BHK Motor Learning and Control 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which part of the brain is most associated with the timing, coordination, and error correction of skilled movements?
- Basal ganglia
- Cerebellum (Correct answer)
- Prefrontal cortex
- Hippocampus
Correct answer: Cerebellum
The cerebellum compares intended versus actual movement and sends corrective signals, playing a central role in timing, precision, and motor adaptation.
Question 2: During the autonomous stage of motor learning, attention requirements for performing a skill:
- Increase significantly
- Decrease — the skill becomes largely automatic (Correct answer)
- Remain the same as in the cognitive stage
- Shift exclusively to proprioceptive feedback
Correct answer: Decrease — the skill becomes largely automatic
In the autonomous stage, the skill requires minimal conscious attention, freeing cognitive resources for other tasks such as strategy or decision-making.
Question 3: Proprioception refers to the sensory system that provides information about:
- Visual information about limb position in space
- Body position, movement, and muscle tension from receptors in muscles, tendons, and joints (Correct answer)
- Auditory cues during sport performance
- Vestibular balance signals from the inner ear only
Correct answer: Body position, movement, and muscle tension from receptors in muscles, tendons, and joints
Proprioception integrates input from muscle spindles, Golgi tendon organs, and joint receptors to convey limb position and movement without vision.
Question 4: Part-task practice is most beneficial when a skill is:
- Highly integrated and cannot be decomposed meaningfully
- Low in task complexity but high in task organization
- High in complexity and low in organization (parts are relatively independent) (Correct answer)
- Being performed by an expert athlete
Correct answer: High in complexity and low in organization (parts are relatively independent)
When a skill has high complexity (many components) but low organization (components are relatively independent), practicing parts separately is effective.
Question 5: Observational learning (modeling) is most effective when the observer:
- Watches only expert models with perfect technique
- Has no prior experience with the skill
- Is cognitively engaged and attends to critical features of the model's movement (Correct answer)
- Views the model from behind only
Correct answer: Is cognitively engaged and attends to critical features of the model's movement
Active cognitive engagement, including identifying key movement features, is essential for converting observation into motor learning.
Question 6: The concept of 'specificity of practice' suggests that motor skills are best learned when practice conditions:
- Are as varied and different from competition as possible
- Match the intended performance context as closely as possible (Correct answer)
- Focus exclusively on isolated components of the skill
- Minimize all forms of augmented feedback
Correct answer: Match the intended performance context as closely as possible
The specificity principle holds that practice should replicate game/competition conditions — including speeds, contexts, and cues — to maximize transfer.
BHK Motor Learning and Control 2
Which part of the brain is most associated with the timing, coordination, and error correction of skilled movements?