1. Understanding Movement Preparation
Chapter 2

2. Overview
In chapter one we talked about the abilities (or ‘hardware’) that people bring with them to motor performance
In chapter two we address the processes (or software) people use when attempting skilled movements
If you will work with individuals with physical or mental challenges, the performance problems are often caused by impairments in one or more of the processes

3. Information Processing Model
Input – Stim. ID - Resp. Select. – Resp. Program. - Output - Feedback

4. Stimulus Identification Stage
Stage 1: Has a stimulus been presented and what is it?
Environmental information is analyzed through senses
Performers categorize the information according to patterns
Types of objects, pattern of movement, colors

5. Response Selection Stage
Stage 2: What response, if any, should be made to the stimulus?
Based on the identification of the stimulus, the performer translates the information to the possible forms of movement output to be made
A decision is made

6. Response Programming Stage
Stage 3: Let’s get ready to do something!
The motor system is organized for the production of the desired movement
Get the brain and spinal cord ready for movement, get a plan of action to control the movement ready, send a plan to the muscles to contract in the proper order and with the proper amount of force and timing

7. The End Result
Output!
Execution of the movement determined to be appropriate
The execution can be successful or unsuccessful
The next component of information processing is important to the next attempt to be made

8. Feedback!
As movement is initiated, intrinsic feedback can be used to make adjustments to the movement (if time permits)
Intrinsic and extrinsic feedback that occurs after the output occurs should influence the next attempt
What differences in processing demands might exist for open and closed skills?

9. Practical Application
Describe the information-processing activities that might occur through the three stages for a soccer goalie.
Describe the information-processing activities that might occur through the three stages for an individual who uses a walker and gets out of bed in the middle of the night to answer the phone in the kitchen.

10. Components of Response Time

11. Preparing a Response Reaction Time (RT)
Interval of time between the moment that a stimulus is presented to when a response is initiated.
Is a good indicator of the speed and effectiveness of decision making
Indicative of the amount of time needed to prepare a response.
Influenced by several factors.
Number of choices
Strategies to create or reduce uncertainty to response

12. Factors that influence RT
Number of stimulus response alternatives
Simple vs. choice RT
Hick’s Law
Relationship between the number of movement choices and the time needed to prepare a response
The higher the degree of uncertainty in a given situation, the longer the time needed to decide which response to make
In choice RT, RT is a measure of the time needed to detect the stimulus, decide which response to make, and initiate the movement

13. Relationship Between Number of Stimulus-Response Alternatives and RT

14. An Important Strategy
An important strategy that athletes use to slow down their opponent’s decision making is to increase the number of SR choices
Increase the number of different pitches
Increase the variety of spiking positions from a setter
Increase the variety of serves in racquetball or tennis

15. Stimulus Response Compatibility
The extent to which a stimulus and its required response are naturally related
Low SR compatibility = increased response time
High SR compatibility = decreased response time
Lo SR: showing a forehand stroke, but does forehand drop shot
Hi SR: presentation of a red light, the foot puts on the brake

16. Practice and SR Compatibility
Amount of practice
The greater the amount of practice, the shorter the choice RT
Extreme amounts of practice, high level performers can become almost automatic
Nature of practice
When the same SR combinations are practiced, choice RT becomes faster

17. Dealing with decision-making delays
Anticipation!
The more predictable a stimulus, the quicker and more accurately a response can be made
Related to reducing the number of response choices as possible options are narrowed down

18. Types of Anticipation Spatial event anticipation Temporal anticipation
Predicting what will happen in the environment
Temporal anticipation
Predicting when an event will happen

19. Effective anticipation
Regularity of events affects our capability to predict
Precues: warning signal or action given by a person to help us predict
‘telegraphing’ a movement
“always” done in a particular way

20. Costs of Anticipation
Cost/benefit tradeoff: 80% probability = decreased RT
If wrong prep, RT will be slower as you must ‘unprepare’ the movement
If wrong movement is initiated: even longer response delay
Must inhibit incorrect response, prepare the correct response, and execute in the correct fashion

21. Psychological Refractory Period (PRP)

22. The Fake in Sports For fakes to be effective they must:
Appear to be identical to the expected action
Precede the goal movement by ms
Be employed infrequently

23. Creating or reducing uncertainty
Having a large number of choices to perform will increase uncertainty in opponent
Facilitate skill learning by decreasing the number of alternate responses (start with a more closed skill environment)
With increased practice, performers can begin to approach automatic processing
When practice uses the same S-R combinations, choice RT becomes faster

24. Reducing response time
Successful performance may not always come by reducing movement prep time
Slow responses may be the result of prolonged movement time
Increase movement speed
Reduce length of movement (shorten backswing)
Alternate view: give more time to respond by increasing distance or changing to slower equipment

25. Attention: Processing Limitations
Limited attentional capacity
Sing a
song
Sing a song
Apply
Make up
Drive a car
Drive a car
Performance is hindered or
Task may be ignored

26. Attention: Processing Limitations
Bottleneck theory
Stimuli that need a response are processed is serial fashion
A bottleneck can occur if too much information must be processed; response time slows down

27. Attention: Processing Limitations
- Sometimes people will focus on external sensory events (another person’s movement),
sometimes they focus on internal mental operations (what they need to do next),
sometimes they focus on internal sensory info (how their body feels)
Very difficult to focus on more than one of these sources at a time (pat head and rub stomach?)

28. Limited Attentional Capacity
Stand with dominant side next to the desk.
Lift your non-dominant foot slightly off ground and make a figure 8. Repeat continuously.
Keep making the figure 8 with foot. Trace a numeral ‘6’ on the desktop with your dominant hand index finger.

29. What happened when you attempted to perform the two tasks simultaneously?
What does this say about attentional capacity?

30. Attention Things to consider:
Environmental and task complexity: as complexity increases, attentional space for additional tasks is reduced
Skill level: Beginners have trouble focusing on more than one thing at a time; give sufficient practice before adding new tasks
Number of cues: focus on one cue at a time

31. Practical Application
For a skill of your choice, explain how you might design the learning environment to reduce the attentional demands on the learner.

32. Attention
Selective attention: being able to focus on one specific stimuli even though there are lots of stimuli in the environment
‘tailgate party phenomenon’
We are able to focus on relevant stimuli and disregard irrelevant stimuli
Successful motor performance is dependent on person’s ability to attend to meaningful information

33. Read the bold print
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34. Decision making and arousal
Arousal and anxiety are common aspects in daily situations
If one thinks the demands exceed his/her capability to meet them, the situation becomes more threatening and anxiety is experienced
Level of arousal is an important determinant of performance especially if the situation requires fast and accurate decision-making

35. Arousal and nature of the task
A task requiring fine muscle control or important decision-making, prefer lower arousal level
Skills with large muscle actions or lower level of cognitive complexity, better performed at higher arousal level

36. Arousal: Inverted U Principle
As a task increases in
complexity, lower
arousal levels will be
optimal.
Higher arousal
levels are better for
tasks that require
little attention or
decision-making.

37. Cue Utilization Hypothesis
Perceptual narrowing
Over-arousal can narrow the focus too much, so the performer misses some relevant stimuli. Performance may be hindered.
Under low
arousal, attention
focus is broad. Too
much competition
for attention resources
may result in slow
movement response and
hindered performance.

38. Practical Application
From your own experience, generate a list of the following:
Irrelevant stimuli that might draw the attention of an individual with low arousal and thereby affect overall performance.
Professions that might find individuals susceptible to poor decision-making when perceptual narrowing occurs.