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Stages of Information Processing and Reaction Time

The expanded information processing model has 3 main components. They are stimulus (input), reaction time, and the movement (output). Reaction time is an index of action preparation (or information processing). The model breaks down reaction time into 3 sections. They are stimulus identification, response selection, and response programming. By examining the relationship between the input and the output, we can infer things about how the information was processed.

The first step in the information processing model is a stimulus (input), which in the video when I do the small shrug to initiate that I am about to make a movement. This shrug allows my coach to know that I am about to move in his direction. Then, the first stage known as stimulus identification occurs. This is where there is the sense that a stimulus has occurred and you are about to identify what it is. In the video, this is where I start stepping towards my coach. In this stage, my coach is assessing the movements that I am making towards him. The clarity and intensity in the steps I make towards him allow him to remember pattern recognition because he can recall what he usually does when a person makes this movement at him to go into a stunt. My coach then goes through a response selection stage. This is the second stage, where he has to decide on an appropriate response to the stimulus. This step happens mentally and my coach has to think of how he is going to approach his next move in the stunt. The neurons in his brain are deciding what message to fire to other neurons. In the second stage, a variable that affect performance is a highly over learned stimulus-response relationship. This can either aid or be detrimental in the response selection stage. If my coach does this specific stunt all the time, you would think that his reaction time would be quick, but the over learned S-R relationship says that it is possible he could be slower than what we want out of the skill/stunt. However, due to temporal anticipation, my coach can anticipate when I am going to arrive at his hands and reduce his reaction time. The final stage of information processing is the response programming stage where preparation and initiation of a response occurs. In the brain, neurons are firing and communicating with other neurons. Once the neurons reach their end points, this is when your muscles will start to move. A set of muscular actions that will achieve the desired response arise. This is when the movement or output step in the expanded information processing model happens. In the video, this is when my coach puts his hands out and my foot and his hand make contact and we explode up.

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Perceptual and Physical Motor Abilities

An ability is a general trait or capacity of the individual that is a determinant of a person's achievement potential for the performance of specific skills. An ability is unmodifiable by practice. When performing a skill or task, there are several measurable abilities. There are 11 perceptual motor abilities and 9 physical proficiency abilities. In cheerleading a lot of both perceptual and motor abilities are used in tumbling, stunting, jumping, and dancing.

Perceptual motor abilities are what we use to process sensory information when performing a skill or task. How we perceive our environment and how we act accordingly to it. I found 4 perceptual motor abilities that pair up with the video well. They are manual dexterity, rate control, response orientation, and multi-limb coordination.

Manual dexterity - ability to manipulate relatively large objects with the hands and arms, such as dribbling a basketball. In the video, manual dexterity can be seen by the girl who's back is facing the cameraman in the beginning. She is using her whole body, but essentially both her arms to manipulate the flyer (person who gets thrown) into the basket made by the two bases (the 2 people who throw the girl across from each other).

Rate control - ability to produce continuous anticipatory movement adjustments in response to changes in the speed of a continuously moving target or object, such as boxing. Rate control can be seen in this video coming from any of the people at the bottom who catch the flyer. They all have to be able to anticipate and adjust where they are going to catch the flyer by looking at her hips and following them. Once the flyer is released into the air, she is moving very fast and even more so on the way back down to the bases.

Response orientation - ability to make quick choices among numerous alternative actions, often measured as choice reaction time, such as hitting a baseball. Response orientation is seen in the video because as the flyer is hurling back down to the bases they have to have quick reaction times in response to the flyer. The bases and back spot have to be able to align their bodies so that they are in a good position to catch the flyer.

Multi-limb coordination - ability to coordinate the movement of a number of limbs simultaneously, such as ballet. In the video, multi-limb coordination can be seen coming from the flyer. She first has to push off her bases shoulders with her arms and hands. Then she has to ride the basket toss to the top then kick her leg as high as she can. The final move she has to make is a full twist back down to her bases. The flyer has to be able to simultaneously coordinate her legs, arms, and hips to kick and start twisting all in the air before she comes back down.

Physical proficiency abilities consist of gross movements and the use of large

muscle groups (physical factors). How we make physical movements such as exercising. I found 3 physical proficiency abilities that pair up with the video well. They are explosive strength, dynamic flexibility, and gross body coordination.

Explosive strength - ability to expend a maximum of energy in one explosive act, such as powerlifting. Explosive strength is the perfect way to overall describe a basket toss. The bases start in a static position with their hands and wrists locked up with each other's. They then wait for the flyer to put her feet into their basket and then the bases throw the flyer with maximum energy. A basket toss is a very aggressive and quick move that doesn't last more than 10 seconds.

Dynamic flexibility - ability to make repeated, rapid movements requiring muscle flexibility, such as gymnastics. In the video, the flyer has to be able to rapidly move her legs in a flexible manner. The flyer essentially does a split in the air for a quick second. Throughout a routine she might have to do this movement about two to three times.

Gross body coordination - ability to perform a number of complex movements simultaneously, such as dribbling a basketball. In the video, the flyer has to remember to push off her bases to get into the air, then kick her leg, and twist back down. These are a bunch of complex movements that happen simultaneously and rapidly within a few seconds.

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Procedural vs. Declarative Memory
Novice vs. Expert

Procedural memory is the implicit, non-conscious, and automatic memory system that recalls the 'how'. On the other hand, declarative memory is the explicit, conscious, and non-automatic memory system that recalls the 'what'.

Declarative memory consists of facts and events, while procedural memory consists of skills that use movements that are now programmed in your body. For example, I had to learn how to do a standing back flip before attempting this skill. The back flip in this skill is already part of my procedural memory. At first, when learning this skill, I talked with my coach a lot about what I need to do exactly to complete this skill. There are two types of declarative memory and they are semantic and episodic memory. Semantic memory is the recall of general facts, while episodic memory is the recall of memories that happened to you in past events. My coach was able to lay out a list of steps (like semantic memory) that I needed to complete this skill. I also noticed that he included steps that I wasn't even thinking was important to execute the skill. This shows that he has more experience and is an expert in this skill and I was a novice. Novices rely heavily on their declarative memory. This is because they are in the very early stages of learning and need to work out a lot of errors before things start to go correctly. Experts rely heavily on their procedural memory. Similar to riding a bike, it is hard to teach it when you already know how to do the skill. My coach was very eager to just attempt the skill because it would be easier for him to explain to me what I need to fix over telling me every step that I needed to complete in order to correctly do the skill.

When completing this skill, a novice flyer (individual who is thrown in the air) and an expert flyer look at two different things. The novice would be worried about how they are going to get their hips up and around as they are moving upwards. A novice also might not even see at first what is going on with their body during the skill, due to how fast the skill happens. After a lot more practice, an expert flyer's perspective would be very different. An expert flyer would work on getting their shins up and looking at their feet to spot for where the hands of the base person is. They would do this so that they know when to open up out of the tucked position they are in and place their feet into the base's hands, which should already be up and in place.

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GMP's

A generalized motor program is defined as a motor program that represents a CLASS of movement patterns, rather than a specific movement pattern. You can have a GMP for kicking, walking, throwing, and similarly for back handsprings. A back handspring is the movement I make in the video where I make a complete revolution by going headfirst into an inverted position and push off the ground with my hands and return to my feet.

There are two important components of generalized motor programs and they are invariant features and parameters. There are 3 invariant features that are ideally fixed during movement to movement using the same GMP. The order of events, the phasing (relative time), and relative force. It is important to the GMP that the sequence of the movement remain unchanged. Also, that the same timing and force of the movement happens every time the movement is executed. In a back handspring, it is important to stick to parameters because they allow you to customize the program for a specific situation. In this situation, in order to do the back handspring, you need to make sure to jump at an angle that allows you to make a rainbow with your body. Then when your hands hit the ground you need to push as hard as you can, even with your fingertips, to generate enough power to stand up or to go into another skill afterwards. There are 3 parameters of motor programs and they are overall duration, overall force, and muscle selection. The same muscles, force, and duration are used to complete this tumbling skill every time. In this video, it is evident that I have formed a GMP for a back handspring. This video shows an example of how we form GMP's and are able to replicate them repeatedly. Major events in movement pattern get stored in memory and are called upon when an action must be executed.

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Scheduling Variable Practice
Blocked vs. Random Practice in Retention and Transfer

We practice skills so that we will increase the likelihood of improving our performance of that skill at a later time. For example, I am practicing on a trampoline like floor in order to perfect my skills for the competition floor. Practice scheduling is defined as how skills should be practiced within a session to maximize retention of those skills. I used to have 3 different tumbling privates with my coach a week. These tumbling privates were never run the same way ever, except for the stretching that we did prior to tumbling. Practice variability is defined as the variety of movement and context characteristics a person experiences while practicing a skill. In cheerleading, there are a lot of experiences to be had while practicing a skill because so many different scenarios can happen during a competition in stunting and tumbling. Performance during practice or the acquisition phase is not always a great predictor of performance during retention and transfer. This is especially true in cheerleading, because there are so many variables that can affect a performance on competition day, regardless of how much practice was done.  I have created a specific generalized motor program for a back handspring and you can see that I used it to simulate the end part of a back handspring to drill the next skills that I will be adding on after the back handspring. This is why in the video, I am starting off in a handstand. This simulates the end part of a back handspring. The GMP that I have made of a back handspring allows me to produce different versions a.k.a. different parts of the back handspring.

There are two different extreme scheduling for practice. The first one is known as blocked practice, which is where the individual completes all the trials before moving on to a new trial. Blocked practice tests repetition in practicing. On the other hand, random practice is when the trials are mixed with other trials in a random order. At tumbling privates, instead of just working on the trampoline, I would also work on the floor and do different drills in a random order. Not only does doing different drills to work on my skills keep things interesting, but it also allows me to have better retention of my skills. Also, I will be able to perform better at competitions if I can retain more skills.