Motor Learning Undergraduate Medical Essay Help Online
Essay Prompts
To complete this assignment, choose only Prompt A or Prompt B not both. A narrowly defined focus is required within the framework described by the prompts below.
Prompt A – Gentile’s Taxonomy
So far in our discussions in lecture and lab we focused on classifying motor skills by analyzing the nature of the environment and movement of the body. Use this essay to more deeply and specifically understand motor learning and control in relation to Gentile’s (1972, 1975, 2000) ideas, i.e., to explain how performers act in interaction with their environment (and all of the specificity we discussed in lecture about Gentile’s taxonomy regarding pacing of skill, moving objects, and anticipation timing). Your response may focus on any of the specific postulates or ideas related to the relative predictability or unpredictability of the environment, relative stability or change of the body, or body orientation in relation to the environment over a series of trials. Some very interesting ideas have recently been published on movement patterns and variability in response to complex and dynamic environments. These ideas have many implications across the professions.
Prompt B – Perception
For this essay topic define the role of perception in motor performance and motor learning, and then by using the support of the literature narrowly define a topic on the importance of perception and decision making in processing of information. For example you may chose to discuss how experts automate their operations to facilitate perception of information or how they elaborate on information to strengthen their memories; in addition, you may focus on how experts differ from novices in their perception or decision making speed. You may also choose to discuss the speed of reaction time in relation to the type of paradigm implemented and how this manipulation affects perception.
Undergraduate Motor Learning
The outcomes of the assignment are for students to
- obtain a critical understanding and the skills to apply theoretical and scientific knowledge from motor learning for personal fitness, healthy lifestyles, sport, teaching, and/or therapeutic rehabilitation.
- learn to effectively communicate, in written and verbal form, the essential theories, scientific application, and ethical considerations related to motor learning.
Introduction
The purpose of this assignment is to write a short essay about a scholarly area in the motor learning literature. Prompt A focuses on the ideas related to the classification of motor skills as discussed by Gentile (2000) and others (Poulton, 1957; Knapp, 1968). Prompt B focuses on information processing systems, specifically how perception and decision processes are related to motor information. An examination of either of the prompts will help you to further understand the theoretical and empirical knowledge of motor learning and they can help you to more effectively communicate in written form about motor learning. Choose either Prompt A or Prompt B.
In the sections below, broad parameters for the essay are presented; you will find the prompts to be somewhat vague. This is designed purposefully to allow each of you to create an original response to the prompt. For this essay use only published, peer reviewed materials found in scholarly journals to develop a 3-page, double spaced response to one of the two essay prompts below, i.e., interpret and apply scholarly information retrieved from the library databases that index motor behavior research. We have already completed the slide presentation (posted on the Modules page of Canvas) called Writing Scholarly Reviews. If necessary, review the presentation again prior to moving ahead with your search. A minimum of 3 scholarly sources is required for this assignment. The articles should be narrowly focused on a very specific idea related to the prompt. The sources can be found by virtually searching the University databases located in the Martin Luther King Jr. Library. Once you locate three appropriate and related articles print and/or save them. Read the complete articles thoroughly so that you can use the postulates and ideas presented to create your own essay. This type of essay will be a bit easier to write if you select empirical articles from the literature. Furthermore, determine your article selections by their relation to each other and your ideas on the topic. This will contribute to your development of a narrow focus that will represent a deeper understanding of a particular area. Use creativity in developing your specific direction and be sure to do original work.
Organization of the Essay
Use the Schmidt and Lee (2014) textbook to begin your search for ideas and to supplement your basic knowledge about the topics presented in the prompts. The essay may be specifically focused on any aspect of motor skills that is discussed in the prompts. Review your notes to help generate more keywords than given above, and then conduct a search of Sport Discus, Academic Search Complete, and all of the Psychology electronic databases in the University library. Use these electronic databases to locate scholarly sources for support of the essay. Access to electronic databases can be accessed through servers from off campus or on campus locations by following the instructions from the library homepage. You will need a current SJSU ID and a library PIN that can be obtained in the Martin Luther King Jr. Library circulation desk.
The information selected should be integrated with the other information you learned from reading the references you selected. Focus on, what did the researcher(s) study in terms of a research idea? What procedures did the researcher(s) follow? What were their findings? Do not use quotes, but rather use the information contained in the paper to benefit your own thinking about the ideas and motor learning. Paraphrase the thinking and then reference the source materials. You may use source information from class lectures and discussions too but only in addition to the 3 scholarly sources required. Your 3 page paper is supposed to be a scholarly review as in a summary of the purposes, methods, results, and discussions of empirical studies not a skill analysis or an opinion piece.
In the final paragraph of the essay or maybe even weaved throughout it you should make an attempt to apply the knowledge to your emphasis of study, e.g., identify how this information relates to adapted physical education, teaching physical education, movement science, corporate/private fitness, sport management, physical therapy, coaching, or athletic training. For example, a student in adapted physical education might examine how teaching certain tasks to individuals with disabilities might have to be shifted to allow for success of performance; an athletic trainer might discuss the progression of reacquainting a client to skills following injury.
Some Specific Requirements
- No more than three pages of text, double spaced
- A cover page should be attached on the top of the paper including a title for the paper and your name
- A reference list in APA format should be attached to the back of the paper
- All pages must be electronically submitted in one file
- A 12 point font and 1” margins should be used all around
- APA format 6th Edition should be used for referencing source materials and in the reference list
- The paper should contain a minimum of three paragraphs.
- Due by 11:59 pm on November 2, 2017 to be dropped into the appropriate drop box on the Assignments page of Canvas; please use the following file naming procedure for your submissions Firstname Lastname Essay 1.
- See rubric on the following page to better understand grading criteria
