Combination of narrow and wide bandwidth knowledge of performance in the acquisition of a complex sports motor skill.

Objectives: This study tested the effects of combining two bandwidth knowledge of performance (KP) on a complex sports motor skill.

Method: Twenty-two elementary students were divided into combined wide and narrow bandwidth KP (WNG) and control group (CG). The task was the volleyball serve, whose goal was to hit the bull's eye center of a target lying on the floor on the opposite side of the court.

Executive Functions and Motor Adaptation to Predictable and Unpredictable Perturbations.

In this study, we aimed to investigate the influence of executive functions (EF) on motor adaptation. We compared the motor performance of adults with and without EF deficits. Those with EF deficits ( = 21) were individuals with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) under medical treatment, and those without EF deficits ( = 21) comprised a control group (CG) of participants who were also without neurological or psychiatric diagnoses.

Contextual Factors and Motor Skills in Indigenous Amazon Forest and Urban Indigenous Children.

This study investigated the contextual factors, motor performance, and body mass index across indigenous land children, indigenous urban children, and non-indigenous urban children. A number of 153 children, both sexes (71 girls, 46.4%), from 8 to 10 years were assessed.

Expectation of Teaching and Self-Controlled KR in Motor Skills Acquisition: Are There Additive Effects?

Recent evidence suggests learning a motor skill with the expectation of teaching it enhances motor learning. The mechanisms underlying this effect seem to be similar to those of another motor learning condition, the self-control of knowledge of results (KR). Considering the similarities between the mechanisms that underlie these conditions, we aimed to investigate the learning effects obtained through expected teaching and self-controlled conditions, and whether these effects would be additive.

Task engagement and mental workload involved in variation and repetition of a motor skill.

Explanatory hypotheses proposed in behavioral studies assumed that less repetitive practice schedules, such as random practice, seem to demand greater cognitive effort than more repetitive types of practice organization, such as constant. All of these hypotheses emphasize the enhanced demand to memory processes promoted by less repetitive practice schedules. In the present study, we investigated the cognitive effort involved in random and constant practice schedules with an electrophysiological approach.

The level of performance stabilization influences motor adaptation on an isometric force control task.

This study compared the effects of two levels of performance stabilization on the adaptation to unpredictable perturbations in an isometric control force task with the goal of controlling 40% of the maximum force. The experiment consisted of pre-exposure and exposure phases. In the pre-exposure two levels of performance stabilization were manipulated: a stabilization group (SG) performed three trials in a row while maintaining 40% of the maximum force for three seconds and an absolute error less than or equal to 5% (i.

A Direct-Learning Approach to Acquiring a Bimanual Tapping Skill.

The theory of direct learning (D. M. Jacobs & C.

The primary motor cortex is associated with learning the absolute, but not relative, timing dimension of a task: A tDCS study.

The functional role of the primary motor cortex (M1) in the production of movement parameters, such as length, direction and force, is well known; however, whether M1 is associated with the parametric adjustments in the absolute timing dimension of the task remains unknown. Previous studies have not applied tasks and analyses that could separate the absolute (variant) and relative (invariant) dimensions. We applied transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to M1 before motor practice to facilitate motor learning.

Different Faces of Variability in the Adaptive Process of Motor Skill Learning.

This study investigated the variability by considering an action programme as hierarchically organized, which reconciles invariant and variant features of motor skills at the macro- and microstructural level of analysis. It was assumed that invariant aspects of skilled actions express the macrostructure and therefore measures of sequencing, relative size, relative timing, relative force and relative pause time. The microstructure was related to the variant aspects so that total size, total movement time, total force, and total pause time were selected as its measures.

Repetition and variation in motor practice: A review of neural correlates.

Random practice results in more effective motor learning than either constant or blocked practice. Recent studies have investigated the effects of practice schedules at the neurophysiological level. This study aims to conduct a literature review of the following issues: (a) the differential involvement of premotor areas, the primary motor cortex, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and the posterior parietal cortex in different types of practice; (b) changes in the participation of these areas throughout practice; and (c) the degree of support that current neurophysiological findings offer to strengthen the behavioral proposition that distinct cognitive processes are generated by different practice schedules.

Effects of mental practice in novice learners in a serial positioning skill acquisition.

The effects of mental practice in novices were investigated. University students (N = 60) performed a serial aiming task, distributed in 5 groups of 12: mental practice, physical practice, mental-physical practice (first mental then physical practice), physical-mental practice (first physical then mental practice), and a control group that only performed the tests. Participants transported three tennis balls among six containers in a pre-established sequence in a target time.

Effects of knowledge of results frequency on the learning of generalized motor programs and parameters under conditions of constant practice.

The present study investigated the effects of the frequency of knowledge of results (KR) on both generalized motor programs and parameters. Two experiments were conducted that compared two frequencies of KR in terms of generalized motor programs and parameters: (1) the first experiment compared the effects of KR frequency on generalized motor programs in the 100% and 50% groups; and (2) the second experiment compared the effects of reduced KR frequency on parameters in the 100% and 50% groups. In the first experiment, results showed that the 50% group exhibited smaller relative timing errors than did the 100% group, but absolute timing errors in the transfer test were similar between these two groups.

Bandwidth knowledge of results on the learning of the saloon dart throwing task.

The effects of two different bandwidths of information of Knowledge of Results (KR) were investigated. 54 university students participated. The experiment consisted of an acquisition phase with practice of throwing a saloon dart as accurately as possible at a target lying on the floor 2.

An adaptive process model of motor learning: insights for the teaching of motor skills.

This article presents an outline of a non-equilibrium model, in which motor learning is explained as a continuous process of stabilization and adaptation. The article also shows how propositions derived from this model have been tested, and discusses possible practical implications of some supporting evidence to the teaching of motor skills. The stabilization refers to a process of functional stabilization that is achieved through negative feedback mechanisms.

Effects of knowledge of results (KR) frequency in the learning of a timing skill: absolute versus relative KR frequency.

The interaction between the amount of practice and frequency of Knowledge of Results (KR) was investigated in a timing skill. In the acquisition phase the task involved 90 trials of releasing a knob and transporting three tennis balls from three near recipients to three far ones in a specific sequence and target time. The retention test performed 24 hr.

Extensive practice improves adaptation to unpredictable perturbations in a sequential coincident timing task.

Extensive practice is associated with a higher level of learning than practice until performance stabilization. This is partially attributable to the changes in the variability of the structure that control the motor skill that occur during practice. However, because both conditions result in performance stabilization, the error in the task performance does not decrease further, and it is necessary to introduce higher demands (e.

Effect of bandwidth knowledge of results on the learning of a grip force control task.

An experiment was conducted to investigate the persistence of the effect of "bandwidth knowledge of results (KR)" manipulated during the learning phase of performing a manual force-control task. The experiment consisted of two phases, an acquisition phase with the goal of maintaining 60% maximum force in 30 trials, and a second phase with the objective of maintaining 40% of maximum force in 20 further trials. There were four bandwidths of KR: when performance error exceeded 5, 10, or 15% of the target, and a control group (0% bandwidth).