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.
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 AidsPart 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
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.
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.