Richard A Schmidt - Motor learning and performance : from principles to application

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Schmidt, Richard A., 1941- author.

Motor learning and performance : from principles to application / Richard A. Schmidt, Timothy D. Lee. -- Fifth edition.

p. ; cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

I. Lee, Timothy Donald, 1955- author. II. Title.

[DNLM: 1. Learning. 2. Motor Activity. 3. Kinesthesis. 4. Psychomotor Performance. BF 295]

BF295

152.3'34--dc23

2013014793

ISBN-10: 1-4504-4361-3 (print)

ISBN-13: 978-1-4504-4361-6 (print)

Copyright 2014 by Richard A. Schmidt and Timothy D. Lee

Copyright 2008, 2004, 2000 by Richard A. Schmidt and Craig A. Wrisberg

Copyright 1991 by Richard A. Schmidt

All rights reserved. Except for use in a review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying, and recording, and in any information storage and retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.

Permission notices for material reprinted in this book from other sources can be found on page xvii.

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You will notice a reference throughout this version of Motor Learning and Performance, Fifth Edition to a web study guide. This resource is available to supplement your e-book.

The web study guide offers interactive activities to reinforce key concepts and principles-to-application exercises that allow you to apply concepts to real-world scenarios.

Follow these steps to purchase access to the web study guide:

1. Visit http://tinyurl.com/BuySchmidt5EWebStudyGuide.
2. Click the Add to Cart button and complete the purchase process.
3. After you have successfully completed your purchase, visit the books website at www.HumanKinetics.com/MotorLearningAndPerformance.
4. Click the fifth edition link next to the corresponding fifth edition book cover.
5. Click the Sign In link on the left or top of the page and enter the e-mail address and password that you used during the purchase process. Once you sign in, your online product will appear in the Ancillary Items box. Click on the title of the web study guide to access it.
6. Once purchased, a link to your product will permanently appear in the menu on the left. All you need to do to access your web study guide on subsequent visits is sign in to www.HumanKinetics.com/MotorLearningAndPerformance and follow the link!

Click the Need Help? button on the textbooks website if you need assistance along the way.

Jack A. Adams (1922-2010) was a giant in motor learning research. His passing marks a sad personal loss for us as well as a huge professional loss to motor learning research across the world. This book is dedicated to Jacks memory in appreciation for all he taught us.

Most of us feel tremendous excitement, pleasure, and perhaps envy when we watch a close race, match, or performance, focusing on the complex, well-controlled skills evidenced by the players or musicians. In these situations, we marvel at those who must succeed in executing their skill on the spotat how the person with high-level skills is able to excel, sometimes under extreme pressure to do so.

This book was written for people who appreciate high-level skilled activity and for those who would like to learn more about how such incredible performances occur. Thus, readers in fields related directly to kinesiology and physical education (such as teaching and coaching) will benefit from the knowledge provided here. But the material extends far beyond these fields and should be relevant for those who study rehabilitation in physical and occupational therapy, as well as for instructors and facilitators of many other areas in which motor skills play an important role, such as music, ergonomics, and the military. The text is intended for beginners in the study of skill and requires little knowledge of physiology, psychology, or statistical methodologies.

The level of analysis of the text focuses on motor behaviorthe overt, observable production of skilled movements. Of course, there are many scientific areas or fields of study involved in the understanding of this overt skilled behavior. Any skill is the outcome of processes studied in many different fields, such as neurology, anatomy, biomechanics, biochemistry, and social and experimental psychology; and this text could have focused on any number of these fundamental fields. But the focus of the text is broader than the fundamental fields that support it. The focus is behavioral, with the major emphasis on humans performing skills of various kinds. To be sure, we will talk about these other levels of analysis from time to time throughout the book in an attempt to explain what processes or events occur to support these high-level skills. Therefore this text should be appropriate for courses in elementary motor learning and motor performance in a relatively wide group of scientific areas.

Throughout the text, we construct a conceptual model of human performance. The term model is used in a variety of ways in many branches of science, and models are found frequently. A model typically consists of a system of parts that are familiar to us; when assembled in a certain way, these parts mimic certain aspects of the system we are trying to understand. One example is the pump-and-pipe model of our circulatory system, in which the heart is represented by a pump and the arteries and veins are pipes of various diameters and lengths. One could actually construct the model (although some models are purely conceptual); such a model could be used in classroom demonstrations or experiments on the effects of blood pressure on capillaries of the hand.