chapter

1

Fundamental Concepts

Characteristics of Motor Development

• Change in movement behavior• Continuous• Age-related• Sequential• Underlying process(es)

Related Areas of Study

• Motor learning: relatively permanent gains in motor skill capability associated with practice or experience

• Motor control: the neural, physical, and behavioral aspects of movement

(Schmidt & Lee, 1999)

Related Terms• Physical growth: quantitative increase in

size or body mass (Timiras, 1972)

• Physical maturation: qualitative advance in biological makeup– Cell, organ, or system advancement in biochemical

composition (Teeple, 1978)

• Aging: process occurring with the passage of time, leading to loss of adaptability or full function and eventually to death (Spirduso, 1995)

Constraints

• Limit or discourage certain movements at the same time that they permit or encourage other movements

• “Shape” movement

Newell’s Model of Constraints

Individual Constraints

• Exist within the body• Structural constraints: related to the body’s

structure– Height– Muscle mass

• Functional constraints: related to behavioral function– Attention– Motivation

Environmental Constraints

• Exist outside the body (properties of the world around us)

• Global, not task specific• Physical

– Gravity– Surfaces

• Sociocultural– Gender roles

Task Constraints

• External to the body

• Related specifically to tasks or skills– Goal of task– Rules guiding task performance – Equipment

Research Study Designs Typical in Development

• Longitudinal– An individual or a group is observed over

time.– They can require lengthy observation time.

• Cross-Sectional– Individuals or groups of different ages are

observed for short period of time.– Change is inferred, not actually observed.

• Sequential, or Mixed Longitudinal– Involves mini-longitudinal studies with

overlapping ages.

13 14 15 16 17 18

Measurement of interest

Research Study Designs Typical in Development

• Longitudinal– An individual or a group is observed over

time.– They can require lengthy observation time.

• Cross-Sectional– Individuals or groups of different ages are

observed.– Change is inferred, not actually observed.

• Sequential, or Mixed Longitudinal– Involves mini-longitudinal studies with

overlapping ages.

13 14 15 16 17 18

Measurement of interest

A Model of Sequential Research Design

A Paradox in Development

• Universality– Individuals in a species show great similarity

in their development.

• Variability– Individual differences exist.

chapter

2

Theoretical Perspectives in Motor Development

Ecological Perspective

• Basic tenet: interrelationship of individual, environment, and task drives development– Importance of multiple systems

• Decisions of the higher brain centers are reduced because perception of the environment is direct and muscle can self-assemble into functional groups.

• Two branches exist:– Dynamic systems – Perception–action

Dynamic Systems

• Theory advocated in the early 1980s by Peter Kugler, Scott Kelso, and Michael Turvey, among others.

• Body systems spontaneously self-organize.

• Body systems, performer’s environment, and task demands interact.

(continued)

Dynamic Systems (continued)

• Some systems may develop more slowly than others in the young or degrade more rapidly in the old and thus control the rate of development or change.– Rate limiter – an individual constraint that “limits the

rate” at which a motor skill is achieved

• Qualitative and discontinuous change is characteristic of development.

• Change occurs across the life span.

Dynamic Systems: Graphing Change

Adapted from Thelen, Ulrich, & Jensen, 1989

Perception–Action

• Theory based on the 1960s and 1970s writing of J.J. Gibson.

• An affordance is the function an environmental object provides to an individual.– Characteristics define objects’ meanings.– Object functions are based on individuals’

intrinsic dimensions (body scaled) rather than extrinsic, objective dimensions.