Motor Behavior
What Do Motor Behaviorists Do?
Why Use Motor Behavior?
Motor behavior scholars study how motor skills are learned, controlled, and developed to help people as they practice and experience physical activity.
It includes the areas of...
Universities
Other Areas (research Facilities)
- (Hospitals, Industrial, Military)
- Research with work-related settings
- Professional service
Motor Development
- Changes in the acquisition of skill and in the neural, physical, and behavioral aspects of movement across the life span
- Examines the effects of age on the learning and control of motor skills
Motor Learning
Motor Control
Relatively permanent changes in skill performance that come about as a result of practice
Goal is to understand the role of practice, feedback, and individual differences.
Typical studies have used average or typical performers doing novel tasks
The neural, physical, and behavioral aspects of movement
Goals are to understand how...
- Muscles and joints are coordinated during movement
- Sequences of movements are controlled
- Environmental information is used during movement
What Is Motor Behavior?
- Study of the psychological and physiological processes that affect motor performance
Research Methods
in Motor Behavior
Electromyography [EMG]
Experimental Designs
- Between-group
- Within-group
- Descriptive research
Subjects
- Novices vs. expert performers
- Novel Learning Tasks
Measuring Movement
- Outcome vs. process
- Learning vs. performance
- Simply defined as the study of movement
- Subdiscipline of kinesiology
- Focus of Motor Behavior
How skills are learned and controlled
How movement changes from birth to old age
- Motor behavior studies people of all ages and skill levels (not just elite athletes)
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 changes across the life span
History of Motor Behavior
- Franklin Henry - father of motor behavior
- Five themes have persisted over the years in motor behavior research. They are...
Individual Differences
Knowledge of Results
Transfer of Training
Retention
Distribution of Practice
Quiz
What is the simple definition of motor behavior?
What are the three areas of motor behavior?
List one of the goals of motor behavior.
What area of motor behavior involves understanding how muscles and joints are coordinated during movement?