Jordyn Sinert ; Word count = 2071

Part 1

1a. Neurophysiology (Neural and Sensory Contributions to Movement)

Draws on concepts connected with attention and memory, vision and proprioception

Topic 1 : There are multiple concepts to know about neurophysiology. The brain in the
center of most control of the body. The bodies nervous system plays a large role in receiving
and distributing signals to the rest of the body. The Nervous system is responsible for
movement, execution, control, and preparation. There are two parts to the nervous system the
Central Nervous System and the Peripheral Nervous System. The Central Nervous System is the
brain and the spinal cord. Its purpose is to receive and decode sensory info, make decisions,
carry out responses, and generate signals. The Peripheral Nervous System is made up of nerves
that extend from the brain to the spinal cord. These nerves connect the body and the CNS. It is
all connected. The Peripheral nervous system is split into two categories. The afferent system is
in charge of changing in environment and goes toward the CNS. The Efferent system is in charge
of motor movement and goes away from the CNS. These systems are sensory based. Sensory
information allows us to respond to stimuli. Proprioception in the continuous flow of
information that is received from the receptors located throughout the whole body. These
receptors can be found in the muscles, tendons, joints and the inner ears because they control
movement and body position. Vision plays an enormous role in perception and sense. Vision is
the ability see but there’s much more to it. There are two main systems for vision, the focal
system and the ambient system. The focal system is the function of the body identifying objects
the vision is primarily focused in the center of the vision field, so not the peripheral but the
center. The ambient system is used for space and location so where things are located and how
far away, they are from you. This system helps with stability, balance, speed, and direction.
Vision is used in all types of performance. It’s used not only to detect stimuli but its used to
make movements, decisions, and give feedback. The last topic of neurophysiology is memory.
Memory connects to all these topics because in order to form memories you usually need to be
able to see them. Memory is the ability to store information. There are multiple parts to
memory. The first stage of memory is the sensory memory this is when information enters the
system. This can lead to two things it can either leave and you forget it in seconds, or it can go
into the working memory. The working memory is information processing, so you use the
memory and relate it to something in your schema or its carried out to make decisions, perform
tasks, or learn. If this memory is used enough and you keep remembering it, it goes into your
long term memory. The long-term memory’s capacity is limitless and can last forever.
1a. Instructions and Augmented Information
Draws on research findings and concepts showing that little or no learning takes place
without knowledge of results of performance

Topic 2: Learning cannot take place unless there is performance or assessment. I’ll use a real life
example. I explain the game of lacrosse to you. You won’t truly understand how to play unless
you actually play the sport. I can tell you how to catch and throw but you’ve never picked up a
stick, so you need to practice and that’s how you learn. You learn from performing tasks. If you
can’t perform a task, then you learned nothing except how to do it and that doesn’t mean you
physically know how to. This goes with any task. If you’re a teacher and you’re teaching
students, you won’t truly know if they are learning unless they perform the activity or skill. This
then leads to feedback and improvement and that’s all park of the learning process. bl

1b. These topics interest me because they have to do with the field I am going into. The first
topic interests me because knowing how the body works is so fascinating to me. You have this
body you should know how it works. It’s also interesting because I’m going to be a physical
educator and if you don’t know about how the body works and how different people are wired.
it can be very hard to teach and help your students. Not only is it the student’s body but it is the
environment around them that affects their learning. The second topic interests me because if
you don’t have results of performance how can you progress and become a better learner. If
you don’t know if it’s working. A huge part of physical education is seeing what works and what
doesn’t work. Feedback is key.

1c. The Single Leg Balance lab helped me understand proprioception a lot better. I know that
proprioception is about body position and movement so when I was doing the lab, having to
close my eyes made it much harder to balance especially on one leg with my eyes closed and
head tilted. When my vision was taken away the sensory was taken away too. Making it difficult
to balance. The Sixth Sense lab helped me understand performance and results better. It helped
me because this man had to break down every single movement that he did and had to re-learn
how to move which showed results. His movements depended on having visual contact at all
time with surrounding objects, this also covers proprioception and sensory information. lastly,
The Memory Bench Test by Human Benchmark was able to help me with memory and to see
how well my memory was. This helped me understand more because I was physically doing it
and seeing the results.

2a & b. Topic 1: The first article mainly talks about how neural circuits are responsible for the
control of movement. The article is relevant to the topic because it talks directly about how
neural and sensory contributions to movement. The second article Is important because it
explains how we wouldn’t be able to move certain ways unless we had certain sensory
pathways. It also talks about how the environment plays a role in movement and receiving
sensory information. This is helpful in learning and understanding the topics because it directly
explains how motor movement is affected by multiple different sensory systems.
2a & b . Topic 2 The first article “Performance Assessment: What Is It and Why Use It?” The
article talks about performance assessments and why they are important to students.
Performance assessment is especially useful for assessing students’ achievements of complex
leaning standards, assessing their ability to apply concepts they learned (Brockhart 2016).
Performance tasks must be carefully designed so that the student responses really do give
evidence of the knowledge and skills we are trying to assess (Brockhart 2016). Learning is
defined as the permanent change in behavior. This is important because it shows learning
progress. This article is important because if you learn that something is wrong, you won’t do It
again. This goes for motor skills too if you learn you’re doing the skill wrong you are going to
perform it differently. Feedback is key when learning. This is also explained in the article
“Effectiveness of knowledge of result and knowledge of performance in the learning….”
Feedback Is very important while learning motor skills and movements. Feedback is essential for
learning to take place. Augmented feedback plays two major roles: the first is to facilitate goal
achievement of the skill, and the second is to motivate the learner to continue striving towards
a goal Knowledge of results can be described as the information related to the performance
outcome, whereas knowledge of performance is related to specific movement component
characteristic (J Phys Ther Sci 2016 May). The importance of these articles is it specifically talks
about the knowledge of results of performance in motor skills and motor learning, and how
feedback and performance is essential for learning to occur. Both these articles helps me
understand the topic better because it talked about how results of performance affects the
learning of anyone especially students.

2c.
Having knowledge about motor learning and motor control is very important for my
professional field. I am becoming a physical educator. Motor learning is the brains ability to
develop control over the body’s movements. The goal is to have control and perform coordinated
movements. Motor learning is a response to the environment. Motor control is the ability for the
brain to perform movement controllably and smoothly. In order for students to do activities they
need to learn to perform basic motor skills well. Motor learning is helping students develop new
physical skills by training them to work certain muscles and that is a huge part of physical
education especially for younger students.

References
Hill, M. (2016, December 15). Performance Assessment: What Is It and Why Use It? Retrieved
from https://medium.com/inspired-ideas-prek-12/performance-assessment-what-is-it-
and-why-use-it-1394712c5d3

Parker, P. R., Brown, M. A., Smear, M. C., & Neill, C. M. (2020, June 22). Movement-
Related Signals in Sensory Areas: Roles in Natural Behavior. Retrieved from

https://www.cell.com/trends/neurosciences/fulltext/S0166-2236(20)30123-5

Purves, D. (1970, January 01). Neural Centers Responsible for Movement. Retrieved from
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK10995/

Sharma, D., Chevidikunnan, M., Khan, F., & Gaowgzeh, R. (2016, May). Effectiveness of
knowledge of result and knowledge of performance in the learning of a skilled motor
activity by healthy young adults. Retrieved from
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4905894/

Part 2

Topic B: Dynamical Systems

1.
The Dynamical Systems theory suggests that the body doesn’t carry out
movements through hierarchical patters, but the body moves because of self-
organization. Self-organization is the spontaneous emergence of movement pattern as a
result of the interaction of ever-changing organismic, environmental, and task
constraints placed on the learner (Coker 2018 ). There are multiple elements to the
system and not just one. The body is able to function and perform motor movements
from the dynamic interaction or the leaner, environment, and task and not from a
motor program. The body moves because of many different variables such as the body,
the skill and the environment. Motor program theories believe otherwise. The Motor
Program Theory suggests that the command center of the brain is what makes all
decisions for movement in the body. The signals are sent to the memory and then set
out to the rest of the body.

2.
Motor skills and movement are influenced from the environment, task, and
learner. These variables affect the movement of the body and performance of motor
 skills. These three variables are constraints. Constraints are defined as boundaries that
have a bearing on an individual’s movement capabilities (Coker 2018). Constraints are
usually seen as negative, but they can be positive as well. They effect the performance
of the skill. Individual constraints are the most seem. These tend to affect the ability of
motor movement. Individual constraints are biological and a person’s characteristics like
weight and height. Some personality traits would be anxiety, confidence, or motivation.
Another variable of an individual constraint could be how fit you are. For example,
power, speed, or flexibility. Some other biological constraints could be obesity or
arthritis or even missing limbs. These constraints can determine the rate someone
develops and is able to perform motor skills. Environmental constraints are based on
the physical environment around you this could be outdoors, indoors, lighting, gravity
etc... Environmental constraints can also be social this can include your peer’s family or
society in general. These might not seem as predominant as individual constraints, but
they still have any facts on the learner. Even the slightest things like light or wind can
change a lot. Temperature can be a big change if it’s extremely cold or extremely hot it
can change the activity or even affect the learner directly. Lastly, the task constraint. The
task itself can impose constraints on motor skill acquisition and performance. (Coker
2018)The three categories of test constraints our goals, rules, and the implements of
machines. goals are set do you have specific tasks to get an outcome. rules are set in
place to keep order. The implement of machines and equipment can affect the result of
movement pattern.

3.
These three constrains can affect a lot of your daily life. Sports is a great example
were Individual, environmental, and task constraints are all seen. Soccer is the sport of
choice. An individual constraint in soccer would be being faster or more powerful.
Kicking the ball harder or further and who will be the first to the ball or outrun the
defender. An environmental constraint would be wind. Playing on a windy day can put
the ball where you may not want it, it can also make it very hard to run. Lastly the Task,
the task is to have possession of the ball and the goal is to get the ball into the net to
score a goal. There are also rules which make it more difficult.

Reference

Coker, C. A. (2018). Motor learning and control for practitioners. Abingdon, Oxon:
Routledge.