The relationship between initial errorless learning conditions and subsequent performance

This experiment explores a suggestion by [Maxwell, J.P., Masters, R.S.W., Kerr, E., Weedon, E. (2001). The implicit benefit of learning without errors. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology A 54, 1049-1068] that an initial bout of implicit motor learning confers beneficial performance characteristics, such as robustness under secondary task loading, despite subsequent explicit learning. Participants acquired a complex motor skill (golf putting) over 400 trials. The environment was constrained early in learning to minimize performance error. It was predicted that in the absence of explicit instruction, reducing error would prevent hypothesis testing strategies and the concomitant accrual of declarative (explicit) knowledge, thereby reducing dependence on working memory resources. The effect of an additional cognitive task on putting performance was used to assess reliance on working memory. Putting performance of participants in the Implicit-Explicit condition was unaffected by the additional cognitive load, whereas the performance of Explicit participants deteriorated. The relationship between error correction and episodic verbal reports suggested that the explicit group were involved in more hypothesis testing behaviours than the Implici-Explicit group early in learning. It was concluded that a constrained, uninstructed, environment early in learning, results in procedurally based motor output unencumbered by disadvantages associated with working memory control. © 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.link_to_subscribed_fulltex

Attention and time constraints in perceptual-motor learning and performance: Instruction, analogy, and skill level

We sought to gain more insight into the effects of attention focus and time constraints on skill learning and performance in novices and experts by means of two complementary experiments using a table tennis paradigm. Experiment 1 showed that skill-focus conditions and slowed ball frequency disrupted the accuracy of experts, but dual-task conditions and speeded ball frequency did not. For novices, only speeded ball frequency disrupted accuracy. In Experiment 2, we extended these findings by instructing novices either explicitly or by analogy (implicit motor learning technique). Explicitly instructed novices were less accurate in skill-focused and dual-task conditions than in single-task conditions. Following analogy instruction novices were less accurate in the skill-focused condition, but maintained accuracy under dual-task conditions. Participants in both conditions retained accuracy when ball frequency was slowed, but lost accuracy when ball frequency was speeded, suggesting that not attention, but motor dexterity, was inadequate under high temporal constraints. (C) 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved

Taking aim at Müller-Lyer goalkeeper illusion: An illusion bias in action that originates from the target not being optically specified.

Van der Kamp and Masters (2008) reported that goalkeeper postures that mimic the Müller-Lyer (1889) illusion affect the location of handball penalty throws. In four experiments, we aimed to verify that the effects on throwing are consistent with an illusorybias(Experiments 1 and 2), and to examine how these observations can be understood in thecontext of Milner and Goodale's (1995, 2008) two-visual systems model (Experiments 3 and 4).Experiments 1 and 2 confirmed that the goalkeeper Müller-Lyer posture may indeed induce an illusory bias in throwing, implying that allocentric information is used in far-aiming action tasks. Experiment 3 demonstrated that the bias was not related to a participant's throwing skill. Experiment 4 suggested that an absence of visual information to instantaneously specify target location may have induced use of context-dependent allocentric information, causing the throwing bias. The results are discussed in the context of recent debates about the roles of the two-visual systems in perception and action. It is suggestedthat the two systems are first and foremost perceptual systems that serve the pickup of different sources of information. © 2014 American Psychological Association