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Lecture Notes. (2016). Kinesiology 361: Motor Learning and Performance.

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Augmented feedback is defined as a, "generic term used to describe information about a performance that supplements sensory feedback and comes from a source external to the performer" (Lecture Notes, 2016). A great example of augmented feedback is a volleyball coach critiquing a player on their serve. A coach can provide feedback on the outcome of a serve, but that is usually pretty obvious to the player as they can see what happened (Lecture Notes, 2016). Another way this type of feedback can be provided, is by telling the player what they did that led to the outcome of the serve; what movements and characteristics of the serve led to the serve either being inbound or out of bounds (Lecture Notes, 2016). But how necessary is this kind of feedback? According to the narrated powerpoint, the most common theme with augmented feedback is that it is best used to enhance performance. This means that it is not needed all the time, but it is helpful to have it at least some of the time (Lecture Notes, 2016). Augmented feedback can help people learn a task quicker and at a higher level. With it only occurring sometimes, the person performing a task can still analyze their performance on their own and learn from their mistakes. Therefore, a volleyball coach should definitely give some feedback to a player as they learn to serve. However, feedback after every single serve will not be beneficial. The coach must allow the player to learn from their mistakes on their own, while providing some feedback, which will ultimately lead to a great serve and confident athlete.

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When athletes are injured and have to undergo rehab before returning to play, they spend a lot of time in the athletic training room (ATR). Once the athletes are nearing the stage where they are looking to return to play, they must practice movements that will occur during their sport, or as we call it, functional tasks. Functional tasks are a perfect example of transfer of learning. Practicing one or more skills in the ATR can allow better performance of other skills (or even the same skills) once the athlete returns to the field (Lecture Notes, 2016). When it comes to athletes returning to play, we hope that the transfer of learning results in positive transfer. Positive transfer is when there is a beneficial effect of the previous experience on the performance of another skill (Lecture Notes, 2016). In this case, the practice in the ATR would positively influence the performance of the athlete on the field or court. This transfer of learning coincides closely with part-practice as well. While practicing skills in the ATR that will hopefully transfer over to the field, the athletes may practice skills in a simplified version, or in steps that will be put together as a whole, later on. Time spent in the ATR is extremely important for athletes and their timeline to return to play. Functional tasks transfer over to real practices and games, allowing the athletes to be prepared to compete.

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I have a brother who is three years older than me and we have always been competitive during anything we do. Sports, school, who can wash the dishes the fastest, you name it and we made it into a competition. Obviously, there were things that each of us were better at. But why? Individual differences variables are things that can be measured in people that help us to understand the differences among us all (Lecture Notes, 2016). Some of these variables include things like age, gender, and intelligence. Looking at just gender, we can investigate why my brother was better at some things and why I was better at others. Our notes tell us that males tend to be better at athletics or things involving strength. Conversely, females perform better with things like fine motor tasks and rap manipulation of things (Lecture Notes, 2016). Differences among gender can also occur due to the situation at hand. For example, men seem to be better at ignoring irrelevant information during tasks. This tells me that during a competition with my brother, I would probably get distracted easily by something that I could just as easily ignore, causing him to have a one up on me. Another example involves socially imposed standards (Lecture Notes, 2016). This is the idea that boys are better at athletic things or "boy things," while girls are more feminine. I honestly don't think this was a factor growing up with my brother because I was convinced I could do anything he could do. Overall, the individual differences between my brother and I are definitely due to gender, but also things like age and intelligence. Being competitive was upsetting as a kid when he beat me, but it also taught me to take great pride in the things that I was good at.

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Being a college student, memory is a very important concept for me. I not only need it for everyday things, but I need to capitalize on it while studying for exams and class. Memory, according to the Endel Tulving, is the "capacity that permits organisms to benefit from their past experiences; it is a storage space, or the act and strategy of retrieval" (Lecture Notes, 2016). Memory is broken down into three processes: encoding, storage, and retrieval--all of which are equally important if you ask me (Lecture Notes, 2016). If you fail to encode something in a sufficient way, you will not be able to retrieve it later on. If you fail to store something where it is readily accessible, you will have a hard time retrieving it later. And finally, if you cannot recall things or recognize things, retrieval cannot happen. For me, I find myself forgetting things so often. Not necessarily super important things, but small things or even details from events that happened years ago. What causes me to forget these things? There are three main reasons why things can be forgotten. The first is trace decay--this is simply forgetting things due to the passage of time (Lecture Notes, 2016). I feel like a lot of the things I would like to remember, things that occurred years ago, are not accessible due to this reason. However, proactive and retroactive interference are the two other reasons why I may have problems remembering things. Proactive interference is when something is presented before the information that is to be remembered, and effects the encoding or remembering of that information in a negative way (Lecture Notes, 2016). Retroactive interference on the other hand, is when there is interference after the original information to be remembered is presented (Lecture Notes, 2016). During school, I definitely think that proactive and retroactive interference is what causes most of my problems remembering things. But, like I said earlier, I think trace decay definitely is why I have problems recalling things that occurred years ago.

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A motor program is, "a memory based construct that contains the instructions needed for the control of goal-directed, coordinated movement" (Lecture Notes, 2016). Based off this definition, it is evident that motor programs are important for athletes participating in sports and even for rehab programs that involve the relearning of movements after an athlete has been injured. Athletes need to be able to control their movements, and much of this is done based off motor programs that have been practiced and used over and over again. According to the Generalized Motor Program theory, there are specific motor programs that represent classes of movements rather than specific movements, and they can be customized for any action that must occur (Lecture Notes, 2016). To be more specific, motor programs can be customized for duration, force, and muscle selection. These three things allow us to take a generalized motor program that is used for  multiple motions and use it for something  specific (Lecture Notes, 2016). Additionally, we can use pre-existing motor programs and reference them when learning a new motion that may not have its own program yet.  When an athlete injures their left leg, they can use the motor programs in their right leg to perform movements that will help the left leg once it is able to work on range of motion again. Additionally, motor programs can be established during weight training to allow muscle fibers to organize, before hypertrophy of the muscle occurs with more intense weight training.

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Growing up, I played many sports. If I wasn't playing park and rec soccer, I was playing volleyball at school, or football in the backyard with my older brothers. I like to believe that one of the reasons I enjoyed sports so much and excelled the way I did, was because of the coordination that I have. Coordination is defined as, "the patterning of head, body, and/or limb motions relative to the patterning of environmental objects and events" (Lecture Notes, 2016). This definition basically explains what sports are. It is moving your body and any object that the sport requires, in ways that are related to what is going on in the environment around you. One type of coordination that is important for sports is temporal coordination. This is coordinating movements in time--moving at a specific moment to accomplish something (Lecture Notes, 2016). Temporal coordination is directly observed during volleyball when diving for a ball. The timing is specific in that as the ball is headed towards the area it is going to land, you have to move your body towards that area and then form the correct body shape and placement in order to reach the ball and keep it in play. Additionally, sports require multi-limb coordination, which is one of Edwin Fleishman's Perceptual Motor Abilities. This ability is simply being able to coordinate the movement of a number of limbs, simultaneously (Lecture Notes, 2016). Obviously, this motor ability is extremely important when it comes to sports. Being able to run, jump, hit, and dive are only some of the actions that require this ability.

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I have always taken a lot of pride in the fact that I am great at multitasking. I can listen to someone talk while I type, take notes while holding a conversation, things like that. However, now that I'm in the Athletic Training Program on campus, there are times where multitasking is not an option. Some things require more attention than others and a lot of times when I'm working with one patient I don't have the capability to converse with someone else, unless it is about mindless things.
Attention, as defined by William James, is "taking possession by the mind, in clear and vivid form, of one out of what seem several simultaneously possible objects o trains of thoughts. Focalization, concentration, of consciousness are its essence. It implies withdrawal from some things in order to deal effectively with others" (Lecture Notes, 2016). The last sentence of this definition is what most of us think about when we consider attention; it causes us to deal with one thing more than another. But why does this occur? The Bottleneck Theory says that our attention has a limited capacity and that during information processing, some stages can only process one thing before allowing the more information to enter the stage. This theory, I believe, is what causes my inability to multitask during certain situations. Sometimes I can only allow one thing to process before processing something else that is occurring. Overall, many situations as an athletic training student call for attention on multiple things at once. However, for the safety of the patients and for my own learning, sometimes certain things require more attention than others.

Taping an ankle sometimes requires a lot of attention in order to make sure it is secure yet functional. However, during the simpler part of the tape job, conversations can be held because less attention is required.

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Proprioception is Hard to Spell but Important to Understand

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Proprioception is Hard to Spell but Important to Understand

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Being in the athletic training program, I work a lot with athletes who are doing rehabilitation from injuries, with the goal of returning to play. A bit part of the rehab process if proprioception. According to our lecture notes, proprioceptors are a type of mechanoreceptors that are located in specific areas of the body. They provide us with information on where our body is in space while we are in static or dynamic positions (Lecture Notes, 2016).  Two specific types of proprioceptors are muscle spindles and golgi tendon organs. Muscle spindles are located in our muscles and tell us information about the length and stretch that is occurring along the muscle fibers and the rate at which it is occurring (Lecture Notes, 2016). Having these proprioceptors is very important, especially during sports because if the stretch of a muscle is happening too quickly, or it is being stretched too far, the muscle spindles can send signals that tell us to stop what we are doing in order to protect our body. Golgi tendon organs (GTOs) are located where skeletal muscles meet the tendons. These proprioceptors are important for determining the tension that is on the muscle. Much like the muscle spindles, GTOs are protective in that they will send signals that tell us to stop what we are doing if the tension becomes too much too fast (Lecture Notes, 2016). Additionally, these GTOs can be disabled with specific stretching techniques during rehab, which means that the patient who receives it must withhold from play so that no further injury occurs due to the lack of protective signals. Proprioception is a very important concept to understand as an athletic training student. It is directly involved with the patients that I see on an everyday basis. Whether it is doing proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation as part of rehab, or simply having the patient close their eyes during a balance tast, it is always readily apparent and is an important part of any rehab plan.
Photo: PNF (proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation) is a type of stretch that is involved in many rehab programs.