Information Processing and Motor Control Task Sheet

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ref: R Walden

Background Knowledge:

• Welford’s information processing model + familer with a range of other Information processing models
• Vision
• Audition
• Proprioception – Equilibrium / Tactile sense
• Short term sensory store
• Perception
• Short term memory
• Long term memory

Badminton is used only as an example.

with: Knowledge of Performance (KP) and Knowledge of Results (KR)

Practical tasks - try the simple practical tasks to demonstrate the basic principles of information processing models.

Sensory Input

1) Practical task:

a) Set up a badminton court.

b) Put on a pair of gloves and play a competitive rally against someone of equal skill level up to 5 points. Your opponent does not wear the gloves.

What do you notice? Does it feel different? How did it affect your game? Could you feel the racket as easily? Record your observations below:

c) Wear a pair of ear plugs or get some others to bounce basketballs to drown out any noise from your racket or shuttle – does being able to hear make any difference? (AUDITION)

d) Take your training shoes leaving just your socks on. Be careful not to slip! How does this affect your game? Does this feel any different? Does it affect what you are thinking about? Does it change the way your muscles have to work? (PROPRIOCEPTION - TACTILE SENSE)

e) Wear a blindfold which restricts your vision but does not completely stop you seeing (Be careful not to bump into things when doing this!) – how does this affect your game? How much do you rely on vision? Bear in mind how it felt to wear the gloves! (VISION)

f) Try playing on one leg. How does this affect things? Does it feel wrong? Why do you think this is? How do you know it feels wrong? (PROPRIOCEPTION – EQUILIBRIUM)

g) Play several shots with your weak hand. Does it feel awkward? Are you as effective? How do you know? (PROPRIOCEPTION – KINAESTHESIS). Remember that kinaesthesis refers to the feeling of movement whereas equilibrium refers to the body position and whether you are balanced. They are closely linked.

Short Term Sensory Store

All information (auditory, visual, proprioception), taken in is stored for a split second.

Perception / Short Term Memory (STM)

A lot of work takes place here! Information is filtered. Irrelevant information is discarded. Experts are better at this than beginners. Why do you think this is?

Practical task:

a) Play a game of badminton. The remainder of the class should try to put you off by making noise, making you laugh or running around the court. How easy is it to concentrate? Are you able to filter out all the extra stimuli?

b) Badminton - Choose a skill which you can play with your strong hand. You are going to transfer it to your weak hand.

• Start by giving yourself / partner a score out of 15. 15 being the perfect model, 1 being a very weak performance.
• Every few minutes, score yourself again. Are you improving? Continue this process.

Think about the following when learning the skill:

Work through several drills, analysing with your partner, using internal and external feedback, guidance (manual / visual) and techniques points (The perfect model). Think about practice method (Mass – one block of practice, or Distributed – have breaks or change the activity after short periods of practice). Transfer of learning – right hand to left hand (Bi-lateral transfer)

How does it feel when you first start learning? (Cognitive / associative phases of learning)

• Notice how you have to THINK about where you put your feet, how the racket feels in the hand, where you need to stand on court etc. etc. – (PERCEPTION – THE FILTERING OF INFORMATION. This process is called SELECTIVE ATTENTION)
• As a beginner, it is more difficult to filter out unnecessary information. You are probably more succeptable to being “put-off” by noises.
• Go back to your strong hand. Notice how much more relaxed you feel. You are only able to process a small number of “chunks” of information (about 7-10). As a beginner, these chunks tend to be gross body movements, external noises and movements, position on court, feeling the racket etc. As an expert, these chunks are likely to be more to do with tactics and outwitting the opponent.
  

Short Term Memory, Decision making, Output, Feedback and into the Long Term memory

Information that is passed on to the short term memory (STM) may end up in the long term memory. Information is thought to be stored in the STM for about a minute before the relevant / important chunks are passed to the Decision making process (where you decide what action you are going to perform) and then the Motor Output (The actual movement). Depending on the quality of internal and external feedback (proprioceptive, verbal, visual feedback), relevant information is fed back into the long-term memory (LTM). Information is also fed-back to the start of the information processing where the whole process starts again.

Task:

Think about the learning of the badminton skill with your weak hand. Why do you think you started to improve?

Some ideas……

Because important information was passed on to the LTM.

As you practised the skill over and over again, the new information is compared with that stored in the LTM. If it matches, the skill feels more natural and the performance is effective. This is then fed-back to the start of the information processing model and back into the LTM to reinforce the skill.

Quality feedback is essential - “Practice makes Perfect” or “Practice makes Permanent?”

Definitely practice makes permanent……. You could practice a skill, the sensory input goes into the STM, the decision process takes place and then the output. However, if you do not have knowledge of the perfect model of the skill or Knowledge of Results, incorrect feedback will result in the wrong information going into the LTM. Because the LTM is permanent, it can make it very difficult to re-learn the skill. Every time you go to perform the skill, the LTM throws up the badly learning “habit”.

What can you make with KP, KR, phases of learning, transfer of learning, the perfect model, movement analysis, observation skills, teaching styles and guidance.