PSYCHOMOTOR LEARNING

development of organized patterns of muscular activities in response to changing sensory signals from the environment. Any organized, conscious, brain-directed physical activity such as walking, playing an instrument, or performing a sport, is a psychomotor skill. Psychomotor skills can be accurately analyzed only in the laboratory, where scientists have devised specialized machines that require specific skills to operate. Researchers have concentrated specifically on coordinated movements of feet and arms, and hands and fingers, where rates of learning are easily measurable. About 20 different mechanical devices are commonly used to test a wide range of skilled actions. Scores such as correct-response-and-error percentages, range, speed and strength of hand or foot movements, and reaction time are computed mathematically and are useful in predicting how a subject would perform at applied tasks. Despite such variables as motivation and effectiveness of reinforcement that affect psychomotor learning even in the laboratory, researchers have constructed a formula which states that learning develops as a mathematical function of the amount of reinforced practice. Relevant feedback (information telling the subject how he is progressing) is necessary for learning to occur; the more feedback the subject receives, the faster he learns. Researchers have found that speed and accuracy increase rapidly in the first few practice periods and that the learning rate then drops off gradually the more one practices. In general, studies conclude that a learning schedule of short practice sessions broken up by rest periods is most efficient for learning psychomotor skills. Learning one skill may affect, positively or negatively, one's ability to learn a related skill in a phenomenon known as generalization, or transfer. Usually, the more related are the two tasks, the more generalization there will be. See training, transfer of. Motor skills are generally more easily remembered than are verbal skills. Researchers theorize that this greater retention is due to the fact that motor skills are more likely to be over-learned (repeated more often) than are verbal skills. Studies with twins indicate that perceptual, spatial, and motor abilities are, to a high degree, controlled by heredity. The factor that most influences motor ability is chronological age. Subjects generally grow more proficient from the age of 5 until the end of their 20s, when their abilities plateau for a few years and then slowly decline. Studies showing differences in psychomotor learning between the sexes and among ethnic groups remain controversial. Most experts agree that these differences are caused by a combination of environmental and hereditary factors, noting that environmental demands influence hereditary traits over generations. development of organized patterns of muscular activities guided by changing signals from the environment. Driving a car and eyehand coordination tasks such as drilling a tooth, throwing a ball, typing, operating a lathe, and playing a trombone are behavioral examples. Also called sensorimotor and perceptual-motor skills, they are studied as special topics in the experimental psychology of human learning and performance. In research concerning psychomotor skills, particular attention is given to the learning of coordinated activity of the arms, hands, fingers, and feet; the role of verbal processes is not emphasized. Additional reading A.L. Irion, A Brief History of Research on the Acquisition of Skill, in Edward A. Bilodeau (ed.), Acquisition of Skill (1966), contains an excellent historical survey. Robert S. Woodworth and Harold Schlosberg, Woodworth & Schlosberg's Experimental Psychology, 3rd ed. by J.W. Kling et al., 2 vol. (1972), is one of the best standard reference works. Clyde E. Noble, S-O-R and the Psychology of Human Learning, Psychological Reports, 18:923943 (1966), offers a brief introduction to human learning. Arthur Weever Melton (ed.), Apparatus Tests (1947), is a classic volume on psychomotor devices used in aviation psychology. Reviews of the psychomotor field can be found in two articles in Annual Review of Psychology: E.A. Bilodeau and I. McD. Bilodeau, Motor-Skills Learning, 12:243280 (1961); and Clyde E. Noble, The Learning of Psychomotor Skills, 19:203250 (1968); and in J.A. Adams, Historical Review and Appraisal of Research on the Learning, Retention, and Transfer of Human Motor Skills, Psychological Bulletin, 101(1):4147 (January 1987). Clark L. Hull, Principles of Behavior (1943, reissued 1966); and Kenneth W. Spence, Behavior Theory and Conditioning (1956, reprinted 1978), are two of the most influential books on general behaviour theory from the reinforcement viewpoint. Clyde E. Noble, A Theory of Psychomotor Skill: Derivation and Data, Psychonomic Science, 21:344 (1970), makes a specific application to psychomotor learning. Richard A. Schmidt, Motor Control and Learning: A Behavioral Emphasis, 2nd ed. (1988), discusses motor learning from a behavioral and physiological perspective. Two volumes presenting detailed information-processing analyses of skill are Paul M. Fitts and Michael I. Posner, Human Performance (1967, reprinted 1979); and A.T. Welford, Fundamentals of Skill (1968). K.M. Newell, Motor Skill Acquisition, Annual Review of Psychology, 42:213237 (1991), presents a more recent discussion of information processing in the acquisition of motor skills. E.A. Bilodeau (ed.), Principles of Skill Acquisition (1969), provides an eclectic, simplified treatment of current topics by several authors. Robert N. Singer, Motor Learning and Human Performance, 3rd ed. (1980), is oriented mainly toward athletic proficiency and physical education. Articles of specialized interest, as indicated by their titles, are J.A. Adams, Response Feedback and Learning, Psychological Bulletin, 70:486504 (1968); Clyde E. Noble, Acquisition of Pursuit Tracking Skill Under Extended Training As a Joint Function of Sex and Initial Ability, Journal of Experimental Psychology, 86:360373 (December 1970); and R.B. Payne, Functional Properties of Supplementary Feedback Stimuli, Journal of Motor Behavior, 2:3743 (1970). Clyde Everett Noble The Editors of the Encyclopdia Britannica