chapter
Chapter 8 Motor Behavior
8
Motor Behavior
Jerry R. Thomas and Katherine T. Thomas
What Is Motor Behavior?
• Motor behavior is the study of how motor skills are
learned, controlled, and developed to assist people
as they practice and experience physical activity.
Applications often focus on what, how, and how
much to practice.
• Motor behavior guides us in providing better
situations for learning and practice, as well as
understanding why some cues and feedback are
better than others.
• Motor behavior is valuable to all performers and
those who teach motor skills, including the
following:
– Physical education teachers
– Adapted physical educators
– Gerontologists
– Physical therapists
– Coaches
Figure 8.1
What Does a Motor Behaviorist Do?
• Colleges or universities
– Teaching
– Research
– Service
• Other research facilities: hospitals,
industrial, military
– Research with applications related to setting
– Grant writing
Goals of Motor Behavior
• To understand how motor skills are learned
• To understand how motor skills are
controlled
• To understand how the learning and control
of motor skills change across the life span
• Three subdisciplines:
– Motor learning
– Motor control
– Motor development
Goals of Motor Learning
• To explain how processes such as feedback
and practice improve the learning and
performance of motor skills
• To explain how response selection and
response execution become more efficient
and effective
Goals of Motor Control
• To analyze how the mechanisms in
response selection and response execution
control the body’s movement
• To explain how environmental and
individual factors affect the mechanisms of
response selection and response execution
Goals of Motor Development
• To explain how motor learning and control
improve during childhood and adolescence
• To explain how motor learning and control
deteriorate with aging
Motor Movements Studied Beyond
Sports
• Babies learning to use a fork and spoon
• Dentists learning to control the drill while looking in
a mirror
• Surgeons controlling a scalpel; microsurgeons
using a laser
• Children learning to ride a bicycle or roller skate
• Teenagers learning to drive
• Dancers performing choreographed movements
• Pilots learning to control an airplane
• Young children learning to control a pencil when
writing or type on a computer
History of Motor Behavior
Five themes have persisted over the years in
motor behavior research:
• Knowledge of results (feedback)
• Distribution of practice
• Transfer of training
• Retention
• Individual differences
(continued)
History of Motor Behavior (continued)
• Late 1800s and early 1900s: Motor skills to understand
cognition and neural control
• 1939-1945: The World War II era was one of great interest in
motor behavior research.
• 1940s, 1950s, 1960s: Glassow, Rarick, and Espenschade—
research focused on how children acquire motor skills
• 1960s:
– Memory drum theory: Franklin Henry, father of motor behavior
– Motor behavior as a subdiscipline of kinesiology
• 1970s to present:
– The influence of growth and maturation on motor performance
– Developmental patterns of fundamental movements
– Information processing theory
– The study of motor learning and motor control in children
Focus of Motor Behavior Shifts
• Initial focus was not actually on motor
behavior itself; instead, it was on cognition,
biology, military importance, and so on.
• Current focus has shifted to motor behavior
itself.
– Neuromuscular system controls and movement
repetition
– Potential treatments for diseases and injuries such
as Parkinson’s disease and spinal cord injuries.
– Performance improvement in sport and physical
activity
– Technological advances that allow for a focus on
real-world movements instead of movement
invented in the laboratory just for research purposes
Research Methods in Motor Behavior
• Types of studies (experimental designs):
– Between-group
– Within-group
– Descriptive (participants receive no treatment)
• Studying the early stages of learning
(novice learning tasks)
• Studying expert performance
• Measuring movements
• Characteristics of movement tasks
• Measuring learning and transfer
Figure 8.2
Figure 8.3
Research Themes in Motor Behavior
• Practice
• Feedback: Knowledge of results and
performance
• Transfer
• Individual differences
Motor Learning
• The goal is to understand the role of
practice, feedback, and individual
differences.
– Scheduling practice
– Context of practice
• Study has included the early stages of
learning and expert performers.
• Typical studies have used average or
typical performers doing novel tasks.
(continued)
Motor Learning (continued)
Topics studied
• Practice
– Before practice
• Goal setting
• Instructions
• Demonstrations
– Scheduling practice
– Context of practice
• Feedback: Knowledge of results and performance
• Transfer
• Individual differences
Figure 8.4
Figure 8.5
Motor Control
Motor programs are proposed memory
mechanisms that allow movements to be
controlled. As motor programs are
developed, they become more automatic,
allowing the performer to concentrate on the
use of the movement in performance
situations.
(continued)
Motor Control (continued)
Dynamical systems theory has challenged
the motor program theory. Dynamical
systems theorists believe that a more direct
link exists between perception and action,
bypassing the need for motor programs.
Motor Control:
Five Areas of Research
• Degrees of freedom: coordination of
movement
• Motor equivalency
• Serial order of movements: coarticulation
• Perceptual integration during movement
• Skill acquisition
Developmental
Motor Learning and Control
• The goal is to understand skill acquisition
across the life span.
• Descriptive research includes baby
biographies.
(continued)
Developmental Motor Learning and
Control (continued)
Topics studied
– Developmental changes in the mechanics of
movement
– Life span development
– Experience
– Changing neuromuscular systems across the life
span
– Growth and gender in the development of overhand
throwing
Figure 8.6
Figure 8.7
Figure 8.8
Motor Behavior
• Important in all aspects of life
– Babies
– Athletes
– Surgeons
• Important to many professions
– Teaching
– Coaching
– Medicine
– Therapy
