2240 Feedback & Practice

Mental Practice involves the cognitive rehearsal of a physical skill without actually physically performing the movement. It can include visual or kinesthetic imagery of the skill, either by imagining oneself performing the skill or by visualizing oneself as an observer. Therefore, none of the statements about Mental Practice are false.

Massed practice refers to a practice schedule where the amount of rest between practice sessions or trials is short. This means that the practice sessions are grouped closely together without much time for rest or recovery. This type of practice is often used when the goal is to maximize the amount of practice time and repetition in a short period. It can be effective for developing skills and improving performance, but it can also lead to fatigue and decreased retention of information in the long run.

Effects of concurrent feedback on learning:
- negative learning effect
- enhances skill learning (positive effect)

Contextual Interference:
One way of solving the variable practice schedule is to apply the contextual interference effect.
This learning benefit results from performing multiple skills in a high contextual interference practice schedule instead of performing the skills in a low contextual interference schedule.

Augmented feedback refers to information provided to learners about their performance during a task. Knowledge of Results (KR) and Knowledge of Performance (KP) are specific types of augmented feedback. KR provides information about the outcome or result of a performance, such as a test score or a time taken to complete a task. KP, on the other hand, provides information about the movement or technique used during a performance, focusing on the quality of the action. Therefore, both KR and KP fall under the category of augmented feedback, making the answer "Augmented Feedback" correct.

A dance routine is considered to have high complexity because it involves intricate and synchronized movements, often with multiple dancers. However, it may have low organization because the routine may not follow a strict structure or be well-coordinated.

Practice variability is associated with an increased amount of performance error during practice (as the athlete must adapt the skill to new contexts and scenarios that thye may have to face on game day)

Overlearning has a positive influence on retention performance for motor learning skills (Driskell et al., 1992)

Learners can cease to engage in certain amounts of cognitive effort due to boredom since skills were too simple to learn.
Practice Variability:
- continued practice of the same movement results in decreased capacity to remember the movement as well as to transfer a movement variation compared to practice of variations, leading to enhancing the capability to remember and transfer movement to the related movement.

Fatigue Hypothesis:
- a hypothesis that helps explain why distributed practice sessions lead to better learning outcom than massed practice sessions
Neuromuscular Hypothesis:
- EMG recordings in muscles show involvement although no movement is being made
Brain Activity Hypothesis:
- brain activity is similar during mental practice to when the muscles are actually used
Cognitive Hypothesis:
- benefits of answering important pertinent questions during Phase One of Motor Skill Learning

There is no evidence proving which type of Augmented feedback is more effective, it is all dependent on the person performing the skill

Action Plan Reconstruction Hypothesis (Lee & Magill, 1985):
- high amounts of contextual interference benefit learning because the interference benefit learning because the interference requires a person to reconstruct an action plan on the next trial for a particular skill variation.
Regardless of which hypothesis, there are two important characteristics:
1. higher levels of contextual interference involves greater attention demands during practice
2. people who practice according to a blocked schedule tend to overestimate how well they are learning during practice

Skill complexity is best defined as the number of parts or components in a skill and the attention demands required by a task. This means that skill complexity takes into account both the level of difficulty of the skill being practiced or performed and the cognitive demands or attention required to successfully complete the task.

It is important that people do not become dependent on augmented feedback - intrinsic feedback must also be developed

Fractionisation is the method of practicing parts of a skill by practicing individual limbs first. This method is particularly effective for skills that involve asymmetric coordination of the arms and legs. By breaking down the skill into smaller components and practicing each limb separately, learners can focus on developing coordination and control before integrating all the limbs together. This approach allows for a more systematic and gradual progression towards mastering the skill.

Elaboration Hypothesis relates to the effect of Contextual Interference

A skill with high organisation is where the component parts are spatially and temporally interdependent (eg. each part of the skill is highly linked together)

Although mental practice is a very useful tool for practice and does provide many benefits, it DOES NOT replace physical practice and training

To determine which skills that are complex and organised combinations, you must first analyse the skill.
Then, decide which part of the continuum of skill complexity and organisation best represents the skill.

For example: handwriting (block letters - not cursive)

Extra practice was beneficial for balancing skill acquisition

Knowledge of Performance:
- movement characteristics that led to the performance outcome

The contextual interference effect refers to the phenomenon where practicing multiple tasks in an interleaved or random order leads to better learning and retention compared to practicing them in a blocked order. This effect is influenced by various factors, including task characteristics and learner characteristics. However, the environment characteristics, such as the physical setting or external conditions, do not directly limit the contextual interference effect. Therefore, the correct answer is "environment characteristics."

Chaining:
- The skill is broken down into components that are rehearsed as if they were isolated skills. Over time, the components of the skill are then put together to perform the skill
Simplification:
- The difficulty of specific parts of features of a skill is reduced
Segmentation:
- The skill is separated into parts and practicing the parts so that it is practiced together with the next part (progressive)

The correct answer is a) & b). This is because the statement suggests that distributed practice schedules are better for learning discrete skills and massed practice schedules are better for learning continuous skills. However, research has shown that distributed practice is actually more effective for both discrete and continuous skills, while massed practice can lead to fatigue and decreased performance. Therefore, both statements are false.

Although intrinsic feedback is the performer giving themselves feedback, it is not always conscious, it is knowledge summoned from the sensory sources, hence the sensory-perceptual feedback

If augmented feedback is constantly given, the athlete may grow dependent on this form of feedback and will not develop their intrinsic feedback - which they will have to rely on in competitions when it may not be possible for the coach to give constant feedback

Imagery ability influences the success of Mental Practice. It has been shown that people with low imagery abilities are still able to benefit from Mental Practice, however it is not as effective.

The coach's statement provides information about the athlete's performance in comparison to their previous run. This type of feedback is known as knowledge of performance, as it focuses on the athlete's own execution of the task. It helps the athlete understand their progress and identify areas for improvement.

Distributed Practice:
- the amount of rest between proactive sessions or trials is relatively long
- a distributed schedule refers to shorter sessions across more days