MECHANISMS INVOLVED IN
LEARNING A PHYSICAL SKILL
Input & Information Processing
Week 3
Key Content
Input – the senses
 Information processing

Perceptual mechanism
 Single channel hypothesis
 Selective attention
 Role of memory

4 Stage Model of Processing a
Physical Skill
1.
2.
3.
4.

Input – received via
the senses
Information
processing
Output
Feedback
See page 19
1. Input
Information we receive
about the skill
Simplified Model
2. Processing
How the information is
processed to make a
decision
3. Output
How we respond to the
decision made
4. Feedback
How we evaluate the
information we receive
about our performance
Input – the senses

Your senses are responsible for detecting
pieces of information (cue) and conveying
them to the brain
 The information and signals we receive about
the skill from our senses
Vision
 Hearing
 Touch
 Equilibrium: _________________________
____________________________________
 Proprioception: ______________________
____________________________________

Information Processing

Now that your _______ have detected cues
and transferred them to the brain you need to
process the information to make it useful
 In this way we are very much like a ________
 Three very important devices carry out these
processes:



Perceptual mechanism
Decision-making mechanism
Effector mechanism
Perceptual Mechanism



Responsible for interpretation of sensory
information
Signal detection (ability to detect cues) is
imperative for successful performance
Factors that affect your signal detection are:
1. Ability of the sense organs
2. Strength of the cue
3. Noise
4. Speed of the cue
5. Level of arousal
Signal Detection Activity (p.44
Nelson)

Discussion questions:
1. What is signal detection?
 2. Explain which signal (or cue) was easier
to respond to and how this affected the
results
 3. Were the results for the second trial
different from the first? Explain
 4. What implications does this have for the
processing of information in a sporting
situation?

Ability of the Sense Organs
Also known as sensory acuity
 Affects your ability to initially detect the
many cues that occur
 Vision is most important

Strength of the Cue

Cues are easier to detect if the signal is
very intense
Eg: yellow footballs for night, yellow tennis
balls on a clay court
 Other examples?

Noise

_________ cues in the environment that can
distract a performer
 Relevant cues vs. Noise


Need to be able to ignore noise and concentrate on
the relevant signal detection
Not just audible distractions!




Sun
Crowd movement
Smell of a nearby BBQ!
Crowd cheering
Speed of the Cue
Or, length of time the cue is present
 Longer a cue is available the more likely
it is to be detected


Eg: 200km/hr serve doesn’t give much time
to detect the spin, angle and speed
Level of Arousal

Arousal is the amount of mental energy or
preparedness a person has prior to
performance
 Need to have _________ arousal so that you
are ready to detect cues
 Two types of arousal can impact negatively on
performance


Under-aroused: too _________ or disinterested
Over-aroused: too _________ or over-excited
Optimal Arousal Level
At this point the highest degree of
learning and performance occurs
 Varies from person to person
 Coach needs to have skills in detecting
individual optimal arousal levels


Eg: Roger Federer now vs.
early in his career
The Senses – Case Study

View the two photos
1. For each photo what skill is being
depicted?
2. What are the senses and corresponding
sensory cues needed to perform each skill?
3. How could you modify equipment to
enhance the ability of the sense to detect
cues from the environment?
Media Analysis – “The Zone”
Read the article on pages 24 & 25
 Your thoughts…

What is the zone referring to?
 Do you believe in the zone? Why/why not?
 What are some key parts to being in “the
zone”?
 Can you think of some elite performances of
athletes being in “the zone”?

Single Channel Hypothesis
Human information processor can only
deal with one cue at a time
 Multiple cues must ______
 Therefore, if you reduce the amount of
information (cues) you can decrease the
processing time required

Selective Attention

It would take to long to process every cue and
you often don’t have enough time on a
sporting field to wait
 An experienced athlete can filter out ________
information (selective attention)
 This helps to focus more on the relevant cues
 Selective attention is affected by:



Level of arousal
Experience and anticipation
Quality of instruction
Selective Attention

Experience and anticipation



Skilled performer trains to concentrate on relevant
cues and disregard irrelevant cues
Past experiences help to enable the performer to
respond to familiar cues (and anticipate the
movements of team mates and opponents)
Quality of instruction



Beginners often don’t know what to concentrate on
A good coach can help to identify and direct
learners to attend to the most appropriate cues by
providing instructions on why they are important
What else can the coach do?

Page 27
Role of Memory
See diagram on page 28
 Information can be stored temporarily or
permanently
 Three types of memory

Short term sensory store
 Short term memory
 Long term memory

Short Term Sensory Store
_________ capacity
 But can only remember for 1 second
 Therefore, selective attention selects
more relevant information and sends it
the short term memory

Short Term Memory

Limited capacity

5-9 items (7 plus or minus 2)
60 seconds duration
 ‘Working’ memory


Learner can use it to improve performance
by remembering coaching information and
making corrections and modifications
Short Term Memory

Short term memory is affected by:

Chunking (coding)




Noise (distraction, interference)
Meaningfulness (relevance)


Way of increasing amount of information that can be
remembered
Eg: Ph numbers – 5428 3691 not 54283691
More likely to remember if you believe it is relevant to your
task
Rehearsal (practice)


Must rehearse information for it to be transferred into short
term memory
Needs to occur as soon as possible
Long Term Memory

Unlimited capacity
 ___________ stores information for future use
 Rehearsal is necessary to allow for information
transfer from short term memory
 Retains experiences so that you can recognise
and compare them with new incoming
information

Motor programs can be stored and then modified
as needed for new tasks
Memory Test
Activity 12, page 30
 Complete with a partner
 Respond to questions

Decision-Making Mechanism
Final stage of information processing
 Constructs a plan of action (motor
program) to enact an appropriate
physical response
 Located in the short term memory


Long term memory can send a motor
program to STM and it is compared to
information located here to devise the most
appropriate response
Homework Tasks

In your own words define the following key
terms:








Proprioception
Perceptual mechanism
Signal detection
Noise
Optimal arousal
Selective attention
Chunking
Devise three questions to ask a partner
regarding this section