L2A: Skill Classification

Question 1

What are the 3 constraints that act to
produce every behaviour we see?

Answer 1

Personal, Environmental, Task

Question 2

If we wanted to measure brain activity and have good spatial resolution what measurement tool would be best?

Answer 2

fMRI

Question 3

What are continous vs discrete skills?

Answer 3

Continuous Skills:
- Actions without a clear start or end, often ongoing and fluid (e.g., swimming, running).

Discrete Skills:
- Actions with a clear beginning and end, performed as single units (e.g., throwing a ball, flipping a switch).

Question 4

Why do we care about defining and categorizing skills?

Answer 4

The type of skill impacts:
1. What and how we measure it
2. How we might give instructions
3. Theories of motor control and learning

Question 5

What is a Skill?

2 Defenitions

Answer 5

Skill as an ACTION or TASK (noun) – Task perspective

• A goal-directed task or action
• e.g. “Serving is a skill essential to playing tennis.”

Skill as an indicator of ABILITY (adjective) – Performance perspective

• Ability to bring about some i) pre-determined end result with ii) maximum certainty & iii) minimum outlay of energy /time”
• e.g. “Serena Williams is highly skilled at serving.”

Question 6

What are the 4 Criteria of a Motor Skill?

Answer 6

1. Goal-oriented (different to movements, goal not necessary)
2. Movement must be voluntary (not reflexive)
3. Body and/or limb movements are required to accomplish the goal (different to cognitive skills)
4. Result of practice. Needs to be learned/relearned

Question 7

Would walking with crutches
be considered a motor skill?

Answer 7

Yes

Question 8

Which of the following would NOT be considered a motor skill?

a. Grasping your cup of coffee
b. Solving a word problem
c. Driving your car
d. Drawing back after touching a hot stove

Answer 8

b. Solving a word problem
d. Drawing back after touching a hot stove

Question 9

What are the 3 General Types of Motor Skill Classification Systems?

Answer 9

Question 10

What are Fine and Gross Motor Skills?

Answer 10

Size of Primary Musculature Required

Fine Motor Skills:
- Greater control of small muscles
- typically precise/ manipulative skills

Gross Motor Skills:
- Use of large musculature
- less emphasis on precision

Because many motor skills require a coordination of large and small muscles, it is better to think of these two skill types as ends of a continuum…

Question 11

How would you classify the motor skill of bowling?

A. Fine
B. Mostly fine /some gross
C. Mostly gross /some fine
D. Gross

Answer 11

C. Mostly gross /some fine

Question 12

What is a Discrete Skill?

Answer 12

Brief, welldefined beginning & end

Throwig a Dart

Question 13

What is a Continuous skill?

Answer 13

• Repetitive skill, arbitrary beginning & end.
• Often rhythmic
• Swimming

Question 14

What is a Serial Skill?

Answer 14

• Discrete skills strung together, form more complex action
• Order is important for success
• Ice Skating

Question 15

What is a Closed Motor Skill?

Answer 15

1. Stable, predictable environment
2. Object does not change during performance
3. Self-paced. Performer controls the situation
   * Object is acted upon
   * Context does not change

Question 16

What is an Open Motor Skill?

Answer 16

1. Unpredictable, changing environment
2. Object or context is in motion during performance
3. Externally paced. Performer responds to variations in environment

Question 17

Why would baseball be considered an Open Motor Skill?

How could you make it more of an closed skill?

Answer 17

Consider a baseball player hitting a ball. The ball is in motion, you don’t know if that baseball will curve left or right, which makes the skill an open one. When things are in motion (externally paced), there is more unpredictability

Playing Tee Ball would make it a closed skill

Question 18

Why are environments seen as on a spectrum?

Answer 18

Question 19

Summary and critical questions to ask
to help classify motor skills

Answer 19

Skills can be classified depending on muscles involved, whether they are short or repetitive (organization) and their stability/predictability

1. Could the action be performed whilst the large musculature was constrained?
2. Is there a clear beginning and end to the movement (or movement components)?
3. Does the performer initiate the action (selfpaced) or respond to the environment - which has unpredictability?