Stages of Learning

Chapter 5

Fitts and Posner’s Three Stage Model

COGNITIVE STAGE ASSOCIATIVE STAGE

AUTONOMOUS STAGE

Development of basic movement pattern

Refinement of movement pattern

Performance of movement virtually

automatic

Practice

Cognitive Stage

High degree of cognitive activity

Attentional demands high, limited to movement production

Movements lack synchronization and appear choppy and deliberate

Numerous errors, typically gross in nature

Lacks capability to determine cause of errors or correct them

Associative Stage

More consistent

Attentional demands for movement production decrease

Fewer, less gross errors

Better at detecting cause of errors

Begin to develop appropriate error correction strategies

Autonomous Stage

Highest level of proficiency

Not all learners will reach this stage

Attention reallocated to strategic decision-making

Consistent

Confident

Make few errors and can generally detect and correct those errors that do occur

Practical Application

Choose a skill and generate a list of practical tips practitioners could follow based on Fitts and Posner’s characteristics of learners across the three stages.– See Cerebral Challenge #1 on page 100

Gentile’s Two-Stage Model

GETTING THE IDEA OF THE MOVEMENT

Development of ability todiscriminate between regulatory and non-

regulatory conditions

Development of basicmovement pattern

Closed Skill

FIXATION

Refinement of movement pattern

Open Skill

DIVERSIFICATION

Adaptation of movement to conform to ever-changing environmental demands

Getting the Idea of the Movement

Goal is to develop an understanding of movement’s requirements

Have to learn to discriminate between regulatory and non-regulatory conditions

Fixation/Diversification

Goal is refinement

Fixation – Closed skills

– How should skills be practiced?

Diversification – Open skills

– How should skills be practiced?

Practical Application

Choose a skill and generate a list of practical tips practitioners could follow based on Gentile’s two stages of learning.– See Cerebral Challenge #3 on page 103

Review Questions

How does the role of the practitioner shift as the learner progresses through Fitts & Posner’s stages of learning? Through Gentile’s two stage model?

Explain the relationship of fixation/ diversification to closed and open skills.

Inferring Progress: Learner And Performance Changes

Coordination and control; freezing degrees of freedom

Muscle activity; reduction to only those needed

Energy expenditure; reduction as movement becomes more efficient and coordinated

Consistency;consistently correct motion or incorrect?

Attention; less conscious attention; attention may be detrimental; visual attention on relevant stimuli

Knowledge and memory; access information quicker, solve problems more quickly with fewer errors

Inferring Progress: Learner And Performance Changes continued

Error detection and correction; better able to interpret sensory receptor info in recognition schema; may stop a performance to avoid an inefficient movement

Self-confidence; more success breed more motivation to continue; shoot for 80% success

Review Questions

Describe how a person’s capability of detecting and correcting error changes as a result of practice and moving from early to later stages of learning. Provide an example to illustrate this change.

Describe how novices try to control the degrees of freedom of various limbs as they begin to learn a new skill. Give an example.

Discuss how the muscles used change as a result of practice, and explain why this happens.

Assessing learning from coordination dynamics

One observes stability and transitions of:– Temporal movement coordination patterns– Spatial movement coordination patterns

The stability or instability of performance across trials helps the observer characterize learning

Performance Curves

Used to assess progress over time

Two performance characteristics can be observed with performance curves– Improvement– Consistency

Types of Performance Curves 

Practice performance may misrepresent learning

Practice performance may overestimate or underestimate learning– Practice artificially inflates performance– Transfer and retention test should be given

Performance plateaus– Period when little or no improvement occurs

Performance Plateau

Period of time during the learning process in which no overt changes in performance occur

– May be transitional period in learning process

– Not always indicative of cessation of learning

Other factors: fatigue, anxiety, lack of motivation

Limited by performance measurement used

Retention and Transfer Tests

Both measure persistence of improved skill performance

Retention test

– Skill performance test give following a period of no practice

Transfer test

– Measurement of the adaptability of a response determined by testing learner’s ability to use a skill in a novel context or manner

Assessing learning by retention tests

A common measure to assess the performance characteristic of improvement

Typical administration of a retention test– Perform the skill in practice– Period of no practice– Retention test is administered to determine amount

retained

Assessing learning by transfer tests

Assess the performance characteristics of adaptability

Performing a practiced skill in:– Novel context that changes

Without augmented feedback Physical environment Personal characteristics

– Novel skill variations

Review Questions

Why aren’t performance plateaus indicative that a person has quit learning?

What characteristics may be represented on a learning curve?

Compare and contrast retention and transfer tests.