Schmidt R.A., Lee T., Winstein C., Wulf G., Zelaznik H. Motor Control and Learning

Champaign: Human Kinetics, 2019. — 730 p.Do you ever wonder how highly skilled performers in industry, sport, music, or dance make their actions appear so simple and easy? Do you marvel at the way they can perform with such efficiency, smoothness, style, and grace? Like the previous five editions of this text (Schmidt, 1982, 1988; Schmidt & Lee, 1999, 2005, 2011), the sixth edition of Motor Control and Learning: A Behavioral Emphasis was written for people who want to understand how some experienced performers can achieve such artistry while others who are beginners in a similar task seem clumsy, inept, and unskilled. This book was written initially as a textbook for university or college undergraduate and graduate students taking courses in human performance or motor learning, primarily in fields such as kinesiology or psychology. Over the years it has become a resource for students in other fields that relate to movement behavior, such as the neurosciences, physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, biomedical or industrial engineering, human factors or ergonomics, and sport. For practitioners or emerging practitioners in these fields, the principles of motor behavior outlined in this book can provide a solid basis for tasks such as designing human–machine systems, developing training programs in sport or industry, or teaching progressions in dance or music.
The emphasis of the text is behavioral. It focuses primarily on movement behavior that one can observe directly, on the many factors that affect the quality of these performances, and the ease with which they can be learned. In this sense, the book has strong ties to the methods and traditions of experimental psychology, now called cognitive psychology. At the same time, the book focuses on the cognitive, motivational, neurological, and biomechanical processes out of which these complex movement behaviors are crafted. Brain mechanisms that allow the detection of errors, spinal cord processes that are capable of generating patterns of skilled activities in locomotion, biomechanical factors, and various social, cognitive, and affective influences that act to determine the nature of human movement behaviors are all critical to understanding highly skilled performance. This blending of behavioral, neurophysiological, and biomechanical analyses reflects the fact that the fields of motor behavior and motor learning, movement neurophysiology (motor control), psychology, and biomechanics have moved together rapidly in recent years toward the shared understanding of complex movement behaviorDedication to Richard Allen Schmidt (1941-2015)Accessing the Web ResourceIntroduction to Motor BehaviorEvolution of a Field of StudyUnderstanding Movement
Origins of the FieldMethodology for Studying Motor PerformanceClassification of Motor Skills
Basic Considerations in Measurement
Measuring Motor Behavior
Measuring and Evaluating Relationships
Reliability and Individual DifferencesHuman Information ProcessingInformation-Processing Model
Three Stages of Information Processing
Anticipation
Signal-Detection Theory
MemoryAttention and PerformanceTypes of Attention
Theories of Attention
Competition for Attention
Attention During Movement
Focus of Attention
Automaticity: The Constrained Action Hypothesis
Attention and AnxietyMotor ControlSensory and Perceptual Contributions to Motor ControlClosed-Loop Control Systems
Vision
Audition
Proprioceptors
Proprioception and Motor Control
Feedforward Influences on Motor ControlCentral Contributions to Motor ControlOpen-Loop Processes
Central Control Mechanisms
Central Control of Rapid Movements
Generalized Motor ProgramsPrinciples of Speed and AccuracyFitts’ Law: The Logarithmic Speed–Accuracy Trade-Off
Linear Speed–Accuracy Trade-Off (Schmidt’s Law)
Temporal Speed–Accuracy Trade-Off
Central Contributions to the Spatial Speed–Accuracy Trade-Off
Correction Models of the Speed–Accuracy Trade-OffCoordinationDiscrete Tasks
Continuous Tasks
A Dynamical-Systems Account of CoordinationMotor LearningMotor Learning Concepts and Research MethodsDefining Motor Learning
Measuring Motor Learning
Designing Experiments on Learning
Using Alternative Methods to Measure Learning
Understanding Issues About the “Amount” of Learning
Understanding Learning and Performance VariablesConditions of PracticeVerbal Information
Focus of Attention
Motivational Influences on Learning
Observational Learning
Mental Practice
Distribution of Practice
Variability of Practice
Contextual Interference
GuidanceAugmented FeedbackClassifications and Definitions
Informational Functions of Feedback
Motivational Functions of Feedback
Attentional Focus Functions of Feedback
Theoretical Issues: How Does Augmented Feedback “Work”?The Learning ProcessStages of Motor Learning
Closed-Loop Theory
Schema Theory
Differing Theoretical Perspectives of Motor Learning
OPTIMAL TheoryRetention and TransferFundamental Distinctions and Definitions
Measuring Retention and Transfer
Retention and Motor Memory
Retention Loss
Transfer of Learning