Posner Three Stage Model

Fitts and Posner (1967) proposed that motor skill learning

involves 3 stages:

1. Cognitive stage: beginner focuses on solving cognitively-

oriented problems
 Determining “what to do” and “how to do it”
• Performance marked by many gross errors and lack of consistency

2. Associative stage: person has learned to associate

environmental information with required movement
• The `refining stage` where the performer has acquired the basic
fundamentals of the skill
 The Fitts & Posner Three Stage Model

3. Autonomous stage: final stage where performance of

the skill is “automatic” in terms of attention
demanded

• Performer shows ability to multitask while performing skill

• Not all performers progress to this stage:

• The quality of instruction and practice are important factors
determining achievement of this final stage
 Gentile’s Two Stage Model
Viewed motor skill learning as progressing through two stages :

1. Initial stage
• Getting the idea of the movement necessary
• Learner works to achieve two goals:
a) Organize movement pattern to enable some degree of success achieving
action goal
b) Discriminate between regulatory and non regulatory conditions in
environmental context

 At the end of this stage, the learner has developed an effective

approach but the action goal is not achieved consistently and
movement lacks efficiency
 Gentile’s Two Stage Model

2. Later stages

 Involves learner acquiring three characteristics:

a) Adapting movement pattern to demands of ANY
performance situation
b) Increased consistency of action goal achievement
c) Performance with an economy of effort
 Gentile’s Two Stage Model

Fixation/Diversification: Unique feature of “Later stages” is that

the learner’s specific goals depend on the type of skill being learned

Closed skills: fixation of movement pattern

• Develop optimal movement pattern to allow consistent action
goal achievement

Open skills: diversification of movement pattern

• Develop flexible movement pattern that can adapt to changing
and novel environmental context conditions
 Part 4:
Performer and Performance Changes
Across the Stages of Learning
 Performer and Performance Changes
Across the Stages of Learning

 Stages of learning models describe distinct

performer and performance characteristics at
each learning stage

 Important to consider these characteristics

because it allows assessment of performers
stage of learning
 Performer and Performance Changes

Changes in Rate of Improvement

 Negatively accelerated pattern is more typical of motor skill learning
(Power Law of Practice)
• Means that early in practice a learner usually experiences a large amount of
improvement
• Improvement decreases as practice continues

Crossman (1959)
 Classic experiment
demonstrated power
law of practice in cigar
rolling employees
 Performer and Performance Changes

Changes in movement coordination

 To perform a motor skill the control system must solve the degrees
of freedom problem

 Concerns constraining all the muscles and joints involved in the

skill

 Determining the appropriate DOF to achieve action goal is a critical

part of the learning process
 Changes in movement coordination
 Bernstein (1967) described a strategy beginners use called:
Freezing the degrees of freedom
• Involves holding some joints rigid and coupling joint motions together in
tight synchrony while learning to perform a motor skill
• Example: a racquet ball player will hold the wrist and elbow rigid while
moving the shoulder when learning to strike the ball

 As the person practices the skill, a

‘freeing of the degrees of freedom’
emerges as frozen joints begin to be
utilized in the motor skill
 Freezing DOF - Coordination Changes in Soccer Kicking

Anderson and Sidaway (1994)

 Demonstrated freezing
of degrees of freedom by
illustrating that beginner soccer
players limited the
movements of their
hip and knee joints when initially
trying to kick the ball

 With practice, the hip and knee joints increased movement and kicking
velocity significantly increased
 Changes in Altering and Old or Preferred
Coordination Pattern

Each of us has developed a large repertoire of movement

patterns that we prefer to use

 When learning a new skill, people begin practicing by using movement

characteristics of old skills
• Example: A baseball player learning tennis will begin by swinging the racquet like a bat

 Learning a new skill requires altering an established coordination pattern to a

new one via practice
• This transition period can be frustrating and difficult for the learner

CLINICAL: When providing skill instruction, it is important to provide extra

motivation to keep learner effectively engaged in practice
 Additional Performer and Performance Changes

a) Changes in muscles used to perform the skill

• Initially more muscles than needed are involved and the timing of muscle
activation is inappropriate

b) Changes in energy cost

• Skilled performers perform more efficiently with minimum expenditure of energy

c) Changes in visual selective attention

• As discussed in Lecture 6: skilled performers will direct visual attention towards
more appropriate sources of information which better guide performance

d) Changes in conscious attention demands

• As someone practices a skill and becomes more proficient, the amount of
 Additional Performer and Performance Changes

e) Changes in Error Detection and

Correction Capability
• Skilled performers have an increased
capability to identify and correct their
own movement errors
• Robertson et al. (1994): Demonstrated
that skilled gymnasts make significantly
less form errors without vision compared
to novice performers

f) Changes in Brain Activity

• The brain areas active during early stage
learning are NOT always the same areas
active during later stages of learning
• Early – Cerebellum
• Later – Basal Ganglia
 A Performer Characteristic that DOES NOT
Change Across the Stages of Learning
Practice Specificity Hypothesis:
 Learning is specific to the sources of sensory information available
during practice

 When visual feedback used during practice in the first stage of

learning, it continues to be needed throughout all stages of learning

 Dependency develops because the sensory feedback becomes part

of the integrated memory representation of the skill
• Therefore becoming a critical component of the developing motor program
Part 5:
Expertise
 Expertise

If a person practices skill long enough

and has the right kind of instruction
they will eventually become an
EXPERT!!!
 Expertise
 An “expert” is a person who is located at the extreme right end of
the learning stages continuum

 Common characteristics of experts in a skill are:

a. Amount and type of practice that resulted in expertise
• Results from intense deliberate practice with optimal instruction

b. Knowledge structure
• Experts will know more about the activity/skill than non-experts do and can make
faster and more appropriate decisions

c. Use of vision
• Significant improvements in visual search
 Is Expert Performance Automated?
Ericsson (1998) argues that expertise does not progress to be fully
automated

 Experts attempt to avoid the minimal attention requirements that come

with complete automaticity

 Experts need to maintain a level of cognitive or conscious control to

make improvements and adapt to new situations

 Experts maintain a higher degree of conscious awareness and recycle

through the stages of learning though in a more sophisticated way than
novices
 Clinical Application of the Stages of Learning

Points for the practitioner:

 When working with people who are in the initial stage of learning, the emphasis of instruction
should be on achieving the action goal
• Allow beginners the opportunity to explore various movements patterns and expect many mistakes

 After beginners have demonstrated the skill with some level of success, emphasis of instruction
should be on refining the skill efficiently
• Open motor skills should be practiced to adapt to a variety of regulatory conditions (diversification)
• Closed motor skills should focus on repetition and refining the motor skill

 Expect beginners to show large amounts of improvement relatively quickly, but lesser amounts
of improvement as more skill is developed

 Beginners will attempt to perform a new skill using previously learned coordination patterns
 Part 6:
Transfer of Learning
 What is Transfer of Learning?

 Transfer of learning is the influence of previous experience on:

 Learning a new skill
 Performing a skill in a new context

 This influence can result in the following:

a) Positive transfer:
• Previous experience improves learning a new skill or performance of a skill in a new context

b) Negative transfer
• Previous experience hinders or interferes with learning a new skill or the performance of a skill in a new
context

c) Neutral (zero)
• Previous experience has no influence on learning a new skill or the performance of a skill in a new context
 Why is Transfer of Learning Important?

A. Sequencing skills to be learned

• Logical progression of learning with each new skill building on the
experience of the previous (ex. School math curriculum, various sport
training)

• Gentile’s taxonomy based on concept of positive transfer

• Remember! Used to develop skill progressions in coaching and physical
education/rehabilitation contexts

B. Assessing the effectiveness of practice conditions

• Transfer test performance provides best assessment of practice
• Sports → game, dancing → recital, rehabilitation → activities of daily living,
school → exam, etc.
 Why Does Positive Transfer Occur?
A. Similarity of skill and context components
• Related to the degree of similarity in the kinematic profiles of the
motor skills
• Can be related to the transfer of the ability to make corrections
about that movement

B. Similarity of processing requirements

• Transfer-appropriate processing view: positive transfer is the result
of similarity between the cognitive processes required

Evaluating why positive transfer occurs will allow us to better

understand what a person learns about a skill
 Negative Transfer
 Although rare, can occurs when new skill or context involves:

A. Similar environmental context features but requires a different movement response

• Ex. Unintended acceleration effect – spatial location changes of pedals, steering wheel, lights/blinkers
when driving a new car

B. Change in timing structure of previously learning sequence

 Negative effects can be overcome with practice

• Performer must ‘unlearn’ old way
• Ex. Rehabilitation settings where patients must first ‘unlearn’ their inappropriate
movement patterns

Important for the practitioner to be aware that it could cause discouragement early
in practice
 Why Does Negative Transfer Occur?

Three main reasons negative transfer occurs:

1. Established perception-action coupling (memory representation) elicits

an inappropriate action in a familiar context
• Old motor program causes movement to similar environment conditions

2. Cognitive confusion
• Ex. Using a new keyboard with different placement of keys (backspace or delete)

3. Learner’s intrinsic dynamics compete with the required task dynamics

• Performer is attempting to utilize old coordination patterns that must be
‘unlearned’ for the new skill
 Learning ‘How to Learn’ is an Example of Transfer

Learning how to learn:

• Concept suggests that when learners practice multiple types of tasks they
can extract general principles of learning

• Learning to learn principles will transfer to the learning of many new skills
• Ex. Students that have the ability to perform well in many types of classes in
university
• Ex. Learners become good problem solvers by solving many different types of
problems
 Part 7:
Bilateral Transfer
 Bilateral Transfer
Transfer of learning that occurs between two limbs

 Concept: Practice experience and motor skill acquisition of

one limb will transfer to the other limb

Experimental Practice
evidence for Pretest trials Posttest
bilateral transfer Preferred limb X X X
provided by this Non preferred X X
research design:
 Bilateral Transfer

 Direction of bilateral transfer is important to

consider
• Asymmetric transfer: Greater transfer from one
limb than from the other
• Symmetric transfer: Similar transfer from one limb
to the other, regardless of which was used first

 Research support for asymmetric transfer

 Greater amount of transfer occurs from
preferred to non-preferred limb
 Why Does Bilateral Transfer Occur?
a. Cognitive explanation
• Important cognitive information acquired from practice with one limb available when
other limb begins to perform
• Develops the mental strategy involved in solving the motor skill goal

b. Motor control explanation

• The generalized motor program (GMP) and dynamic pattern theories both provide a
basis for bilateral transfer
• Performer is applying new muscles to the acquired motor program

• Brain imaging has also established a neural basis of bilateral transfer

• TMS studies blocking activation of supplementary motor cortex caused no bilateral transfer to occur

Research supports both explanations

 Bilateral Transfer Training for Using an Upper-
Extremity Prosthesis

Weeks et al. (2003)

 Provided evidence of the effectiveness for

a training option based on bilateral
transfer

 Goal was to facilitate the daily functional

use of an arm prosthesis

 Training engages patients in the use of a

prosthetic simulator with the intact limb
 Clinical Application of the Transfer of Learning

Points for the practitioner:

 When coaching or providing instruction, the sequencing of skills or activities should allow
each skill to build upon the previous

 When rehabilitating motor skills , include practice opportunities in contexts and situations that
are similar to the everyday use of the skill

 Take advantage of bilateral transfer when working with people who have an injured or
impaired limb

 When teaching a skill in which a person must perform equally well with both limbs; begin
practice with the preferred limb
• Have the person practice with the other limb once a reasonable degree of proficiency has been obtained
with the preferred limb