PHED-2206EL Final: exam possible questions
PHED2206
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Exam Possible Questions
Chapter 1 Review Questions
1. Present 4 reasons suggested by the authors as to why we need to study skills. (4
marks)
-skills are important throughout life
-important for teachers and coaches to know how to teach skills most effectively
-high level skills need even more practice and learning
-proficiency with job skills are necessary to produce effective work
2. Guthrie (1952) discusses 4 important characteristics of skilled performance. List and
discuss each of them. (4 marks)
-skills involve some type of environmental goal (i.e. end goal in mind)
-maximizing the certainty of a goal achievement (i.e. not dependent on luck)
-minimizing the physical and mental energy costs of performance (minimal energy
expenditure)
-minimizing the time used (ex. finishing a race)
-note that speed often causes higher energy expenditure and more error,
therefore you balance all 4 features to produce effective movement
3. List and elaborate on the necessary steps in order to properly execute a skill. (6
marks)
-perceiving the relevant environmental features
-integrating many different forms of sensory input signals (visual, auditory,
etc.)
-deciding what to do and where and when to do it to achieve the goal
-ex. deciding whether to pass or run in football
-producing organized muscular activity to generate movements that achieve the
goal
-ex. getting in a stable position and then making the correct sequence of
movements to throw a pass
4. Explain the differences between an open and closed skill. (4 marks)
-open skill
-environment is variable and unpredictable during the action
-e.g. team sports, driving a car on a freeway
-closed skill
-environment is stable and predictable during the action
-e.g. diving from a springboard into a pool, drilling a hole in a block of wood
5. Explain the differences between discrete, continuous and serial tasks. Give 2
examples for each. (6 marks)
-discrete task
-usually have an easily defined beginning and end
-often a very brief duration of movement
-easy to determine the outcome of the skill
-ex. punching something/someone, hitting a baseball, turning on a light,
throwing a free throw
-serial task
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-group of discrete skills strung together to make up a new, more complicated
skilled action (short-term movement pattern)
-ex. shifting gears in a car, volleyball spike, gymnastics routine, figure skating
routine
-continuous task
-have arbitrary beginning and end
-the behaviour flowing for minutes or hours
-repeated movement series
-ex. running a marathon, swimming, knitting
6. Schmidt and Lee discuss 3 ways of classifying errors in discrete tasks. Describe and
explain these 3 ways. (6 marks)
-constant error (CE)
-average of the individual errors for all trials as compared with perfect
execution
-interpreted as an overall tendency to under throw or overthrow the target
-absolute error (AE)
-average of the absolute value errors for all trials as compared with perfect
execution
-interpreted as one or group being more off target than another
-no concern with over-or-under-executive
-variable error (VE)
-average of the individual errors for all trials as compared with the person’s
average constant error
-a measure of the subject’s inconsistency
7. What is root-mean-square-root-error (RMSE) and why is it a more complex measure
of error than error scores for discrete tasks? (4 marks)
-average of either time-sampled or distance-sampled errors between an
individual’s actual tracking performance against where (s)he should be in
tracking accuracy
-this measures the individual’s bias (tendency to be on one or the other side of
the tracking target) and the inconsistency of his/her scores
Chapter 2 Review Questions
1. Name and define the 3 stages of information processing between input and output.
Give an example of each. (6 marks)
-stimulus identification
-primarily a sensory stage that results in some representation of the stimulus
-decide whether a stimulus has been presented and what it is
-patterns of movement are detected such as if objects are moving, in what
direction they are moving and how fast they are moving
-ex. driving a car in heavy traffic and noticing the things around you
-response selection
-decide what response to make given the nature of the situation and
environment
-from a number of different response possibilities, one has to be selected
given the nature of the situation and environment
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-is a transition between sensory input and movement output
-ex. transport truck driver decides to change lanes to avoid hitting a slow car,
deciding to pass another car, slow down the car, make avoidance
maneuvers
-movement programming
-organize motor system to make desired movement
-before producing movement, lower-level mechanism in the brain and spinal
cord must be retrieved and organized to program the motor system that will
control the movement
-ex. need to stop the car - organization of the motor program responsible for
executing a braking action would occur
2. Define and give practical examples of reaction time and movement time. (4 marks)
-reaction time (RT)
-time to detect and recognize stimulus and initiate proper response (duration
of the 3 processing stages)
-ex. see brake lights on car ahead until initiate release from accelerator
-movement time (MT)
-period of time from the end of the reaction time until the completion of the
movement (start of the movement until it ends)
-ex. initiate release from accelerator to depress brake pedal
3. Present and explain Donders’ 3 stages of processing. (6 marks)
-A-type
-simple reaction time
-only requires stimulus detection
-ex. participant’s task is to press response key as rapidly as possible
when stimulus is presented (no other stimulus or response is required)
-B-type
-choice reaction time
-respond to only one of several stimuli (stimulus detection, stimulus
identification and response selection)
-ex. participant is given different stimulus and must respond by selecting
the appropriate response
-C-type
-go/no-go situation
-have to decide whether or not to act on several stimuli (stimulus
detection and stimulus identification)
-ex. participant’s task is to press response key only when the specified
stimulus appears (no response selection)
4. Define Hick’s Law and explain why it is so important in motor learning? (6 marks)
-Hick’s Law: linear relationship between the log of the number of stimulus-
response pairs and the choice reaction time
-e.g. double the number of S-R alternatives = constant increase in choice
reaction time
-the more decisions you have to make, the slower your reaction time
-as you increase the number of decisions, the effects hold but is lesser and
lesser (asymptote effect)
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Document Summary
Chapter 1 review questions: present 4 reasons suggested by the authors as to why we need to study skills. (4 marks) Important for teachers and coaches to know how to teach skills most effectively. High level skills need even more practice and learning. Pro ciency with job skills are necessary to produce effective work: guthrie (1952) discusses 4 important characteristics of skilled performance. List and discuss each of them. (4 marks) Skills involve some type of environmental goal (i. e. end goal in mind) Maximizing the certainty of a goal achievement (i. e. not dependent on luck) Minimizing the physical and mental energy costs of performance (minimal energy expenditure) Note that speed often causes higher energy expenditure and more error, therefore you balance all 4 features to produce effective movement: list and elaborate on the necessary steps in order to properly execute a skill. (6 marks) Integrating many different forms of sensory input signals (visual, auditory, etc. )
