Richard A. Magill

Teachers College · Department of Biobehavioural Sciences

The article by Leech et al¹ provides a comprehensive review of motor learning literature and proposes a framework for clinical implementation of motor learning strategies across populations. We commend the authors for their efforts in addressing the topic of motor learning and its implication for physical therapist practice. They provide a systemat...

Background Children with cerebral palsy indicate poor continuous gait inter-limb coordination compared to typically developing children. Limited research exists in the understanding of the coordinative relationship between the arms and legs of these children and if the phasing relationships between limbs can be improved. Research Question: Which mo...

A spinal cord injury (SCI) frequently results in impaired balance, endurance, and strength with subsequent limitations in functional mobility and community participation. The purpose of this case report was to implement a training program for an individual with a chronic incomplete SCI using a novel divided-attention stepping accuracy task (DASAT)...

Based on Gentile's learning model, this study used a dart-throwing task to investigate the influence of environmental context. Novice participants (N = 32) were trained in one of four conditions, while measuring outcomes and kinematics. The interaction of regulatory conditions (stationary/in motion) and intertrial variability (present/absent) creat...

Based on Gentile’s learning model, this study used a dart-throwing task to investigate the infl uence of environmental context. Novice participants (N = 32) were trained in one of four conditions, while measuring outcomes and kinematics. The interaction of regulatory conditions (stationary/in motion) and intertrial variability (present/absent) crea...

This study investigated the generalizability of results of contextual interference effects by extending previous laboratory research to a field setting. Thirty female subjects (N = 30) learned three badminton serves in either a blocked (low interference), serial (mixed interference), or random (high interference) practice schedule. The subjects pra...

Previous investigations regarding activity during the post-knowledge of results (KR) interval have considered the performance of interference groups over KR-supplied acquisition trials as indicative of effects upon learning. The absence of transfer tests in these studies, however, preclude such an assumption. Indeed, the use of a retention test in...

For this study, we investigated the effects of self-controlled practice on learning multiple motor skills. Thirty participants were randomly assigned to self-control or yoked conditions. Participants learned a three-keystroke pattern with three different relative time structures. Those in the self-control group chose one of three relative time stru...

Load carriage walking is frequently associated with low back pain. Mechanical stress is a potential cause of such pain, and a lack of coordination variability may produce mechanical stress. We tested the hypothesis that coordination variability would decrease during load carriage walking. We examined the trunk-thigh coordination variability in the...

For this study, we investigated the effects of self-controlled practice on learning multiple motor skills. Thirty participants were randomly assigned to self-control or yoked conditions. Participants learned a three-keystroke pattern with three different relative time structures. Those in the self-control group chose one of three relative time stru...

Theoretical views of movement representation in memory range from positions which rely upon response-produced feedback as an integral part of the stored representation to perspectives which claim that a memory record is abstract in nature, void of any sensory details. Previous investigations that varied the storage-test conditions using a short-ter...

To better understand the contextual interference effect, in two experiments we investigated a form of practice schedule that provided novices with systematic increases in contextual interference. This new type of practice schedule was compared with traditional blocked and random scheduling for two types of sports skills. In Experiment 1, we tested...

The authors investigated whether the knowledge of results (KR) schedule influences the extent to which intrinsic feedback is noticed and used. Fifty-six participants received KR that was either delayed over 2 trials (Delay-2) or provided directly after each trial (Delay-0) during 160 trials of an unfamiliar aiming task. No-KR retention tests were g...

Sleep deprivation can impair alertness and cognitive and motor performance. We hypothesized that the amino acid tyrosine might reduce deleterious effects of sleep deprivation. Seventy-six healthy males, age 18-35 years, participated in a four-day protocol that included a habituation night, a baseline night, a 40.5 h period without sleep, and a reco...

Cognitive and motor performance are critical in many circumstances and are impaired by sleep deprivation. We administered placebo, tyrosine 150 mg/kg, caffeine 300 mg/70 kg, phentermine 37.5 mg and D-amphetamine 20 mg at 15.30 h following overnight sleep deprivation and compare their effects on cognitive and motor performance in healthy young men....

The goal of this study was to investigate in non-impaired humans the interaction between explicit and implicit learning in a catching task. The situation presented probabilistic contingencies between visual signals and various final pathways of the target. Subjects were asked to practice the interception task for 320 trials. Explicit instructions d...

Forty participants (age range = 18-35 years) practiced 1 of 2 versions of an aiming task (with or without spring resistance). Knowledge of results (KR) was provided to them either immediately or after a delay of 2 trials. Immediate KR led to significantly more accurate performance during the 80 trials in acquisition but significantly less accurate...

There have been inconsistent findings concerning the Magill and Hall ( 1990) hypothesis that the contextual interference (CI) effect should not be found when learning task variations requires only parameter modifications of the same generalized motor program (GMP). This study reexamined the hypothesis by dissociating measures related to GMP learnin...

Verbal reports were collected from experienced performers during acquisition trials of a novel throwing task and summarized as cognitive performance strategies. These strategies were incorporated in the practice regimen of 8 novices with no sport experience who learned the same task. A control group of 8 novices practiced the task without the exper...

This article discusses the acquisition of knowledge about environmental regulatory features that guide the selection and execution of movements involved in performing open motor skills. First, empirical evidence related to the visual search characteristics of skilled and novice performers is considered to demonstrate that learning environmental reg...

This article discusses the acquisition of knowledge about environmental regulatory features that guide the selection and execution of movements involved in performing open motor skills. First, empirical evidence related to the visual search characteristics of skilled and novice performers is considered to demonstrate that learning environmental reg...

Adjustments of the biphasic movement in a coincidence anticipation task were studied using an erroneous knowledge of results (KR) paradigm. Forty participants received either no KR, correct KR, erroneous (+100 ms) KR, or 100 trials of correct KR followed by 50 trials of erroneous KR. Kinematic analyses revealed that for this 100-50 KR group the ext...

This study extended previous work (Sekiya, Magill, Sidaway, & Anderson, 1994) by examining whether the contextual interference (CI) effect could be found when task variations were controlled by the same generalized motor program (GMP) but differentiated on the basis of overall force parameter modifications. A subsidiary aim of this study was to det...

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether learning benefits in multiple-task learning situations are a result of contextual interference or of schema enhancement related to the amount of variability in the practice session. Two experiments were designed that replicated and extended the experiment reported by Wulf and Schmidt (1988). In a...

Visual demonstration and knowledge of performance (KP) were investigated interactively by providing subjects with either an expert model demonstration or detailed verbal instructions of a rhythmic gymnastics rope skill, and were given either KP or no KP. Female subjects (N = 48) practiced for 54 trials on one day followed by 20 transfer trials on t...

Two hypotheses were investigated. These were generated from results reported by Buekers, Magill, and Sneyers (1994) and an uncertainty account of those and other effects on skill learning of erroneous knowledge of results (KR). The first hypothesis proposes that if experienced performers have developed the capability of detecting and correcting err...

Magill and Hall (1990) hypothesized that the contextual interference (CI) effect is found only when task variations to be learned are governed by different generalized motor programs (GMPs). The present experiments examined their hypothesis by requiring subjects to learn variations of a tapping task that had either different (Experiment 1) or the s...

Previous research has shown that erroneous knowledge of results (KR) biased subjects' performance during retention trials for an anticipation timing task (Buekers, Magill, & Hall, 1992). The present experiment extended that work by investigating effects on novel transfer. During acquisition, three groups received either correct KR, erroneous KR, or...

Augmented feedback is a common component of the communication between instructor and student in skill learning. In this article, the argument is made that the effective use of augmented feedback depends on understanding the various effects of augmented feedback on skill learning and the conditions characterizing the occurrence of each effect. Four...

In a recent study, Buekers, Magill, and Hall (1992) showed that even when verbal knowledge of results (KR) was redundant with sensory feedback, erroneous KR influenced the learning of motor skills. To determine why this occurred, we conducted two experiments. In Experiment 1, subjects performed 50 practice trials on a complex anticipation task and...

Feedback is important in teaching. This paper examines feedback research in physical education, discusses factors explaining certain inconsistencies, and questions the essential role of teacher feedback in motor skill learning. Research suggests that more is known about teachers' feedback patterns than about the effects of teacher feedback on achie...

Currently, a popular model for the central representation of motor skills is embodied in Schmidt's schema theory of discrete motor skill learning (Schmidt, 1975). Two experiments are reported here that contrast predictions from a schema abstraction model that is the basis for schema theory with those from an exemplar-based model of motor skill memo...

Given the need for a memory representation of well-learned motor skills, a common assumption in motor behavior is that this knowledge is stored in a central, abstracted form. Active production of motor skills has not been used in experimental designs that have provided empirical support for this view of representation, however. Much of the faith in...

Even though it can be shown that verbal knowledge of results (KR) is redundant with sensory feedback for learning certain motor skills, such findings do not eliminate the possibility that when KR is available it influences underlying learning processes. In order to examine the function of KR more closely, two experiments were designed in which the...

Two opposing views of the role of verbal knowledge of results (KR) during learning argue that KR adds essential information to sensory feedback that aids skill learning or that KR is redundant with visual feedback and is therefore not essential for learning this skill. These views were compared in four experiments that involved learning a coinciden...

The contextual interference effect is a learning phenomenon where interference during practice is beneficial to skill learning. That is, higher levels of contextual interference lead to poorer practice performance than lower levels while yielding superior retention and transfer performance. This rather counterintuitive effect, first demonstrated by...

Teaching physical education involves many decisions concerning the planning, carrying out, and evaluation of instruction of motor skills. The argument is forwarded here that research in motor learning provides information that the physical educator can use to develop an effective basis for making these decisions. This decision-making base develops...

Research investigating the preparation and control of rapid, multisegmented responses typically has assumed complete programming of the response occurring prior to movement initiation and has made use of a simple reaction time (RT) paradigm. A notable exception is Rosenbaum's work which proposed the Hierarchical Editor (HED) model that is specifica...

Information presented from an external source to a learner following a practice response is commonly termed 'knowledge of results' (KR). The importance of KR can be demonstrated by observing the influence on learning of interval length or activity conditions following the receipt of KR during the post-KR interval. The traditional view is that if in...

The present experiment assessed a traditional assumption regarding the informational role of knowledge of results (KR) in motor learning. The assumption is that learning is facilitated to the degree that KR is used to reduce goal-directed error. To test the assumption we examined two specific predictions that have been made with respect to post-KR...

This paper proposes an alternative format for reporting thesis/dissertation research that should lead to more rapid publication of quality research. The purposes of the thesis/dissertation and characteristics and limitations of the traditional thesis/dissertation format are reviewed. This is followed by a discussion of the advantages of the alterna...

This chapter presents a conceptual synthesis of some related, and perhaps, previously unrelated empirical research. The impetus for this chapter arises primarily from our recent explorations of the so-called "contextual" "interference" effect (Lee & Magill, 1983a, 1983b; Lee, Magill & Weeks, 1984; Magill & Lee, 1984) and specifically, the inability...

Since the publication of Schmidt's (1975) schema theory of motor learning, numerous studies have assessed the variability of practice hypothesis. Of these, only research using children as subjects has provided consistent results. Findings from adult studies have been equivocal. Two experiments were conducted to assess the possibility that the sched...

This study measured the differences in motor output between groups of 8- and 10-yr.-old learning disabled and normal boys. Variability of motor output was investigated by having children learn an alternating tapping task to a criterion of a specified number of taps per minute and then having them transfer to more difficult tapping tasks with the sa...

The study of context effects is considered as a means of gaining insights into learning, memory, and control processes in motor behavior. To illustrate this, four issues are discussed in terms of how specific context manipulations can shed light on these processes. These four issues relate to: (a) memory representation; (b) the acquisition-test rel...

Memory and Control of Action focuses on memory and control processes as they relate to action. It discusses the evidence related to memory and motor control processes from various perspectives, including views and research evidence from researchers engaged in the study of cognitive, verbal, and/or motor behavior processes. By combining these works,...

Investigated the relationship between physical stimulus and psychological response in 2 experiments to determine whether there exists a prothetic or a metathetic continuum. In Exp I, using 27 right-handed undergraduates, this relationship was examined for a movement having the final limb position, or location, as its goal. Exp II, using 21 right-ha...

Three experiments, with 84 undergraduates, investigated the paradox that randomly ordering practice trials during motor-skill acquisition is detrimental to practice performance (relative to blocked or repetitively ordered trials) but facilitates retention performance. Results of Exp I refute the notion that this contextual variety effect is actuall...

This anthology of papers is designed to serve both as a textbook and as a synthesis of research efforts in youth sport. Half of the 20 papers are reprinted from the first edition of this volume; of the remainder, some were written especially for this edition, while others are culled from journals and conference proceedings. Five subject sections co...

The purpose of this study was to determine the usefulness of the components of a knowledge of results (KR) statement for organizing response correction. Forty-eight subjects learned to move a handle to a criterion location on a linear positioning apparatus. Error direction and distance components of the KR statement were manipulated across four ind...

Children in grades 1 through 5 were classified as either participants or nonparticipants in organized youth sport programs. Relationships between sport participation and nonparticipation were examined by comparing the participants and nonparticipants on tests of perceptual-motor ability, self-concept, academic achievement, trait anxiety, and physic...

This study investigated the correlation among measures of perceptual-motor abilities, self-concept, and reading achievement and determined whether perceptual-motor ability and self-concept can predict reading achievement in the early elementary grades. A total of 105 boys and 108 girls from the first, and second and third grades were tested on the...

The schema theory prediction that variability of practice would influence the strength of the motor response schema was investigated. Three groups of subjects, defined by much, little, or no variability of distances moved in prior practice on a linear-slide apparatus, completed 12 initial practice trials. Subjects then had 10 trials to estimate a n...

This study examined the effect of the length of a series of movements on the recall of those movements. Subjects (n = 45) were randomly assigned to one of three experimental groups with each group recalling either three, six, or nine movements on a linear-slide apparatus. The subjects, while blindfolded, were presented with each movement by activel...

This study was designed to consider the effect of the length of and the type of activity during the post-KR interval on the acquisition of a serial positioning task. Male subjects (n=105) were assigned to one of seven experimental conditions. Six of these conditions were defined by the combination of three levels of interpolated activity (none, ver...

Verbal learning studies have generally indicated that for the serial learning of word lists, a U-shaped curve exists, i.e., the existence of a primacy and a recency effect. The purpose of this experiment was to investigate the existence of a similar curve for the learning of a serial-motor task. Male volunteer subjects (N = 105) were required to le...

It was hypothesized that, if RM-MT correlations are "essentially zero," then the magnitude of that correlation should not be subject to variation due to the manipulation of various experimental variables. In this experiment, Ss were tested with either RT-MT together or done separately. Results indicated significant relationships for 18 males but no...

The effect of a filled or unfilled post-KR interval during the acquisition phase of learning a blind positioning task was examined. The post-KR interval was either 2 or 30 sec., and was either unfilled or filled with a motor or verbal interpolated task. Ss were required to reach a learning criterion of three consecutive correct responses in positio...

Discusses the relative contributions of information from visual observation (VO) of an expert model vs verbal feedback (VF) in the acquisition of motor skills requiring body coordination and control. Female Ss learned a rhythmic gymnastics skill with either VO or verbal instructions and with vs without VF. Results suggest that VO and VF provide bot...

Microfiche (negative) of typescript. Vita. Thesis (Ph.D.)--Florida State University, 1974. Bibliography; leaves 77-81.