Module 8

Factors Affecting Motor Learning

Several factors act on Motor Learning Processes, such as:

• verbal instructions
• characteristics and variability of training sessions
• the individual's active participation and motivation
• the option of making mistakes
• postural control
• memory
• feedback

ENVIRONMENT
• Environment consists of:
o Physical
o Socioeconomic
o Cultural
• Family features, such as socioeconomic status, mother's educational level, and the existence of
siblings can affect children's motor competence
• Research has shown that an engaged learning environment increases students' attention and
focus, promotes meaningful learning experiences, encourages higher levels of student
performance, and motivates students to practice higher-level critical thinking skills.
o Engaged learning environment
▪ In an engaged learning environment, classrooms become communities wherein
learning happens.
▪ This sense of community allows students to feel connected to one another and
their teachers and to engage in collaborative, active learning.
▪ How learners should be engaged in learning? Common strategies include
question-and-answer sessions, discussion, interactive lectures, quick writing
assignments, and experiential learning.

TASK
• A task is the one which is performed with a particular purpose in mind.
o A 'task' is always leading up to a purpose and it is assigned to
someone who must finish it.
o Purpose
• An 'activity', on the other hand, refers to being active and doing
something. It can have a particular purpose or it can be done to pass the
time.
o An activity may or may not have such a specific
 • A process is a series of progressive and interdependent steps by which an end is attained
• Task and activity refer to doing something

PERSON
• Motor learning is defined as: ‘a change in the capability of a person to perform a skill that must
be inferred from a relatively permanent improvement in performance as a result of practice or
experience’ (Magill and Anderson, 2007).
• How does a person learn a motor skill? Movement skills become ingrained in "muscle memory"
through repetition. Children cannot master motor skills by watching or listening or standing
around while others get their turn. They master them by doing – over and over and over again.
Proper technique, repeated extensively, leads to mastery over time

SPORT
• Sport is used as a generic term, comprising sport for all, physical play, recreation, dance,
organized, casual, competitive, traditional and indigenous sports and games in their diverse forms
(UNESCO, 2017).
• Sport in its recreational, therapeutic and competitive aspects, emerges as a means of enhancing
social interaction and providing benefits at three levels: personal health; individual development
and social/ environmental (EC, 2018).
• Thus, persons with disabilities (PWDs) need regular physical activity to contribute to the
development of healthy lifestyles (Koldoff & Holtzclaw, 2015).

SPORT INCLUSION
• Physical activity is fundamental for persons with disabilities because it gives visibility and
recognition to the abilities and potentialities of persons with disabilities, not to their difficulties /
limitations.
• Despite barriers to the participation of persons with disabilities, they should not be prevented
from accessing sport regardless of the functionality of the individual. Therefore, a social, physical
and professional restructuring is essential for the promotion of the inclusive process (Martin,
Alves & Duarte, 2012).

Several factors act on Motor Learning Processes, such as:

• verbal instructions
• characteristics and variability of training sessions
• the individual's active participation and motivation
• the option of making mistakes
• postural control
• memory, and
• feedback

VERBAL INSTRUCTIONS
 • Verbal instructions are medium-to-long goal-directed, task-oriented phrases of generally three or
more words in length, verbally administered to an individual prior to motor skill performance in
order to enhance athletic performance and, or motor skill learning.
• Verbal instructions help subjects focus their attention on specific objectives and influence the
learning strategies that these subjects will use when completing a movement.
• Verbal instructions: need for maintaining the subject's capacity for attention and direct
observation.

CHARACTERISTICS AND VARIABILITY OF TRAINING SESSIONS

• Characteristics and variability of training sessions: distributed practice, with prolonged rest
periods between training sessions, seems to be more effective for learning transfer than
continuous repetition of tasks without rest periods.
o Massed practice, or massed learning, describes studying conducted less frequently and
for longer periods of time, such as cramming for an examination on the night before the
assessment.
o Distributed practice (also known as spaced repetition, the spacing effect, or spaced
practice) is a learning strategy, where practice is broken up into a number of short
sessions over a longer period of time
• Fatigue seems to be one of the key factors promoting the use of distributed practice; furthermore,
very long training sessions may also be accompanied by a greater margin of error due to mental
and physical exhaustion.

THE INDIVIDUAL'S ACTIVE PARTICIPATION AND MOTIVATION

• The individual's active participation and motivation: general hypotheses about training and ML
seem to show that learning progress depends on the total time in which the patient is
participating actively.
• Active participation strengthens the learning process and helps keep learning continuous.
• Another important concept related to ML (motor learning) is the student’s active participation in
the task being carried out. In completing the task or activity and resolving and overcoming the
problem, the student’s motivation and commitment are crucial factors.

THE OPTION OF MAKING MISTAKES

• The option/possibility of making mistakes: analyzing every activity or task the students must
complete will show which components of movement should be reinforced during training
sessions.
• Allowing students to make mistakes while completing a new activity, and providing them with
possible solutions or encouraging them to propose their own, are beneficial for ML activities
aimed at training new skills.

POSTURAL CONTROL
• Postural control: defined as control over the body's position in space to achieve balance and
orientation.
• Correct postural control is important for students to be able to learn a new motor activity or
recover a previously existing one.
MEMORY
• Memory: considered a key component in ML.
• Unimpaired memory is important for students to be able to learn a new motor activity or recover
a previously existing one.
• Types of Memory
o Phyletic memory is the innate structure of the sensory and motor systems of the neonate.
o Semantic memory is a category of long-term memory that involves the recollection of
ideas, concepts and facts commonly regarded as general knowledge.
o Episodic memory refers to the conscious recollection of a personal experience that
contains information on what has happened and also where and when it happened.
o “Emotional memory” is shorthand for denoting the memory of experiences that evoked
an emotional reaction.

FEEDBACK
• Feedback is the term for information received as a result of movement.
• We can distinguish between intrinsic feedback, the consequence of movement (exteroceptive and
proprioceptive pathways) that permits postural adjustment; and extrinsic feedback, or all
information provided by an external source.
• The purpose of extrinsic feedback is to provide the student with information about the result of
the movement as a complement to intrinsic information.
• There are two categories of extrinsic information:
o understanding of results, that is, all verbal information about the result of the movement,
which is particularly important when intrinsic feedback is reduced;
o understanding of performance, which is linked to movement patterns employed when
completing a task, and which provides information on movement quality.
• Extrinsic feedback is essential when the student’s source of intrinsic feedback is reduced or
distorted. As part of any learning process, subjects should receive some type of information about
their errors from an intrinsic or extrinsic source.