Motor Control and Learning

A Behaviorial Emphasis

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Richard A. Schmidt, Tim Lee
4th Edition
2005
US Price: $79
544 pages
9780736042581

About the Authors | Table of Contents | Words of Praise

Expanded and completely updated, the fourth edition of Motor Control and Learning: A Behavioral Emphasis is a comprehensive introduction to motor behavior. The authoritative text frames the important issues, theories, persons, and research in the field in a reader-friendly way, allowing students to learn the most pertinent information in the field.

Motor Control and Learning: A Behavioral Emphasis, Fourth Edition, is the only graduate textbook that combines motor control and motor learning with the in-depth details students need in order to understand the topic and distinguish between different sides of an issue. Authored by two of the leading researchers in the field, the new edition features an up-to-date review of the latest research, more than 400 new references, new figures, and these new features:

• Highlight boxes featuring in-depth discussion of relevant issues, new topics, and classic research
• Selected quotes representing important contributions to the field, interpreted for current and future researchers
• Web-based references that support and enhance students’ comprehension of the material

Motor Control and Learning: A Behavioral Emphasis, Fourth Edition, is the only text that focuses specifically on the motor learning and motor control areas of motor behavior. The new features and ancillaries make it ideal for students to use as a text and for professionals to access as a reference.

Part I introduces the fields of motor control and learning. It provides a brief history; explains the tools of motor behavior research; presents the information-processing approach, which is fundamental to understanding how humans think and act; and describes how attention influences motor behavior.

Part II addresses various factors contributing to the complex whole of the human motor system. It examines the roles of sensory information and the ways in which information from the environment influences movement behavior, considers the central control and representation of action, deals with laws and models regarding speed and accuracy, looks at the coordination needed for more complex tasks, and addresses factors that make people differ in their skilled behaviors.

Part III addresses performance changes that accompany motor learning. It describes the research methods used for studying and measuring motor learning, discusses the effects of various conditions under which a learner can practice motor skills, considers the effects of providing augmented information about what was done, and examines the empirical relationships and principles concerned with the retention and transfer of motor skills.

About the Authors

Richard A. Schmidt, PhD, is professor emeritus in the department of psychology at UCLA. He currently runs his own consulting firm, Human Performance Research, working in the area of human factors and human performance. Known as one of the research leaders in motor behavior, Dr. Schmidt has more than 35 years’ experience in this area and has published widely.

The originator of schema theory, Dr. Schmidt founded the Journal of Motor Behavior in 1969 and was editor for 11 years. He authored the first edition of Motor Control and Learning in 1982, followed up with a second edition of the popular text in 1988, and collaborated with Tim Lee for the third edition in 1999.

Dr. Schmidt received an honorary doctorate from Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium, in recognition of his work. Dr.Schmidt is a member of the North American Society for the Psychology of Sport and Physical Activity (of which he was president in 1982), the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, and the Psychonomic Society. Dr. Schmidt has received the C.H. McCloy Research Lectureship from the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance.

His leisure-time activities include sailboat racing, amateur Porsche racing, and skiing.

Timothy D. Lee, PhD, is a professor in the department of kinesiology at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. He has published extensively in motor behavior and psychology journals. He has contributed as an editor for the Journal of Motor Behavior and the Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport and as an editorial board member for the Psychological Review. Since 1984 his research has been supported by grants from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada continuously.

Dr. Lee received the Young Scientist Award from the Canadian Society for Psychomotor Learning and Sport Psychology in 1980. He also received a Senior Research Fellowship by the Dienst Onderzoekscoordinatie, Catholic University in Leuven, Belgium, in 1991-1992.

Dr. Lee is a member and past president of the Canadian Society for Psychomotor Learning and Sport Psychology and a member of the North American Society for the Psychology of Sport and Physical Activity, the Psychonomic Society, and the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.

In his leisure time Dr. Lee enjoys playing hockey and golf and listening to the blues.

Table of Contents

• Part I. Introduction to Motor Behavior
  • Chapter 1. Evolution of a Field of Study
    • Understanding Movement
    • Origins of the Field
    • Summary
  • Chapter 2. Methodology for Studying Motor Performance
    • Classification of Behavior
    • Basic Considerations in Measurement
    • Measuring Motor Behavior
    • Measuring and Evaluating Relationships
    • Summary
  • Chapter 3. Human Information Processing
    • The Information-Processing Model
    • Three Stages of Information Processing
    • Anticipation
    • Signal Detection Theory
    • Memory
    • Summary
  • Chapter 4. Attention and Performance
    • Types of Attention
    • Theories of Attention
    • Attention and Patterns of Interference Among Tasks
    • Attention and Interference During Movement
    • Cell Phones, Attention and Driving
    • Directed Attention in Action
    • Attention, Arousal, and Anxiety
    • Summary
• Part II. Motor Control
  • Chapter 5. Sensory Contributions to Motor Control
    • Vision
    • Audition
    • Proprioceptors
    • Proprioception and Motor Control
    • Feedforward Influences on Motor Control
    • Summary
  • Chapter 6. Central Contributions to Motor Control
    • Open-Loop Processes
    • Central Control Mechanisms
    • Central Control of Rapid Movements
    • Motor Program Issues
    • Generalized Motor Programs
    • Summary
  • Chapter 7. Principles of Speed and Accuracy
    • Fitts’ Law: The Logarithmic Speed-Accuracy Trade-Off
    • The Linear Speed-Accuracy Trade-Off
    • The Temporal Speed-Accuracy Trade-Off
    • Central Contributions to the Speed-Accuracy Trade-Off
    • Correction Models of the Speed-Accuracy Trade-Off
    • Summary
  • Chapter 8. Coordination
    • Discrete Tasks
    • Continuous Tasks
    • Summary
  • Chapter 9. Individual Differences and Capabilities
    • Experimental Versus Differential Approaches
    • Abilities
    • Taxonomies
    • Prediction
    • Individual-Difference Variables
    • Summary
• Part III. Motor Learning
  • Chapter 10. Motor Learning Concepts and Research Methods
    • Motor Learning Defined
    • Measuring Motor Learning
    • Designing Experiments on Learning
    • Some Alternative Methods for Measuring Learning
    • Issues About the “Amount” of Learning
    • Importance of Understanding Learning and Performance Variables
    • Summary
  • Chapter 11. Conditions of Practice
    • The Power Law of Practice
    • Prepractice Considerations
    • Distribution of Practice
    • Variability of Practice
    • Scheduling Practice with Several Different Tasks
    • Mental Practice
    • Part Versus Whole Practice
    • Guidance
    • Principles of Practice Specificity
    • Summary
  • Chapter 12. Augmented Feedback
    • Classifications and Definitions
    • Research on Augmented Feedback
    • Evaluating the Effects of Augmented Feedback
    • Knowledge of Performance
    • Knowledge of Results
    • Theoretical Issues: How Does Augmented Feedback “Work”?
    • Summary
  • Chapter 13. The Learning Process
    • Characteristics of the Learning Process
    • Two Theories of Motor Learning
    • Differing Theoretical Perspectives of Motor Learning
    • Summary
  • Chapter 14. Retention and Transfer
    • Fundamental Distinctions and Definitions
    • Measuring Retention and Transfer
    • Retention and Motor Memory
    • Retention Loss
    • Transfer of Learning
    • Summary

Online Instructor and Student Guide

Motor Control and Learning: A Behavioral Emphasis, Fourth Edition Online Instructor Resources include a Web-based page with figures from the book that can be downloaded for use in overheads or PowerPoint presentations.

The online student resources for Motor Control and Learning: A Behavioral Emphasis, Fourth Edition, include an online Web page for students with links to external sites related to each chapter’s content and study questions highlighting major concepts in each chapter.

Words of Praise

This book fulfills the need to have students understand the nature and complexities of the human motor control system from a behavioral and cognitive perspective.

David E. Sherwood, PhD University of Colorado, Boulder (review of previous edition)

Audiences

Reference book for researchers in motor learning, motor control, pedagogy, curriculum and instructional design; physical therapists, occupational therapists, kinesiotherapists; and others involved in clinical practice, human factors, and ergonomics. Comprehensive motor learning and human performance text for advanced undergraduate and graduate students in exercise science, kinesiology, physical education, and psychology.