chapter
1
Fundamental
Concepts
Characteristics of Motor Development
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•
•
•
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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
Measurement of
interest
– 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
Research Study Designs
Typical in Development
• Longitudinal
Measurement of
interest
– 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
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 selfassemble 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.