| Question |
Answer |
| Motor control | The study of movement and postures and the mechanisms that underlie them. |
| Motor learning | The study of the relatively permanent improvement in performance as a result of practice or experience. |
| Motor development | The study of the change in motor behavior as a function of aging. |
| Skill | A task that has a specific goal to achieve. |
| Motor skill | Performed voluntarily, requires body and limb movements and need to be learned. |
| Movement | Component parts of skills that is not learned. |
| Actions | Synonymous with skills, a family of movements. |
| An example of a skill | baseball throwing |
| An example of a motor skill | walking |
| An example of a movement | quads contracting to move leg |
| An example of an action | running |
| Dichotomy | either/or |
| Example of dichotomy | open or close |
| Continuoum | not exclusive, a wide range of possibilities |
| Example of continuoum | between hot and cold (warm) |
| Discrete | one identifiable beginning and end point |
| Serial | sequence of discrete skills |
| Continuous | repetitive movements |
| Closed skill | object to be acted on or environment does not change during the actual performance of skill (T-Ball) |
| Open skill | person performs in a non-stable environment during the performance of skill |
| Gross motor skill | uses large muscles |
| Fine motor skill | uses smaller muscles |
| Two dimensions of Gentiles Taxonomy | environmental context and function of the action |
| Environmental Context Question | Does the mover have to regulate movements to conform to environmental context? Is the environment stationary or in motion? |
| Function of the Action 2 sub categories | body orientation and object manipulation |
| Subcategories of body orientation | Body stability and body transport |
| Motor Abilities | a variety of abilities underlie motor skill learning and performance success |
| The 2 theories of abilities | general motor ability and specificity of motor abilities |
| General motor ability hypothesis | if a person is good at one skill then s/he has the potential to be good at all motor skills |
| Specificity of motor ability hypothesis | if a person is good at one skill it can only predict that s/he has potential to be good at another skill with the same demands |
| Taxonomy of motor abilities | perceptual motor abilities, physical proficiency abilities, and additional abilities |
| Task analysis | identify the component parts of a motor skill and the probable underlying abilities needed to perform each part (movement) |
| Response production | observations or records of data relative to ‘how’ the movement was produced |
| Response outcome | observations or records of data relative to ‘what’ the outcome or product of the movement was. |
| Options of response production | displacement, velocity, acceleration, kinetics, joint angle and torque, EMG, and EEG |
| Options of response measures | time on/off target, time on/off balance, reaction time |
| Simple RT | involves one external signal and one responses |
| Choice RT | involves multiple signals and multiple responses |
| Discrimination RT | involves multiple signals and a single response |
| Movement time | interval of time between the initiation of the response and the completion of the response |
| Response time | is the sum of RT + MT |
| Reaction time equals | the sum of Pre-motor time and motor time |
| Pre-motor time | component of RT where no electrical activity is noted in the muscle following the stimulus |
| Motor time | increase in electrical activity in muscle prior to actual observable movement of the limb. |
| Proprioception | the sensory-receptor pickup of limb and body movement characteristics |
| Kinesthesis | the conscious sensation of movements and/or limb position |
| Four mechanoreceptors | muscle spindles, Golgi tendon organs, joint receptors, vestibular apparatus. |
| Coordination | The patterning of body and limb motions relative to the patterning of environmental events |
| Degrees of Freedom Problem Defined | How can an effective yet efficient control system be designed so that a large number of independent elements or components are constrained to act in a particular way? |
| Open Loop Control System | no environmental factors, it does what it is meant to do without any feedback to affect how it works (ex: toaster) |
| Closed Loop Control System | immediate feedback affects what that system does (ex: a programmable thermostat adjusts the temp automatically) |
| Hierarchical Model | Assumes that all aspects of movement planning an execution are the SOLE responsibility of one or more cortical centers. (open loop system) |
| Dynamic System | motor behavior results from the interaction of multiple subsystems. (closed loop system) |
| Invariant features | relative timing + relative force + sequence of components |
| Parameter defn | overall force + overall duration + muscles |
| Schema | a rule or set or rules that serves to provide the basis for a decision |
| Hierarchical strengths | account for ability to perform movements in the absence of sensory feedback, GMP can be used to perform a broad variety of movements by applying different movement parameters |
| Motor Program | Movements stored in memory in the form of plans or programs for movements in the hierarchical theory. |
| Dynamic Systems Theory | multidisciplinary perspective using nonlinear dynamics |
| Nonlinear Dynamics | behavioral change over time does not follow a linear progression (overrides cognitive b/c of other systems) |
| What are the constructs of the dynamic systems theory? | stability, order parameters, control parameters, self-organization, coordinative structures, perception and action coupling |
| Phase transition | part of stability where you change from one movement to another (uncomfortable) |
| Attractor states | stable behavioral steady states of system (where system wants to be) |
| Order parameters | functionally specific variables that define the overall behavior of a system. |
| Control parameters | variable that when its critical value is reached influences the stability and character of the order parameter. (ex: force, duration, speed) |
| Self organization | when certain conditions characterize a situation, a specific stable pattern of behavior emerges. |
| Coordinative structures | skilled action results when a person’s nervous system constrains functionally specific synergies of muscles and joints to act cooperatively… practice or experience or naturally. |
| Perception and action coupling | emphasis on the interaction of perceptual and movement variables. |
| Role of proprioception | provides an important source of feedback when action is under closed loop control. |
| Deafferentation studies | capable of doing learned skills but not as accurate or precise |
| Anticipation timing | vision is used to make movements of the body and/ or its parts coincide w/ those of an object or other person |
| 3 phases of manual timing | movement preparation, initial flight phase, and termination |
| Vision and prehension | reaching and grasping object, drinking from a cup, snagging a throw |
| Tau | Time to contact based on retinal size |
| Filter or bottlenect theory | time based limitation perspective |
| Central resource theory | human attention capacity is a single general fund from which all activities must be funded. |
| CRC Kahneman | capacity of the central pool of resources are flexible depending on certain conditions (model) |
| Multiple resource theory | we have several attention mechanisms, each with limited resources. |
| Wickens Theory | our ability to perform 2 or more tasks depends on wheter the demands come from a common resource or different ones |
| Attentional Focus | The process of directing your attention to specific things (width, direction, and interactive) |
| Automaticity | skills can be performed without/limited attention |
Biology Lab Midterm
