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When students finally reach the age of 16, they are eligible to drive and may find themselves driving on busy streets or highways with multiple lanes. I remember my first time having to drive on the highway like it was yesterday. I merged onto the highway and had to pay attention to the other cars while still maintaining an acceptable speed. I just remember my instructor shouting that I needed to go faster or we were not going to get in front of a certain car. It scared me more than anything at the time. I have never come so close to such a near death life experience. Fortunately, I have gotten past the incident and can now focus on my driving skills. At the time I did not recognize all of the obstacles that would come up while driving. There were cars already on the highway in front of me, cars merging behind me, and others merging in front of me. In other words, I needed a perceptual motor ability which can be described as rate control.

Rate control is defined as the ability to time continuous anticipatory movement adjustments in response to speed and/or direction changes of a continuously moving target or object. My example above of driving a car on a busy street or highway is perfect when describing rate control. In order to correctly merge onto a highway, you have to be paying attention to every other car around you that might affect your speed. If there is a car that is going faster than you in the right hand lane, you may have to coast in order to let them pass so you can merge. In contrast, you may have to speed up onto the highway if there is a vehicle that is going slower than the speed of your car will be going. To conclude, you must be able to adjust the speed of your car while merging onto a highway. The speed if your car will depend on the speed and direction of other cars on the same highway.

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One of my favorite sports that I play for fun with my friends is Ultimate Frisbee. Ultimate Frisbee is a team sport in which players seek to score points by passing a Frisbee to a teammate over the opposing team's goal line. We used to get together on a weekly basis and talk about forming a club team but it never actually happened due to scheduling conflicts. The best part of Ultimate Frisbee is when you catch the Frisbee in the goal and your team cheers for you. The person throwing the Frisbee really has to focus on the defensive player's movements. In order to avoid being blocked, most people will fake a pass in one direction and throw it in the other. By doing this, they are able to get a good pass to the player in the goal on their team. This type of perceptual motor ability is considered to be response orientation.

Response orientation is defined as the ability to make a rapid selection of controls to be moved or the direction to move them in. When throwing a Frisbee, there are certain obstacles to look out for in order to complete a good pass. For example, if you are trying to throw the Frisbee down the field and there is a defender on the player you want to pass it to then you have to be aware of their location when you throw. While doing this, you are also being covered by a defensive player which you must also pay attention to the location of. This causes you to need to fake out the opponent so that you have a free passing range. However, you do not want to make a bad pass to the player on your team because then their defender could catch the Frisbee. In order to score a goal, the thrower must have complete control over the scenario which is at hand.

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Piano has been a hobby of mine since I was nine years old. It took a long time to find a teacher for me to learn from. Finally, we found a man that was willing to drive to our house. For my first lesson, he brought me my first set of piano books. The first thing I learned from my books was how to play the black keys on the piano. Throughout the next few levels I was taught how to play the white keys. Eventually, my teacher taught me how to play piano pieces with the black and white keys. At the beginning, my older sister and I started learning piano together but she chose to stick with singing instead. Right from the start, I noticed how much control I had over the piano. It is a type of skill where you can be doing one thing with your right hand and another thing with your left at the same time. It is also a skill that I determine when to start playing, how fast to play, and when to stop. This control can be described as a closed motor skill.

A closed motor skill can be defined as, "a motor skill performed in a stable or predictable environment where the performer determines when to begin the action." These closed skills have a feature in which the environment or object acted upon waits to be acted upon by the performer. In fact, motor skills are referred to as self-paced motor skills. Piano is a perfect example of a closed motor skill because it is a self-paced activity. The piano is unable to play for itself or control when the performer chooses to start the piece. I can use myself as an example of a performer in this case because I am able to play and can initiate the movements involved in playing the piano. It is considered a self-paced skill because of the timing of movement initiation characteristic.
While playing the piano, I do not generally need to adjust my movements because I can anticipate each and every movement I make.

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From the day I could walk, I was always trying to kick around any ball I could find. My parents knew from the start that I would love the game of soccer. Once I was old enough, they enrolled me in the summer soccer programs. When I reached middle school, I joined a club team that my brother was on. We were undefeated almost three years in a row. During this time, I enjoyed soccer more than another other sport. The anticipation and anxiety would build up while the opposing team dribbled down the field towards me and the other defenders. This sport became my life when I was in junior high because it was something I felt confident in. Finally, I joined the women's soccer team when I get into high school. There were several upperclassmen on the team and I was one of the starters as a freshman. My main position was defense. This meant having to make quick decisions based on the opposing team's actions as they dribbled down the field. This type of skill can be described as an open motor skill.

An open motor skill can be defined as, "a motor skill that involves a nonstable, unpredictable environment where an object or environmental context is in motion and determines when to begin the action.” While performing an open motor skill, an individual would not know how a event or situation may change or require modifications along the way. This skill occurs when the performer has to act according to the movement of the environment. Soccer is a great example of an open motor skill because it is an externally paced activity. When the opposing team is dribbling down the field towards you, it is impossible to know exactly where and when they will kick the ball next. As a defender, you have to be ready to make your feet move quick because the opposing team's offensive player may try to dribble around you. Rather than stabbing at the ball, you must focus on how they move their feet and when you can strike.

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Something that almost every child should learn is how to ride a two wheeled bicycle. When I first started riding a bike, I remember having to use training wheels so that I could keep up with everyone. However, as the years went on and everyone else was riding two wheels, I decided it was time for me to learn how to ride without my training wheels. When my dad first showed me, I fell off my bike several times but I never gave up. Eventually, as I kept practicing, I was able to ride the bike on two wheels comfortably. As I got older, I wouldn’t ride my bike as often as when I was younger but every time I decided to hop back on, it felt that same as it always had. It was something which would be stuck in my head for the rest of my life. I do not think I could forget how to ride a bike anymore because it is an activity that I have done almost my entire life. When I choose to ride a bike, it generally does not take much to get back into the groove of everything. This type of skill is considered a continuous skill.

We remember continuous skills much better than discrete/serial skills. This is because it is an act that we are continuously performing during the activity. For my bike example, what would happen if I had decided to stop biking for a few years? Is there confidence that I would be able to bike like I used to, or would I have to learn how to bike all over again? My immediate response would think that hopping on a bike after waiting so long might be challenging at first. However, based on experience, it would actually be quite easy for someone to stop biking for a certain period time and then attempt to get back on the bike. The reason this occurs is due to the motions associated with pedaling. The pedaling motions will continue to be practiced many times since they are repeated over and over again on a bike. Riding a bicycle is the perfect example for completing a continuous task because the biker will pedal continuously and cause muscle memory to occur.

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Typing - Asymmetric Bimanual Coordination

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Typing - Asymmetric Bimanual Coordination

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At this day in age, most children are learning how to type or at least attempt to type on the computer keyboard. My parents taught me from a young age that typing would be important for me to learn. Once I got into school, we were all given specific typing classes in order to learn how to type. The youngest memory that I have of typing classes is fifth grade. We would have to spend a class period in the computer lab learning where the keys are for each hand. We would have to know specifically where to place our hands on the keyboard to begin. Another huge point was that there are only certain letters that each hand will hit. For example, the right hand starts on “a, s, d, f” and the left hand starts on “j, k, l, ;”. After that, there is much more in depth directions as to which finger types each key. The whole point of taking the classes was to teach us how to be able to type continuously with each hand typing different letters to words and eventually sentences. This type of coordination is called asymmetric bimanual coordination.

Asymmetric bimanual coordination is when both hands move at the same time but are doing two different things. When typing, you are doing this exact thing in order to produce sentences. For example, when I want to type the word “pringle”, I have to type “p” with my right pinky, “r” with my left pointer finger, “i” with my right middle finger, “n” with my right pointer finger, “g” with my left pointer finger, “l” with my left ring finger, and “e” with my right middle finger. This example shows how each of the fingers are focusing on typing different things throughout the process of just one word. Now imagine typing “I would like to eat some pringles”. This would mean that each finger would have to be able to type different letters in a specific order and in an efficient manner.

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Drag Racing - Stages of Information Processing

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Drag Racing - Stages of Information Processing

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Throughout my life, I have watched several movies about sports. One sport that was unique and stuck out to me was drag racing in the movie called Right on Track. There are sisters in the movie that drag race which is a race between two or more cars over a short distance, usually a quarter of a mile, as a test of acceleration. In the movie, one of the sisters is disqualified during a race because she hits the gas too soon. This was caused because she anticipated the light turning green sooner than it actually did. Her information processing stages caused her to decide to hit the pedal sooner than she should have.

There are three stages of information processing and they are Stimulus Identification, Response Selection and, Response Programming. Each of these stages is crucial to information processing and help us to process the formation of a decision.

The first stage is the stimulus identification stage. This is the stage where you sense that a stimulus has occurred and identify the stimulus. For example, when you are a drag racer, you have to prepare yourself as the lights change from red to each of the yellow lights.

The next stage is the response selection stage where you decide on an appropriate response to the stimulus that has occurred. In the drag racer example, you have to decide when exactly to hit the gas so that you propel forward at the right time rather than too early or too late.

The third stage is the response programming stage where you prepare and initiate the response you want to make. You have to organize and send specific commands to the muscles in order to generate the correct movement. Depending on the second stage, the commands might be quite different. Going back to the drag racer example, if you chose to hit the gas pedal sooner rather than later, you might hit it too early and be disqualified. However, if you hit the pedal at the right time, you might be able to win the race due to a quick reaction time.

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Basketball - Psychological Refractory Period

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Basketball - Psychological Refractory Period

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Growing up in a large and very athletic family kept me very active in life. After watching all three of my brothers grow up playing basketball, I became more interested in playing myself. I chose to start playing even though neither of my sisters played basketball. It was no surprise to my parents that I took after my brothers. They caused me to be more athletically inclined than my sisters. When I first played basketball, I was one of the tallest players which isn’t saying much. Eventually I became a point guard and handled the ball more down the floor. My dad was my coach and knew that I had quick feet for defending because I had played soccer for such a long time. He knew I would be the perfect person for guarding the opposing team’s point guard. As they dribbled down the floor, I had to be ready to have quick feet and do my best to react as quickly as possible to each movement. This is a great example of the psychological refractory period.

In the psychological refractory period, many situations can take place. The first stimulus being presented to me, the defender, might be the offender’s right hand and the ball. As the offender begins to dribble the ball, I would then begin responding to the stimulus. This is a point where I must make a response selection/decision. For example, the opposing player might move to the left in order to stop what is taking place. The second stimulus, moving the ball back towards the middle, may then be presented. I would then have to respond to the second stimulus, but only after I have completed responding to the first stimulus. In other words, I would have to finish my original movement to the left before I am able to respond to the ball moving back towards the middle. Only then can I proceed back towards the right while defending the basket.