Chapter 8: Motor Behavior

By Brandon Claggett, EdD

Learning Objectives:

• Identify and categorize different types of motor skills based on task organization (discrete, serial, continuous) and environmental predictability (closed, open).

• Describe the stages of information processing in motor control and demonstrate how feedback influences motor control.

• Discuss the stages of motor learning and apply appropriate practice structures and feedback types to enhance skill acquisition and performance.

Chapter Content

You have all moved. Whether walking, talking, tying your shoes, or even reading your textbook right now, these everyday skills are often taken for granted. Some skills, like the ones just mentioned, are developed largely through trial and error. Other movements present a much greater challenge and require specific training and practice. Examples include performing brain surgery, driving a car, dribbling a basketball, and playing a musical instrument.

Regardless of the complexity of the action, fundamental processes are happening behind the scenes to help you learn and develop those actions. This is the field of motor behavior, which examines the acquisition, performance, and retention of motor skills. Within motor behavior are three sub-disciplines: motor control, motor learning, and motor development. Each of these areas provides valuable information for the realms of teaching, coaching, and rehabilitation.

Motor Skills

The key to understanding motor behavior is being able to understand and classify motor skills. Skills can be classified in several ways, as listed below.

Skills classified by task organization

• Discrete – action is brief with a clear beginning and end (e.g. throwing a dart)
• Serial – action consists of multiple discrete skills strung together in a specific order (e.g. typing on a keyboard)
• Continuous – movements with no definable beginning or end, often repetitive/rhythmic (e.g. walking/running)

Skills classified by environmental predictability

• Closed – when the environment is predictable (e.g. shooting a basketball in an empty gym)
• Open – when the environment is unpredictable (e.g. playing a game of basketball)

* keep in mind that this is measured on a continuum, so semi-predictable environments can exist (e.g. shooting a basketball outdoors when it’s windy)

Motor Control

Motor control refers to the mechanisms and processes that govern voluntary movement. It is not as simple as simply “doing” a task. The nervous system is hard at work behind the scenes processing the incoming information from all our senses and processing the feedback we get from performing the movement.

Information processing

When information is presented to you, it is processed in three stages:

1. Stimulus identification (what is going on?) – Analyzing environmental information from a variety of sources including: vision, audition, touch, kinesthesis, and smell
   1. Example: when driving in a car, the combination of edges and colors help us identify other cars in traffic, and the speed that objects around us are moving helps us identify how fast we are moving
2. Response selection (decide what to do) – Analyzing sensory information from the situation/environment (gained from the previous stage) and deciding what response should be given
   1. Example: in heavy traffic, the decision to pass another car, slow down, or make an emergency stop, depending on the situation
3. Movement programming (activate the body) – Taking the decision from the response selection stage and organizing the motor system to make the desired movement
   1. Example: in the car scenario, motor systems prepare the body to step on the gas/brake pedal, turn the steering wheel, or shift gears

Feedback

Once the body is activated and movement is initiated, the body receives feedback through sensory information.  There are two main types of feedback:

• Exteroception – information on the environment, most notably vision and hearing
  • Example: When shooting a free throw in basketball the player uses exteroception by visually focusing on the hoop and adjusting their aim based on the distance and position. They may also adjust their grip on the ball based on how it feels in their hands
• Proprioception – information on the state of the body itself, such as force production (Golgi tendon organ), orientation (inner ear), and pressure/temperature (skin receptors)
  • Example: As the player raises the ball for the free throw, they use proprioception to ensure that their elbow is aligned correctly and that their knees are bent at the right angle. This internal feedback helps them feel balanced and ready to make the shot.

Once feedback is given, two types of control systems can be used:

• Open-loop – pre-planned movements executed without feedback (throwing a ball)
• Closed-loop – movements that use feedback to determine error and make adjustments (walking through a busy hallway)

While the above information outlines the main aspects of motor control, other factors are often considered depending on the situation.  These include attention span, timing, speed, and accuracy.   

Motor Learning

Motor learning is a set of processes associated with practice or experience leading to relatively permanent gains in the capability for skilled performance. The emphasis here should be on the “relatively permanent” part of the definition; when you learn something, it is not easily forgotten. Also important is the idea that ‘learning’ is different from ‘performance’:

• Motor learning – changes in internal processes (e.g. adaptations to the central nervous system) that determine the capability for producing a motor task.
• Motor performance – the observable attempt of a person to perform a motor task, often influenced by temporary factors such as motivation, arousal, fatigue, etc.

Stages of motor learning

A key aspect of motor learning is understanding the stages that one goes through when learning a new task. Fitts and Posner proposed one prominent perspective:

1. Cognitive stage – understanding the goal, what to do/what not to do, when to do it, and how to do it. Verbal and cognitive abilities dominate. This stage typically involves a lot of self talk walking through each part of the new skill
   1. Example: When executing a slap shot in hockey, the player learns the basic mechanics of the slap shot, focusing on each part of the movement and often making errors.
2. Fixation stage – focus shifts to organizing more effective movements.  Consistency gradually increases.
   1. Example: The player refines the skill, focusing on making the shot more accurate and powerful, with improved coordination and reduced errors.
3. Autonomous stage – decreased attention is needed to perform the action, allowing it to be performed while integrating other actions.  Performance is typically very high.
   1. Example: The player performs the slap shot automatically and consistently, integrating it seamlessly into their gameplay with minimal conscious effort. Errors are rare.

Factors influencing motor learning

Learning isn’t static; it requires careful consideration in order to create the best learning environment possible. Some key factors that need to be considered:

Practice structure

• Massed practice – less rest, more trials (e.g. a soccer player spends 90 minutes continuously practicing their shot on goal without any significant breaks.
• Distributed practice – more rest, less trials (e.g. The player practices their shot on goal for 15 minutes, then takes a 5-minute break to rest or do a different drill, and repeats this cycle multiple times over a 90-minute session.)
• Blocked practice – many trials of the same task (e.g. the player practices 50 shots in a row from the same spot on the field, such as the penalty spot, aiming for the top left corner of the goal.)
• Random practice – trials of several different tasks mixed together (e.g. the player takes shots from different spots on the field, with varying distances and angles, and sometimes with a defender in the way. Each shot is different from the last.)
• Mental practice – rehearse tasks mentally, without actual physical practice (e.g. before physically practicing their shots, the player spends 10 minutes visualizing themselves taking successful shots on goal in different scenarios.)

Feedback types

• Intrinsic/inherent feedback – sensory feedback from the body (e.g. a golfer feels the motion of their body during a swing, noticing the balance, the grip on the club, and the follow-through.)
• Extrinsic/augmented feedback – feedback given back to the performer from outside themself (e.g. after a golfer hits a ball durin a practice session, the coach provides verbal feedback)
• Knowledge of results – outcome-based feedback (was it successful or not) (e.g. the golfer takes a shot and observes whether the ball went in the hole or not.)
• Knowledge of performance – process-based feedback (what was the body doing) (e.g. after taking the shot, the golfer reviews a video of their shot with their coach, the coach points out shoulder angles, leg extension, and where the golfer’s head was facing.)

Transfer considerations

• Positive transfer – practice of one skill improves a different skill (e.g. a pass in basketball and a pass in soccer, because both involve reading of teammates, timing, and force/direction control)
• Negative transfer – practice of one skill degrades a different skill (e.g. a tennis forehand and a badminton forehand, because the tennis forehand is longer, and the badminton forehand is shorter and more wrist-focused).
• Near transfer – transfer between two similar skills (e.g. shooting a jump shot and a free throw in basketball)
• Far transfer – transfer between two very different skills (e.g. shooting a free throw and an overhead throw in, in soccer)

Motor Development

Motor development is the progressive change in motor behavior throughout the lifespan. It examines the changes that occur as you grow up and the developmental milestones that are expected along the way.

Lifespan perspective

The following are some typical developmental expectations/milestones for humans:

• Infancy – development of reflexes like Moro (startle) and stepping, crawling, walking
• Childhood – acquisition of fundamental (running, jumping) and fine (drawing, writing) motor skills
• Adolescence – refinement and specialization of motor skills, often seen in sports and other activities
• Adulthood – maintenance of motor skills, strength, and coordination
• Older Adulthood – Decline in motor abilities, with a focus on strategies to cope with this decline

Factors influencing motor development

The above milestones and expectations don’t just happen, there are several factors to consider:

• Genetic factors – inherited physical and cognitive traits
• Environmental factors – culture, socio-economic status, availability/access to physical activities
• Perceived role of physical activity/play – emphasis on both encourages motor development

Where Can You Apply Motor Behavior?

Sport and performance settings: Motor learning principles are key to enhancing performance, whether in an athletic, medical, art, or any other high-stakes setting. Being aware of how practice variables and feedback strategies impact performers is important. For example: if you are a coach you will not only need to create effective practice schedules but also teach and correct different skills. Understanding specific aspects of motor behavior will help you be more effective.

Rehabilitation and therapy settings: Motor control, development, and learning principles are key to physical therapists, occupational therapists, and athletic trainers. The understanding of what should be happening from a motor control perspective helps guide the therapeutic process for getting the individual back to a healthy state.  For example: If you have a teenager come into your clinic to help rehab a shoulder you need to know what stage of development the teen is in so you have an understanding of what might change as they continue to develop (i.e a male is typically going to put on more muscle in that time and could impact recovery or long term ROM). For motor control and learning, as a  physical therapist you might use a skill that  your patient knows as a baseline and monitor improvement through the rehab process.

Everyday life: Understanding motor behavior principles will help you recognize what is happening when you move and changes that happen over time. Understanding what is happening with your body can significantly impact one’s quality of life, including physical health and mental well-being. For example: if you haven’t played a sport for a couple years and you go out to play it again but you don’t perform nearly as well as you had years ago. Understanding motor behavior can help you to understand that you have not lost the ability to play, you just need to get reacquainted with the skills so the more you play the more it will come back to you. This also applies to motor movements like knitting, painting, and working with tools.