BHK Motor Learning and Control 1 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which stage of Fitts and Posner's model of motor learning is characterized by reliance on verbal-cognitive processes and high attentional demands?
- Autonomous stage
- Associative stage
- Cognitive stage (Correct answer)
- Consolidation stage
Correct answer: Cognitive stage
The cognitive stage is the first stage where learners must consciously think through each component of the skill, requiring high attention and producing many errors.
Question 2: Augmented feedback that is provided AFTER the movement is completed is classified as:
- Concurrent feedback
- Terminal feedback (Correct answer)
- Intrinsic feedback
- Proprioceptive feedback
Correct answer: Terminal feedback
Terminal (or post-response) augmented feedback is delivered after movement completion and includes knowledge of results (KR) and knowledge of performance (KP).
Question 3: The 'degrees of freedom problem' in motor control, as described by Bernstein, refers to:
- The limited number of muscles available for a task
- The challenge of coordinating the many redundant movement options of the musculoskeletal system (Correct answer)
- The inability of the CNS to process sensory input
- The fixed motor patterns stored in the spinal cord
Correct answer: The challenge of coordinating the many redundant movement options of the musculoskeletal system
Bernstein identified that the nervous system must constrain the enormous number of possible joint angle combinations (degrees of freedom) to produce coordinated movement.
Question 4: Variable practice, compared to constant practice, generally leads to:
- Better immediate performance but poorer retention and transfer
- Poorer immediate performance but better retention and transfer to novel tasks (Correct answer)
- Equal performance in all measures
- Faster skill acquisition in the cognitive stage
Correct answer: Poorer immediate performance but better retention and transfer to novel tasks
Variable practice conditions challenge the learner more during acquisition but produce superior long-term retention and transfer to new variations of the skill.
Question 5: Schema theory (Schmidt, 1975) proposes that motor programs are generalized and that specific movement parameters are determined by:
- Fixed spinal reflex circuits
- Recall schema (motor production) and recognition schema (sensory evaluation) (Correct answer)
- The cerebellum alone
- Muscle spindle feedback exclusively
Correct answer: Recall schema (motor production) and recognition schema (sensory evaluation)
Schema theory holds that experience builds recall schemas for movement production and recognition schemas for evaluating expected sensory consequences.
Question 6: The contextual interference effect in motor learning predicts that a random practice schedule produces:
- The fastest acquisition during practice
- Better transfer and retention than blocked practice despite slower initial learning (Correct answer)
- No difference compared to blocked practice
- Decreased motivation and compliance
Correct answer: Better transfer and retention than blocked practice despite slower initial learning
High contextual interference (random order) forces deeper processing during practice, yielding superior retention and transfer despite slower apparent progress during acquisition.
BHK Motor Learning and Control 1
Which stage of Fitts and Posner's model of motor learning is characterized by reliance on verbal-cognitive processes and high attentional demands?