Motor Learning and Control – From Theory to Practice

“I was not successful as a ball player, as it was a

game of skill.”
Casey Stengel (1890–1975), professional baseball manager—Shakespeare, Hamlet

What is a skill?
Chapter 2

William H. Edwards
2011
 Chapter 2 : What is a skill? - Contents
• 031 Key Questions • 047 The Degrees of Freedom Problem
• 031 Chapter overview • 048 The Perceptual-Motor Integration Problem
• 032 THE DOMAINS OF SKILL • 048 BOX 2.5 How Many Ways Can You Touch Your Nose?
• 033 Skill Domains • 050 The Serial-Order (Timing) Problem
• 033 Cognitive Skills • 051 The Skill Acquisition Problem
• 033 Perceptual Skills • 051 THE CLASSIFICATION OF MOTOR SKILLS
• 034 Motor Skills • 052 One-Dimensional Classification Systems
• 035 Is Skill Learning Domain Specific? • 052 The Classification of Motor Skills Based upon the Stability of the Environment
• 037 FIGURE 2.1 Motor Skills Include Aspects of the Cognitive and Perceptual • 054 The Classification of Motor Skills Based upon Temporal Predictability
Domains of Skill • 054 FIGURE 2.3 Classification of Skills as Closed or Open
• 037 BOX 2.1 Into Which Skill Domain Should Driving Be Classified? • 056 The Classification of Motor Skills Based upon Movement Precision
• 038 BUT WHAT, EXACTLY, IS A SKILL? • 056 FIGURE 2.4 Classification of Skills as Discrete, Serial, or Continuous
• 038 BOX 2.2 Is There a Correlation between Intelligence and Motor Skills? • 057 Gentile’s Two-Dimensional Taxonomy for Classifying Motor Skills
• 038 Defining Skills Generally • 058 FIGURE 2.5 Classification of Skills as Fine or Gross
• 038 Defining Motor Skills Specifically • 058 BOX 2.6 Can You Classify Skills According to the One-Dimensional Classification
• 039 Defining Motor Skills by the Characteristics of Skilled Performance System?
• 040 Limitations to Definitional Use • 059 Environmental Demands
• 040 TABLE 2.1 Comparing Two Definitions of Motor Skill • 059 Action Requirements
• 041 Skills, Movements, and Abilities • 060 Gentile’s 16 Skill Categories
• 042 THE STUDY OF MOTOR SKILLS • 060 Application of Gentile’s Taxonomy
• 042 The Three Components of Motor Skills • 061 TABLE 2.2 Gentile’s Taxonomy
• 042 The Person • 062 BOX 2.7 Using Gentile’s Taxonomy
• 042 The Task • 063 SUMMARY
• 043 The Environment • 064 LEARNING EXERCISES
• 043 CHARACTERISTICS OF MOTOR SKILLS • 065 FOR FURTHER STUDY HOW MUCH DO YOU KNOW?
• 043 BOX 2.3 Can You Identify the Components of Motor Skills That Influence • 066 STUDY QUESTIONS
Performance? • 066 ADDITIONAL READING
• 044 Motor Equivalence • 067 REFERENCES
• 045 Motor Variability
• 045 BOX 2.4 In How Many Different Ways Can the Goal of a Skill Be
Accomplished?
• 046 Motor Consistency
• 046 Motor Modifiability
• 046 FOUR PROBLEMS IN THE STUDY OF MOTOR SKILLS
 Key Questions
• What is a skill? How are skills defined?
• How do motor skills differ from other types of skills?
• Are there characteristics common to all motor skills?
• What factors influence the performance of motor skills?
• What problems do researchers confront when studying motor skills?
• How can motor skills be meaningfully classified?
 Chapter Overview
• If you were presented a list of motor skills including the shot-put,
completing a maximal weight bench press, and casting in fly fishing,
which two would you select as having the most in common?
• Most people would probably select the shot-put and bench press as being
the most similar.
• And if you focus only on the muscular effort required to accomplish both
of these skills, your choice would be the most logical one.
• But if you consider all of the essential characteristics of these three skills
- the perceptual requirements for each, the patterns of muscular
coordination and timing involved in each, the demands imposed on each
by the environment, the basic movement goals for each - then fly fishing
and the shot-put actually have much more in common with one another
than either has with the skill of bench pressing.
• Analyzing skills for common features is more than a mere exercise in
 Chapter Overview
• For one thing, such analysis forms the basis for determining the most
effective methods for instructing motor skills.
• In our example, many of the instructional methods best suited to
teaching someone to put the shot are the same as those that should be
used when teaching someone to cast a fly line to the spot where the
biggest trout hide out, but these same instructions would prove less
effective when teaching someone the proper mechanics for performing
the bench press.
• In this chapter, we will consider questions concerning the nature of
skills, including what all skills have in common as well as those features
differentiating various types of skill.
• As we begin our journey of discovery in this book, we will examine the
ways in which movement scientists conceptualize skills, the theoretical
problems confronted in studying skilled behaviors, and the vocabulary
 Definitions
• SKILL DOMAIN: A categorical classification of skills possessing similarities specific to
cognitive, perceptual, and motor characteristics.
• COGNITIVE SKILL: A skill for which success is primarily determined by an individual’s
knowledge and cognitive capabilities.
• PERCEPTUAL SKILL: A skill for which the ability to discern and discriminate among
sensory stimuli is of primary concern in successfully accomplishing the skill
• SKILL: A learned, goal-directed activity entailing a broad range of human behaviors.
• MOTOR SKILL: A learned, goal-directed activity accomplished primarily through
muscular contributions to action.
• RESPONSE: A term used synonymously with motor skill, especially by those favoring a
cognitive perspective of motor behavior.
• ACTION: A term used synonymously with motor skill.
• MOVEMENT: A change in the position of limbs or body segments; the behavioral
components used to assemble motor skills.
• ABILITY: A genetically endowed trait underlying the performance of motor skills.
 Definitions
• MOTOR EQUIVALENCE: The capacity to produce many different movement patterns to
accomplish the same action goal.
• MOTOR VARIABILITY: No two movement patterns, even of the same skill, are ever
produced in exactly the same way.
• MOTOR CONSISTENCY: The capacity to achieve the goals of motor skills consistently;
the capacity of the human motor system to learn.
• MOTOR MODIFIABILITY: The capacity to alter a movement pattern to achieve a new
action goal.
• UNIT OF ACTION: A specified component of movement that can be used repeatedly in
various actions, producing essentially the same results.
• DEGREES OF FREEDOM: The number of dimensions in which a system can
independently vary.
• DEGREES OF FREEDOM PROBLEM: How the many degrees of freedom available in
the human motor system are controlled to produce a particular movement.
• PERCEPTUAL-MOTOR INTEGRATION PROBLEM: The intellectual problems arising
 Definitions
• SERIAL-ORDER PROBLEM: The problems arising in attempting to provide an adequate
explanation for how the order and timing of movement elements forming motor skills
are organized and controlled.
• SKILL ACQUISITION PROBLEM: An intellectual or research problem arising in
attempting to explain how motor skills are learned.
• CLOSED MOTOR SKILL: A skill in which action occurs in a stable and predictable
environment.
• SELF-PACED MOTOR SKILL: A commonly used term denoting a closed motor skill.
• OPEN MOTOR SKILL: A skill for which the object acted upon or the context in which
action occurs varies from one performance to the next.
• DISCRETE MOTOR SKILL: A motor skill in which the beginning and ending points are
clearly defined.
• CONTINUOUS MOTOR SKILL: A motor skill in which the beginning and ending of
action is arbitrary.
• SERIAL MOTOR SKILL: A motor skill composed of a series of discrete skills such that
 Definitions
• GROSS MOTOR SKILL: A motor skill in which the contributions of muscular force are
the primary requisite for performance success.
• REGULATORY CONDITIONS: Features of the performance environment that determine
how a skill must be performed in order to be successful.
Figures
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Tables
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 SUMMARY
• Skills of many and varied types make up a majority of the activities
comprising daily life.
• Depending upon the requisite capabilities most critical in accomplishing
their goals, skills are classified into cognitive, perceptual, and motor
domains.
• Motor skills, as a separate domain of skill, are defined in two ways:
• The classic definition of motor skills assumes a task perspective and defines motor skills as
voluntary, goal-directed, learned behaviors accomplished primarily through contributions of
the muscular-skeletal system.

• Guthrie’s definition of motor skills assumes a performance perspective and defines motor
skills as maximizing goal attainment while minimizing energy expenditures and movement
time.

• The study of motor skills comprises three components influencing

performance, each of which plays a role in both facilitating and limiting
 SUMMARY
• Four aspects of skilled behavior characterize all motor skills:
• Motor equivalence

• Motor variability

• Motor consistency

• Motor modifiability

• Among the most persistent problems facing motor skill researchers, four
in particular underscore differences in theoretical perspectives and are
the most challenging to researchers:
• The degrees of freedom problem

• The perceptual-motor integration problem

• The serial-order problem

• The skill acquisition problem

 SUMMARY
• Two systems for classifying motor skills are used today:
• One-dimensional classification systems assume a task perspective and
classify skills along a continuum.
• One-dimensional systems have been developed based upon the
• stability environmental features (closed vs. open),

• temporal predictability (discrete, serial, and continuous), and

• movement precision (fine vs. gross).

• Gentile’s two-dimensional system classifies skills into 16 categories

representing combinations of environmental demands and action
requirements.
• The taxonomy is particularly useful for purposes of evaluating movement
capabilities and planning instruction progressions when teaching motor
skills.