Literature Review- Keith Cozart

Keith Cozart Commented on group 4 DAN WARD lit review and group 1 Shellee Dawalt

Physical Learning

Keith A. Cozart

Ball State University

September 26, 2015

Strategies for Teaching Adults- EDAC 635

Professor Bo Chang

Abstract

This paper focuses on Physical Learning within adult education.   It will describe notable definitions and aspects, identify major academic and physical learning scholars contributing to its’ honing and importance, compare and contrast a few of its many scopes and intersection with other learning theories and identify its most compelling significance to adult learning.  Thereafter the paper will draw conclusions and implications based on the reviewed material.

Physical Learning

The process of Physical Learning can be alternatively labeled or referenced in many different ways.  Kinesthetic, tactile, performance, motor, agility, coordination, muscle and skill learning/training are a few alternate and accurate examples of Physical Learning.  While there is a sparse amount of adult education literature aimed at learning that is physical (MacKeracher, 2004), the level of importance within education is paramount.  Physical learning along with visual and auditory stimuli fully connects our senses to learning new material more deeply.  We rely on professionals who have honed skilled skills acquired through physical learning.  To name a few, such service professions as surgeon, pilot, carpenter, aerobic instructor, piano teacher, electrician and military person all require high levels of training that is physical.

Physical learning takes place when students carry out physical activities rather than listening to a lecture or watching demonstrations.  Dorothy MacKeracher (2004, pp. 141) identifies what is involved in physical learning as follows:

·      coordinating body movement and orienting the body in physical space (balance);

·      using tools and resources effectively/efficiently;

·      improving muscular strength, flexibility, body-image and cardiovascular conditioning;

·      learning new or improving physical skills required for activities such as athletics, arts/crafts, music, home improvement, workplace tasks;

·      maintaining and improving eye-hand coordination;

·      adaptation of existing skills based on life changes such as aging, injury or disability.

Through her examples it is clear that the scope of physical learning is extremely broad.  With that in mind, the focus of this literature review will aim at two areas of physical learning, Muscle Memory and Motor Skills with specific attention paid to the following:

·      the acquisition of skilled motor performance;

·      shifts in task routines during the learning of a motor skill;

·      the effects of practice schedules on learning and performance;

·      muscle memory and its’ independence from the nervous system.

General Themes of Reviews

The learning of a new or improved motor skill is a process.  In developing motor function, enhanced performance and muscle memory it has been proposed that such skills are developed in two stages: fast learning, an initial in session improvement time and slow learning, occurring after a break period of consolidating of new material occurs and where-after delayed incremental gains in performance are made with repetitive practice (Karni, Meyer, Rey-Hipolito, Jezzard, Adams, Turner & Underleider, 1998).  In short, initially learn the overview, allow for a settling period then try again repeatedly.  In the world of percussion, learning a new rhythm or drum technique aligns with the proposed stages.  Muscle memory required to play percussive instruments takes time and one of the most crucial events between stages is marked by the consolidation time.  Not only does it allow for the settling of new material/coordination/rhythm, but also helps alleviate frustration and fatigue.  Adults accumulate past experience and prior learning that is reflected upon during time of consolidation (MacKeracher, 2004) validating the learning stage process’s overall importance.

During the stages of motor skill learning, it is suggested by Adi-Japha, Karni, Loewenschuss, Parnes and Vakil (2008) that a shift in task routine occurs.  They describe a transient phase during a motor skill training process where after an initial increase in movement speed and a decrease in variability, the learner experienced a significant increase in variability along with no change in speed.  Thereafter the learner again showed decreased variability but demonstrated more clear coherence.  Stages in the learning process whether procedural, sequential, experiential or other manner directly affect learning efficiency and outcomes.  The transient phase is another reminder for the need of a settling period (consolidation time).

When learning any activity that requires muscle memory aimed for highly skilled performance such as music, ceramics and carpentry, the need for effective practice schedules and routines are important.  These highly skilled motor functions are extremely evident within sports and athletics.  For example, a major league baseball player at bat relies on his muscle memory to swing at the ball.  His body knows what it feels like to swing the bat hence improving his chances at making contact. The development of such skills takes a lot of time. Measuring the effects of practice schedule on performance gain can help increase results.  A study on low verses high-skill leveled tennis students show results that initial competency plays a part in how practice schedules are established and implemented (Hebert, Landin & Solmon, 1996).  Low-skill level students (beginner to intermediate) showed more improvement using a blocked practice schedule verses that of alternating, whereas the higher skill level students showed no significant gain from one schedule verses the other.  This study may indicate the importance of focused block learning for beginners that is more singular verses varied in the initial process of learning a new motor function.

Muscle memory makes or breaks the competency of any physically performed task requiring immediate reaction, results, speed, care, intricacy, repetition or accuracy.  So what is muscle memory?  Is it real?  Can muscles drive behavior and action independent from the nervous system?  A study by Liu and Jorgensen (2011) shows that while neuron input is likely require for initial muscle reactions, but that muscles can fire without.  This suggests that muscles retain movement codes from previous repetition.  While the description is morbid, muscle memory can be demonstrated the be-heading of a chicken.  When a chicken is to be butchered, often times the process is to remove the head.  After decapitation, the body of the chicken may run around, crow or even fly.  All of these happen without the input of the brain. This and other examples of muscle movement acting independently from conscious brain function will be a primary part of my research. 

Beginners should expectedly require more blocked time spent on specific processes, honing newly found skills with lots of repetition in concentrated time frames.  More advanced student within motor function such as athletics are less effected by block scheduling, making the option for separated schedule sessions warranted for different skill levels.

Implications

Learning motor skills and muscle memory takes time.  Any technically driven physical movement requires practice and repetition.  Patience along the process is crucial for mental and physical wellbeing.  Understanding the learning process helps learning facilitators structure materials/sessions in ways that implement known aids to the learning process.  By recognizing stages of fast learning followed by consolidation of new material (settling period) and a return to slow learning, facilitators can ease frustration, encourage the process and retain learners.  Learners will experience stages in the learning process.  Recognizing as typical or not can aid learners and facilitators become more effective and efficient with their time together and practicing separately. 

As research continues, it becomes more apparent that muscle memory can happen without the specific firing of neurons to stimulate muscle movement.  Through repetition, balanced practice routines and schedules that aim to acknowledge staged learning patterns in learning new motor function, facilitators can gear lesson plans to accommodate more productive and enjoyable learning processes.  In the end, the learning process should not be a “races to the finish line.”

Reflections Highlights

     The process of learning motor skills is complex and has many facets.  Based on the review of the above literature the following observations are made:

1.     Motor skill learning is a stage process that is best facilitated by a quick initial learning stage followed by a consolidation time ending with a more slow/deep learning stage.

2.     Settling time between learning stages are important.

3.     Beginners may need a different practice structure than more advanced students.

4.     Muscle memory is mysterious but real and worthy of much more research.

Reflecting the Process

     I rarely use collegiate databases to search for article/journals.  This process is new to me.  In the future I aim to get an earlier start on collecting materials.  I found that most all references contained a large amount of vocabulary and terminology that I did not know, using many scientific, mathematical, medical and biological terms.  When discussing physical learning, I now understand more fully the amount of work I have to perform based on my lack such vocabulary.  Lastly, the subject of muscle memory and physical learning is a relatively untapped area of professional scholarship and development, while it is something most everyone implements/practices on a regular basis.  Muscle memory is something we all aspire to improve upon without conscious effort.  From babies learning how to hold their bottle, kids learning the control panel on a video game system, young adults learning to drive a car, to adults working on home improvements, we just do it. 

Physical Learning	Main Themes and Ideas	Application/Implications
The Acquisition of Skilled Motor Performance	Fast and slow experience-driven changes occur in primary motor cortex during learning process.	Skilled motor performance is acquired in several stages: “fast” learning, an initial, within-session improvement phase, followed by a period of consolidation of several hours duration, and then “slow” learning, consisting of delayed, incremental gains in performance emerging after continued practice.
A Shift in Task Routine During the Learning of a Motor Skill	Describes a transient phase during training on a movement sequence wherein, after an initial improvement in speed and decrease in variability, individual participants’ performance showed a significant increase in variability without change in mean performance speed.	Mindful attention paid to learning phases can result in more effective and efficient learning process in the acquisition of learning motor skills.
Practice Schedule Effects on Learning	Measuring the effects of block verses alternating practice schedules on skill building (tennis).	Manipulating practice routines in physical skill building has a larger effect on low-skilled learners verses that of high-skilled.  Block practice schedule showed increases post-testing performance.
Muscle Memory	Can muscles really drive behavior independently from the nervous system?	Understanding the nervous system and how repetitive movement may become separated from the system (ie. becomes muscle memory) shows evidence that such training can produce rhythmic muscle contractions independent from neuronal input; indicating that muscle memory may become much as the heart (muscle), involuntary.

References

Adi-Japha, E., Karni, A., Loewenschuss, I., Parnes, A., & Vakil, E., (2008). A shift in task routines during the learning of a motor skill. Journal of experimental psychology, 34(6), 1544-1551. doi: 10.1037/a0013217

Hebert, E., Landin, D., & Solmon, M. (1996). Practicing schedule effects on the performance and learning of low and high skilled students. Research quarterly for exercise and sport, 67(1), 52-58.

Jorgensen, E., & Liu, Q. (2011). Perspectives muscle memory. The Journal of Psychology, 589(4), 775-776.

Karni, A., Meyer, G., Rey-Hipolitos, C., Jezzard, P., Adams, M., Turner, R. & Underleider, L., (1998). The acquisition of skilled motor performance. National academy of sciences, 95(3), 861-868.

MacKeracher, D. (2004). Making sense of adult learning (2nd ed.). Toronto, Canada: University of Toronto Press.

Merriam, S. B., Caffarella, R. S., & Baumgartner, L. M. (2007). Learning in adulthood. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.