The degree of feedom of response's choice in serial learning of perceptual-motor skill

Abstract

An interesting phenomenon can be seem when we observe and analyze motor actions of skilled persons. When these actions are observed and analyzed at a macroscopic level, they seem very organized and consistent as a whole, so that when repeated they appear to be identical. But, when the same actions are observed and analyzed at a microscopic level, they show different forms each time and appear disorganized and disorderly. Why do motor actions take this form? A possible answer is to make it possible for man to respond appropriately to particular situations or environmental changes. Man is an open system because he is interacting constantly with the environment through the exchange of energy and information. The fact that the system is open to the environment means that it is influenced by changes in the environment. So, to respond appropriately to different environmental situations, the system must have acquired flexible motor programs which support delicate adjustments. And it is taught that in order to acquire flexible motor programs, some degree of freedom is necessary in response choice during the learning process. Taking into consideration the above mentioned statements, the following hypothesis was constructed. In serial motor learning, when the teaching program becomes stricter and each component part of a serial task is overprogrammed, the learner's degree of freedom in response choice becomes more restricted and consequently, a low performance level may be the result. Sixty female undergraduate students participated in this experiment to test the above hypothesis. The experiment was conducted in the real-life situation of classroom and the subject were divided into three groups, each with twenty subjects. Three learning conditions based on the degree of freedom in relation to response choice were set up and the three groups were respectively arranged to each learning condition. The task was a serial learning of basketball skills. The results were analyzed in terms of execution time of trials, successful trials, anticipation, errors and stability in performance. They can be summarized as follows. The group that performed under the highest degree of freedom showed a high performance level in relation to all the above mentioned standpoints of analysis, specially in relation to anticipation and errors. A possible explanation of these results is that in serial motor learning, it is preferable not to emphasize learning of each component part of a sequence. Instead, what should be emphasized is how these parts are organized in relation to the end. So, when teaching programs becomes stricter, the learner's attention is concentrated on how to perform each component part of a sequence accurately, and as a result it becomes more and more difficult to recognize the sequence as a whole. Thus, the performance level in a serial task becomes lower.