Motor learning and performance from principles to application 5th edition ebook pdf version

Motor Learning and Performance: From Principles to Application 5th Edition – Ebook PDF Version Visit to download the full and correct content document: https://ebookmass.com/product/motor-learning-and-performance-from-principles-to-a pplication-5th-edition-ebook-pdf-version/

Contents Dedication Preface Student and Instructor Resources Acknowledgments Credits Chapter 1: Introduction to Motor Learning and Performance Why Study Motor Skills?

The Science of Motor Learning and Performance Defining Skills Components of Skills Classifying Skills Understanding Performance and Learning Summary Part I: Principles of Human Skilled Performance Chapter 2: Processing Information and Making Decisions The Information-Processing Approach Reaction Time and Decision Making Memory Systems Summary Chapter 3: Attention and Performance What Is Attention?

Limitations in Stimulus Identification Limitations in Response Selection Limitations in Movement Programming Decision Making Under Stress Summary Chapter 4: Sensory Contributions to Skilled Performance Sources of Sensory Information Processing Sensory Information Principles of Visual Control Audition and Motor Control Summary

8

Chapter 5: Motor Programs Motor Program Theory Evidence for Motor Programs Motor Programs and the Conceptual Model Problems in Motor Program Theory: The Novelty and Storage Problems Generalized Motor Program Theory Summary Chapter 6: Principles of Speed, Accuracy, and Coordination Speed–Accuracy Trade-Offs Sources of Error in Rapid Movements Exceptions to the Speed–Accuracy Trade-Off Analyzing a Rapid Movement: Baseball Batting Accuracy in Coordinated Actions Summary Chapter 7: Individual Differences The Study of Individual Differences Abilities Versus Skills Is There a General Motor Ability?

Abilities and the Production of Skills Prediction and Selection Based on Ability Summary Part II: Principles of Skill Learning Chapter 8: Introduction to Motor Learning Motor Learning Defined How Is Motor Learning Measured?

Distinguishing Learning From Performance Transfer of Learning Summary Chapter 9: Skill Acquisition, Retention, and Transfer Skill Acquisition Skill Retention Skill Transfer Summary Chapter 10: Organizing and Scheduling Practice Off-Task Practice Considerations Organizing Practice and Rest Variable Versus Constant Practice Blocked Versus Random Practice Summary

9

Chapter 11: Augmented Feedback Feedback Classifications Functions of Augmented Feedback How Much Feedback to Give When to Give Feedback Summary Glossary References About the Authors

10

Preface Most of us feel tremendous excitement, pleasure, and perhaps envy when we watch a close race, match, or performance, focusing on the complex, well-controlled skills evidenced by the players or musicians. In these situations, we marvel at those who must succeed in executing their skill “on the spot”—at how the person with high-level skills is able to excel, sometimes under extreme “pressure” to do so.

This book was written for people who appreciate high-level skilled activity and for those who would like to learn more about how such incredible performances occur. Thus, readers in fields related directly to kinesiology and physical education (such as teaching and coaching) will benefit from the knowledge provided here. But the material extends far beyond these fields and should be relevant for those who study rehabilitation in physical and occupational therapy, as well as for instructors and facilitators of many other areas in which motor skills play an important role, such as music, ergonomics, and the military.

The text is intended for beginners in the study of skill and requires little knowledge of physiology, psychology, or statistical methodologies.

The level of analysis of the text focuses on motor behavior—the overt, observable production of skilled movements. Of course, there are many scientific areas or fields of study involved in the understanding of this overt skilled behavior. Any skill is the outcome of processes studied in many different fields, such as neurology, anatomy, biomechanics, biochemistry, and social and experimental psychology; and this text could have focused on any number of these fundamental fields. But the focus of the text is broader than the fundamental fields that support it. The focus is behavioral, with the major emphasis on humans performing skills of various kinds. To be sure, we will talk about these other levels of analysis from time to time throughout the book in an attempt to explain what processes or events occur to support these high-level skills. Therefore this text should be appropriate for courses in elementary motor learning and motor performance in a relatively wide group of scientific areas.

Throughout the text, we construct a conceptual model of human performance. The term “model” is used in a variety of ways in many branches of science, and models are found frequently. A model typically consists of a system of parts that are familiar to us; when assembled in a certain way, these parts mimic certain aspects of the system we are trying to understand. One example is the pump-and-pipe model of our circulatory system, in which the heart is represented by a pump and the arteries and veins are pipes of various diameters and lengths. One could actually construct the model (although some models are purely conceptual); such a model could be used in classroom demonstrations or “experiments” on the effects of blood pressure on capillaries of the “hand.”

11

Our first goal in writing this text was to build a strong, general, conceptual understanding (an overview) of skills. We believe that instructors, coaches, therapists, and trainers, as well as others dealing with the learning or teaching of skills, will profit greatly from such a highlevel conceptual understanding of skilled behavior. In striving toward this goal, we have adopted (assumed) the idea that skills can be understood, for the most part, through the use of concepts concerning information and its processing. We set about to build a conceptual model that would capture (or explain) many of the intricacies of skilled motor performance. We begin this process by considering the human as a very simple input– output system; then gradually, as we introduce new topics in the text, we expand the model by adding these new concepts. Gradually, by building on knowledge and concepts presented in earlier parts of the text, we add increasing complexity to the conceptual model.

Simply presenting the finished conceptual model would make it very difficult for students to understand, and we hope that the systematic process of constructing the model, assembled with parts as they are presented in the text, forms a logical basis for increasing the model’s complexity. This construction process should make the final version of the model maximally understandable.

Our second goal was to organize the book in the best way to aid student understanding based on our many years of teaching experience. The text is divided into two parts. After the introduction to the study of motor skills in chapter 1, part I, examines how the motor system works by investigating the major principles of human performance and progressively developing a conceptual model of human actions. The focus is mainly on human performance as based on an information-processing perspective; but motor learning cannot be ignored, so it is mentioned briefly in various places. Chapter 2 discusses the nature of information processing, decision making, and movement planning. Chapter 3 considers the concepts of attention and memory. Chapter 4 concerns the information received from various sensory sources that is relevant to movement. Chapter 5 examines the processes underlying the production of movement, with particular attention to the role of motor programs. Chapter 6 considers the basic principles of performance that form the “building blocks” of skilled performance—analogous to the fundamental laws of physics. Finally, in chapter 7, the concern shifts to the differences in movement abilities among people and how these differences allow the prediction of success in new situations; differences among components in the conceptual model help in understanding these differences among people. On completion of part I, the student should have a reasonably coherent view of the conceptual and functional properties of the motor system. These principles seem appropriate for maximizing the performance of already learned skills. Part II of the text uses the conceptual model to impart an understanding of human motor learning processes.

Much of this discussion uses the terms and concepts introduced in part I. This method works well in our own teaching, probably because motor learning is usually inferred from changes in motor behavior; therefore, it is easy to discuss these changes in terms of the behavioral principles from part I. In this second part, chapter 8 treats some methodological problems unique to the study of learning, such as how and when to measure performance, 12

which also have application to measuring performance in analogous teaching situations.

Chapter 9 considers broad issues of learning, retention, and transfer, such as the important role of practice. Chapter 10 concerns the issue of how and when to practice, dealing with the many factors that instructors can control directly to make practice more effective.

Finally, chapter 11 deals with the critical topic of feedback, examining what kinds of movement information students need for effective learning, when it should be given, and so on. By the end of the text, readers will have a progressive accumulation of knowledge that, in our experience, provides a consistent view of how skills are performed and learned.

Many real-world examples of motor performance and learning principles are discussed in the main body of the text. In addition, we’ve included Focus on Application sections set off from the main textual materials. Strategically located directly after pertinent discussions of principles, these sections indicate applications to real-world teaching, coaching, or therapy.

We wanted to write a text that could be used by performers, teachers, coaches, physical therapists, and other instructors in various fields to enhance human performance in realworld settings. To meet this goal, we have worked to focus the text on the topics most relevant to practical application.

As a third goal, we wanted a presentation style that would be simple, straightforward, and highly readable for those without extensive backgrounds in the motor performance area. As a result, the main content does not stress the research and data that contribute to our knowledge of motor skill acquisition and performance. Important points are occasionally illustrated by data from a critical experiment, but the emphasis is on an integrated conceptual knowledge of how the motor system works and how it learns. However, for those who desire a tighter link to the basic data, we have included sections called Focus on Research, which are set off from the main text and describe the important experiments and concepts in detail.

Finally, we demanded that the principles discussed should be faithful to the empirical data and thought in the study area. From decades in doing basic research in motor learning and motor performance, we have developed what we believe to be defensible, coherent, personal viewpoints (conceptual models, if you will) about how skills are performed and learned, and our aim was to present this model to the reader to facilitate understanding. Our viewpoints are based on a large literature of theoretical ideas and empirical data, together with much thought about competing ideas and apparently contradictory research findings.

We have tried to write from this perspective as we would tell a story. Every part of the story can be defended empirically, or it would not have been included. Our goal has been to write “the truth,” at least as we currently understand it and as it can be understood with the current level of knowledge. We have included a brief section at the end of each chapter describing additional readings that provide competing viewpoints and additional scientific justifications.

Students will find a range of learning aids within each chapter, including chapter-opening 13

outlines, objectives, and lists of key terms, as well as an end-chapter summary of the activities in the accompanying web study guide and “Check Your Understanding” and “Apply Your Knowledge” questions. Instructors using this text in their courses will find a wealth of updated ancillary materials at www.HumanKinetics.com/MotorLearningAndPerformance, including a presentation package and image bank, instructor guide, and test package.

This fifth edition of Motor Learning and Performance extends the approach used in the previous four editions. As with the previous editions, we have tried to integrate the latest new findings together with the research and findings that have remained relevant for longer periods of time. But this edition could also be considered quite different as well. In many ways, this fifth edition returns to the approach adopted in the first edition, of providing a theoretical and conceptual basis for motor performance and learning that could be applied as broadly as possible. Since motor learning and performance are probably the most widespread activities that humans from all walks of life experience on a daily basis, our goal was to touch on as many of these applications as possible. The generality and limitations of these principles represent a core of human existence, and we hope that our treatment of them in this book resonates well with each person who reads it.

Richard A. Schmidt Human Performance Research Marina del Rey, California Timothy D. Lee Department of Kinesiology McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario

14

Student and Instructor Resources Student Resources Students, visit the free web study guide, available at www.HumanKinetics.com/MotorLearningAndPerformance. The web study guide has been fully revised for the fifth edition to offer a more focused and interactive set of activities to aid learning. The activities in this study guide will help you to assess and build your understanding of concepts from each chapter of the text as you study.

In each chapter of the web study guide, you will be presented with a series of two to four interactive activities that test your understanding of important concepts. These include matching, multiple-choice, and diagram-based activities. For each chapter, you will be also be presented with a principles-to-application exercise that prompts you to take your knowledge beyond the classroom by using principles of motor control and learning to analyze an activity. There is no single right answer for the principles-to-application problems, but it is important to provide evidence and reasoning to support your ideas. Each principles-to-application exercise includes sample student answers and critiques of those answers to guide you as you develop your analysis. By completing the exercises included in this study guide, you will build your knowledge of important concepts from the textbook and learn to apply that knowledge to real-world situations.

Instructor Resources The instructor guide, test package, chapter quizzes, presentation package, and image bank are free to course adopters and are accessed at www.HumanKinetics.com/MotorLearningAndPerformance.

Instructor Guide The instructor guide includes chapter summary notes for preparing lectures and ideas for presenting topics and engaging students in class discussions, as well as practical laboratory activities.

Test Package The test package includes more than 230 true-or-false, multiple-choice, fill-in-the-blank, and short-answer questions that can be used to create exams. The test package is available for download in Respondus and LMS formats as well as in Rich Text Format (.rtf) for use with word processing software.

15

Chapter Quizzes New for the fifth edition, these ready-to-use 10-question quizzes help assess students’ comprehension of the most important concepts in each chapter. Chapter quizzes can be imported into learning management systems or be used in RTF format by instructors who prefer to offer a written quiz.

Presentation Package The presentation package includes more than 230 PowerPoint text slides that highlight material from the text for use in lectures and class discussions. The slides can be used directly in PowerPoint or can be printed to make transparencies or handouts for distribution to students. Instructors can easily add, modify, and rearrange the order of the slides as well as search for images based on key words.

Image Bank The image bank, included with the presentation package, includes most of the figures, content photos, and tables from the text, sorted by chapter, which can be used to develop a customized presentation.

16

Acknowledgments This edition of Motor Learning and Performance owes a debt of gratitude to many people. It was Rainer Martens who first conceptualized the idea, and his encouragement led to the publication of the first edition (Schmidt, 1991). Sincere thanks go to Craig Wrisberg, who coauthored the next three editions (Schmidt & Wrisberg, 2000, 2004, 2008). Over the years the authors have worked with many wonderful editors at Human Kinetics, who made the sometimes tedious process much more enjoyable, for which we are very grateful. For this edition we would especially like to thank Myles Schrag and Kate Maurer for their efforts in seeing this project through to completion. We also thank Liz Sanli for her hard work on the book’s ancillaries and Jasmine Caveness, Marilyn Lomeli, and Dianne Hopkins for their contributions to the task of copyediting and several other efforts. And lastly, we thank our wives, Gwen Gordon and Laurie Wishart, for their understanding and support of the work that went into not only producing this book, but all of our various endeavors.

17

Credits Figures Figure 2.6 Reprinted, by permission, from R.A. Schmidt and T.D. Lee, 2011, Motor control and learning: A behavioral emphasis, 5th ed. (Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics).

65; Data from Merkel 1885.

Figure 2.7 Reprinted, by permission, from R.A. Schmidt and T.D. Lee, 2011, Motor control and learning: A behavioral emphasis, 5th ed. (Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics).

65; Data from Merkel 1885.

Figure 2.8 Reprinted, by permission, from R.A. Schmidt and T.D. Lee, 2011, Motor control and learning: A behavioral emphasis, 5th ed. (Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics).

70.

Figure 2.9 Reprinted, by permission, from J.A. Adams and S. Dijkstra, 1966, “Short-term memory for motor responses,” Journal of Experimental Psychology 71: 317.

Figure 3.3 Reprinted from D.J. Simons and C.F. Chabis, 1999, “Gorillas in our midst: Sustained inattentional blindness for dynamic events,” Perception 28: 1059-1074. By permission of D.J. Simons and C.F. Chabis.

Figure 3.5 Part a reprinted, by permission, from R.A. Schmidt and T.D. Lee, 2011, Motor control and learning: A behavioral emphasis, 5th ed. (Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics), 108; part b reprinted, by permission, from R.A. Schmidt and T.D. Lee, 2011, Motor control and learning: A behavioral emphasis, 5th ed. (Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics), 110; Data from Davis 1959.

Figure 3.7 Reprinted from M.I. Posner and S.W. Keele, 1969, Attentional demands of movement. In Proceedings of the 16th Congress of applied physiology (Amsterdam, Amsterdam: Swets and Zeitlinger). By permission of M.I. Posner.

Figure 3.8 Reprinted, by permission, from R.A. Schmidt and T.D. Lee, 2011, Motor control and learning: A behavioral emphasis, 5th edition. (Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics). Data from Weinberg and Ragan 1978.

Figure 4.7 Reprinted, by permission, from D.N. Lee and E. Aronson, 1974, “Visual proprioceptive control of standing in human infants,” Perception & Psychophysics 15: 529-532.

Figure 4.11 Reprinted, by permission, from T.J. Ayres, R.A. Schmidt et al., 1995, 18

Visibility and judgment in car-truck night accidents. In Safety engineering and risk analysis--1995, edited by D.W. Pratt (New York: The American Society of Mechanical Engineers), 43-50.

Figure 5.3 Reprinted with permission from Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport, Vol.24, 22-32, Copyright 1953 by the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance, 1900 Association Drive, Reston, VA 20191.

Figure 5.4 Reprinted, by permission, from R.A. Schmidt and T.D. Lee, 2011, Motor control and learning: A behavioral emphasis, 5th edition. (Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics), 183.

Figure 5.5 Part a reprinted, by permission, from R.A. Schmidt and T.D. Lee, 2011, Motor control and learning: A behavioral emphasis, 5th edition. (Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics), 195; part b reprinted, by permission, from R.A. Schmidt and T.D. Lee, 2011, Motor control and learning: A behavioral emphasis, 5th edition. (Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics), 195; Data from Slater-Hammel 1960.

Figure 5.6 Reprinted from W.J. Wadman, 1979, “Control of fast goal-directed arm movements,” Journal of Human Movement Studies 5: 10. By permission of W.J. Wadman.

Figure 5.8 Adapted from T.R. Armstrong, 1970, Training for the production of memorized movement patterns: Technical report no. 26 (Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan, Human Performance Center), 35. By permission of the Department of Psychology, University of Michigan.

Figure 5.9a and b Reprinted, by permission, from R.A. Schmidt and T.D. Lee, 2011, Motor control and learning: A behavioral emphasis, 5th edition. (Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics), 212.

Figure 5.10a and b Reprinted, by permission, from D.C. Shapiro et al., 1981, “Evidence for generalized motor programs using gait-pattern analysis,” Journal of Motor Behavior 13: 38.

Figure 5.11 Adapted, by permission, from J.M. Hollerbach, 1978, A study of human motor control through analysis and synthesis of handwriting. Doctoral dissertation, (Cambridge, MA: Massachusetts Institute of Technology).

Figure 5.12 Reprinted from M.H. Raibert, 1977, Motor control and learning by the statespace model: Technical report no. A1-TR-439 (Cambridge, MA: Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology), 50. By permission of M.H. Raibert.

Figure 6.1 Adapted from Categories of human learning, A.W. Melton (Ed.), P.M. Fitts, 19

Perceptual-motor skills learning, categories of human learning pg. 258.

Figure 6.2 Reprinted, by permission, from R.A. Schmidt and T.D. Lee, 2011, Motor control and learning: A behavioral emphasis, 5th ed. (Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics), 226. Data from Fitts 1954.

Figure 6.3a and b Adapted from P.M. Fitts, 1954, “The information capacity of the human motor system in controlling the amplitude of movement,” Journal of Experimental Psychology 47: 381-391.

Figure 6.4 Reprinted, by permission, from R.A. Schmidt et al., 1979, “Motor-output variability: A theory for the accuracy of rapid motor acts,” Psychological Review 86: 425.

Copyright © 1979 by the American Psychological Association.

Figure 6.5 Reprinted, by permission, from R.A. Schmidt et al., 1979, “Motor-output variability: A theory for the accuracy of rapid motor acts,” Psychological Review 86: 425.

Copyright © 1979 by the American Psychological Association.

Figure 6.8 Reprinted, by permission, from R.A. Schmidt and D.E. Sherwood, 1982, “An inverted-U relation between spatial error and force requirements in rapid limb movements: Further evidence for the impulse-variability model,” Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance 8: 165. Copyright © 1982 by the American Psychological Association.

Figure 6.9 Reprinted, by permission, from R.A. Schmidt and T.D. Lee, 2011, Motor control and learning: A behavioral emphasis, 5th ed. (Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics), 238.

Figure 6.12 Reprinted, by permission, from P.A. Bender, 1987, Extended practice and patterns of bimanual interference. Unpublished doctoral dissertation (Los Angeles, CA: University of Southern California).

Figure 6.13a and b Reprinted, by permission, from T.D. Lee et al., 2008, “Do expert golfers really keep their heads still while putting?” Annual Review of Golf Coaching 2: 135-143.

Figure 6.14 Reprinted from Physics Letters A, Vol.118, J.A.S. Kelso, J.P. Scholz, and G. Schöner, “Nonequilibrium phase transitions in coordinated biological motion: Critical fluctuations,” pg. 281, copyright 1986, with kind permission of Elsevier.

Table 7.2 by permission, from J.N. Drowatzky and F.C. Zuccato, 1967, “Interrelationships between selected measures of static and dynamic balance,” Research Quarterly 38: 509-510.

20

Figure 7.4 Reprinted, by permission, from E.A. Fleishman and W.E. Hempel, 1955, “The relation between abilities and improvement with practice in a visual discrimination task,” Journal of Experimental Psychology 49: 301-312. Copyright © 1955 by the American Psychological Association.

Figure 8.2 Reprinted, by permission, from J.A. Adams, 1952, “Warm up decrement in performance on the pursuit-rotor,” American Journal of Psychology 65(3): 404-414.

Figure 8.3 Reprinted, by permission, from C.J. Winstein and R.A. Schmidt, 1990, “Reduced frequency of knowledge of results enhances motor skill learning,” Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition 16: 677-691. Copyright © 1990 by the American Psychological Association.

Figure 8.4 Adapted, by permission, from H.P. Bahrick, P.M. Fitts, and G.E. Briggs, 1957, “Learning curves—facts or artifacts?” Psychological Bulletin 54: 256- 268. Copyright © 1957 by the American Psychological Association.

Figure 9.3 Adapted, by permission, from R.A. Schmidt and T.D. Lee, 2011, Motor control and learning: A behavioral emphasis, 5th ed. (Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics), 451; Adapted from MacKay, 1976, personal communication.

Figure 9.4 Reprinted, by permission, from E. Neumann and R.B. Ammons, 1957, “Acquisition and long term retention of a simple serial perception motor skill,” Journal of Experimental Psychology 53: 160. Copyright © 2011 by the American Psychological Association.

Figure 9.5 Reprinted from E.A. Fleishman and J.F. Parker, 1962, “Factors in the retention and relearning of perceptual motor skill,” Journal of Experimental Psychology 64: 218.

Copyright © 1962 by the American Psychological Association.

Figure 10.1 Adapted, by permission, from B.A. Boyce, 1992, “Effects of assigned versus participant-set goals on skill acquisition and retention of a selected shooting task,” Journal of Teaching in Physical Education 11(2): 227.

Figure 10.2 Reprinted, by permission, from R. Lewthwaite and G. Wulf, 2010, “Socialcomparative feedback affects motor skill learning,” Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 63: 738-749.

Figure 10.3 Reprinted, by permission, from G. Wulf, 2003, “Attentional focus on suprapostural tasks affects balance learning,”Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 56A: 1191-1211.

Figure 10.4 Reprinted, by permission, from D.M. Ste-Marie et al., 2012, “Observation interventions for motor skill learning and performance: An applied model for the use of 21

observation,” International Review of Sport and Exercise Psychology 5(2): 145-176.

Figure 10.6 Reprinted, by permission, from R.A. Schmidt and T.D. Lee, 2011, Motor control and learning: A behavioral emphasis, 5th ed. (Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics), 365. Data from Baddeley and Longman 1978.

Figure 10.7 Reprinted from L.E. Bourne and E.J. Archer, 1956, “Time continuously on target as a function of distribution of practice,” Journal of Experimental Psychology 51: 27.

Figure 10.10 Reprinted, by permission, from K.M. Keetch, R.A. Schmidt, T.D. Lee, and D.E. Young, 2005, “Especial skills: Their emergence with massive amounts of practice,” Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance 31: 970-978.

Copyright © 2005 by the American Psychological Association.

Figure 10.11 Adapted, by permission, from J.B. Shea and R.L. Morgan, 1979, “Contextual interference effects on the acquisition, retention, and transfer of a motor skill,” Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Learning and Memory 5: 179-187.

Copyright © 1979 by the American Psychological Association.

Figure 10.12 Reprinted with permission from Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport, vol.

68, pg. 103. Copyright 1997 by the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance, 1900 Association Drive, Reston, VA 20191.

Figure 11.3 Reprinted with permission from Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport, Vol. 78, pg. 43, Copyright 2007 by the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance, 1900 Association Drive, Reston, VA 20191.

Figure 11.4 Adapted by permission. ©Bob Scavetta. Any adaptation or reproduction of the “1.5 Seconds of Thought” is forbidden without the written permission of the copyright holder.

Figure 11.5 Reprinted, by permission, from R.A. Schmidt and T.D. Lee, 2011, Motor control and learning: A behavioral emphasis, 5th ed. (Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics), 401; Data from Kernodle and Carlton 1992.

Figure 11.6 Reprinted, by permission, from C.J. Winstein and R.A. Schmidt, 1990, “Reduced frequency of knowledge of results enhances motor skill learning,” Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition 16: 910. Copyright © 1990 by the American Psychological Association.

Figure 11.8 Reprinted from Human Movement Science, Vol 9, R.A. Schmidt, C. Lange, and D.E. Young, “Optimizing summary knowledge of results for skill learning,” p. 334, copyright 1990, with permission of Elsevier.

22

Figure 11.9 Reprinted, by permission, from W. Yao, M.G. Fischman, and Y.T. Wang, 1994, “Motor skill acquisition and retention as a function of average feedback, summary feedback, and performance variability,” Journal of Motor Behavior 26: 273-282.

Figure 11.12 Adapted, by permission, from Schmidt and Lee, 2011, Motor control and learning: A behavioral emphasis, 5th ed. (Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics), 387.

Adapted from Armstrong 1970.

Figure 11.13 Reprinted, by permission, from S.P. Swinnen et al., 1990, “Information feedback for skill acquisition: instantaneous knowledge of results degrades learning,” Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition 16: 712. Copyright © 2011 by the American Psychological Association.

Figure 11.14 Reprinted from M.A. Guadagnoli and R.M. Kohl, 2001, “Knowledge of results for motor learning: Relationship between error estimation and knowledge of results frequency,” Journal of Motor Behavior, 33: 217-224.

Photos Dedication photo Courtesy of Jack Adams Chapter 1 opening page © Zumapress/Icon SMI Chapter 1 dec. photo 1 © Jerome Brunet/ZUMA Press Focus on Research 1.1 Reprinted, by permission, from Weinberg, R.S., and Gould, D. 12003, Foundations of Sport and Exercise Psychology, Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics, 10.

Chapter 1 dec. photo 2 © Lee Mills/Action Images/Icon SMI Chapter 1 dec. photo 3 © Human Kinetics/J. Wiseman, reefpix.org Chapter 2 opening page © Cliff Welch/Icon SMI Chapter 2 dec. photo 3 © Chris Ison/PA Archive/Press Association Images Figure 3.3 Reprinted from D.J. Simons and C.F. Chabis, 1999, "Gorillas in our midst: Sustained inattentional blindness for dynamic events," _Perception_ 28: 1059-1074. By permission of D.J. Simons and C.F. Chabis.

Figure 3.4 © Zuma Press/Icon SMI Chapter 3 dec. photo 2 © Zuma Press/Icon SMI

23

Chapter 3 dec. photo 3 © Jim West/Age Fotostock Chapter 4 dec. photo 2 © Photo courtesy of Philip de Vries Figure 4.7 Reprinted from D.N. Lee and E. Aronson, 1974, "Visual proprioceptive control of standing in human infants," _Perception & Psychophysics_ 15: 529-532. By permission of D.N. Lee. Chapter 4 dec. photo 3 © Ed Bock/Lithium/age fotostock Chapter 5 opening page © Tonyi Mateos/Age Fotostock Chapter 5 dec. photo 2 © Zumapress/Icon SMI Chapter 6 opening page © STOCK4B/Age Fotostock Chapter 6 dec. photo 4 © Quim Roser/Age Fotostock Chapter 7 dec. photo 1 © Zumapress/Icon SMI Focus on Application 7.1 © Everett Collection Inc./age footstock (BABE) Chapter 7 dec. photo 2 © Javier Larrea/Age Fotostock Chapter 8 opening page © A. Farnsworth/Age Fotostock Chapter 8 dec. photo 3 © Martin Rickett/PA Archive/Press Association Images Chapter 9 opening page Courtesy Timothy D. Lee. Chapter 9 dec. photo 3 © George Shelley/Age Fotostock Chapter 9 dec. photo 4 Courtesy Richard A. Schmidt Figure 9.6 © Norbert Michalke/ imagebroker/age fotostock Focus on Research 9.2 © Zuma Press/Icon SMI Chapter 10 opening page © GEPA/Imago/Icon SMI Chapter 10 dec. photo 2 © Tony Ding/Icon SMI Chapter 10 dec. photo 3 © Denis Meyer/Age Fotostock Chapter 11 dec. photo 2 © Laura Leonard Fitch Chapter 11 dec. photo 3 © Tim Ockenden/PA Archive/Press Association Images 24

All other photos © Human Kinetics

25

Chapter 1 Introduction to Motor Learning and Performance How Skills Are Studied

26

Chapter Outline Why Study Motor Skills?

The Science of Motor Learning and Performance Defining Skills Components of Skills Classifying Skills Understanding Performance and Learning Summary

27

Chapter Objectives Chapter 1 provides an overview of research in human motor skills with particular reference to their study in motor learning and performance. This chapter will help you to understand the scientific method in skills research, different taxonomies used to classify skills, common variables used to measure motor performance, and the rationale for developing a conceptual model of motor performance.

Key Terms absolute constant error (|CE|) absolute error (AE) closed skill constant error (CE) continuous skill discrete skill open skill root-mean-square error (RMSE) serial skill skill tracking variable error (VE)

In 2012, a petite American girl named Gabrielle (“Gabby”) Douglas captivated the sport world with her feats in women's gymnastics at the London Olympic Games, and, almost instantly, she became a role model for many young girls who suddenly wanted to learn gymnastics. The “flying squirrel,” as she is fondly called by her teammates, won the gold medal in the women’s all-around competition—arguably the pinnacle in women’s gymnastics. In the 1980s Jim Knaub, who had lost the use of his legs in an accident, won several important marathons in the wheelchair division, earning our heartfelt respect. From the 1970s into the ’90s, David Kiley earned the title “King of Wheelchair Sports” by (a) winning five gold medals in the 1976 Paralympic Games in Canada; (b) climbing the highest mountain in Texas; (c) playing on the United States men's wheelchair basketball team five times; and (d) competing at the highest level in tennis, racquetball, and skiing.

28

And, since the Woodstock music festival in 1969, Johnny Winter, who is arguably (at least according to the second author) the world’s best guitarist, continues to amaze audiences with his skills and versatility. These and countless other examples indicate that skills are a critical part of human existence. How people can perform at such high levels, how such skills are developed, and how you can develop some approximation of these skills in yourself, your children, or your students—all of these questions generate fascination, encouraging further learning about human movement.

A description of the study of motor performance and learning starts here. The overview presented in this chapter introduces the concept of skill and discusses various features of its definition. The chapter then gives examples of skill classification schemes important for later applications. Finally, to help you understand skills effectively using this book, the logic behind the book’s organization is described: first, the principles and processes underlying skilled performance, followed by how such capabilities can be developed with practice.

The remarkable human capability to perform skills is a critical feature of our very existence.

It is almost uniquely human, although various animals relatively high on the evolutionary scale can be trained to produce what you might call skilled behaviors (e.g., circus dogs doing somersaults, bears riding bicycles). Without the capacity for skilled performance, we could not type the page we are preparing now and you could not read it. And for students involved in physical education and kinesiology, coaching, physical (or speech or occupational) therapy, chiropractic, medicine, or human factors and ergonomics, here is the opportunity to learn about the fundamentals of a wide variety of sports and athletic endeavors, music, and simply ordinary everyday actions that are so strongly fascinating and exciting. Human skills take many forms, of course—from those that emphasize the control and coordination of our largest muscle groups in relatively forceful activities like soccer or tumbling, to those in which the smallest muscle groups must be tuned precisely, as in typing or repairing a watch. This text generally focuses on the full range of skilled behavior because it is useful to understand that many common features underlie the performance of skills associated with industrial and military settings, sport, the reacquisition of movement capabilities lost through injuries or stroke, or simply the everyday activities of most people.

Most humans are born with the capability to produce many skills, and only some maturation and experience is necessary in order to produce them in nearly complete form.

Walking and running, chewing, balancing, and avoiding painful stimuli are some examples of these relatively innate behaviors. But imagine what simple and uninteresting creatures we would be if these inherited actions were all that we could ever do. All biological organisms have the remarkable facility to profit from their experiences, to learn to detect important environmental features (and to ignore others), and to produce behaviors that were not a part of their original capabilities. Humans seem to have the most flexibility of all, which allows gains in proficiency for occupations as chemists or computer programmers, for competition in music or athletics, or simply for conducting daily lives more efficiently.

Thus, producing skilled behaviors and the learning that leads to their development are 29

tightly intertwined in human experience. This book is about both of these aspects of skills —skilled human performance and human learning.

This book is not about skills in which the degree of success is determined by deciding which of many already learned actions the performer is to do. When the laboratory rat learns to press a bar at the presentation of a sound, the rat is not learning how to press the bar; rather, the animal is learning when to make this already learned bar-pressing action. As another example, in the card game of poker, it does not matter in what fashion the various cards are played (i.e., moved). What matters is cognitive decision making about which card to play and when to do it. The study of these kinds of decision-making processes falls mainly into fields such as experimental psychology and cognitive neuroscience, and these processes are deliberately not included here.

30

Johnny Winter, who is (according to this book’s second author) the world’s best guitarist, demonstrating just one of his nearly unlimited variety of motor skills.

Why Study Motor Skills?

Because skills make up such a large part of human life, scientists and educators have been trying for centuries to understand the determinants of skills and the factors that affect their performance. The knowledge gained is applicable to numerous aspects of life. Important points apply to the instruction of skills, where methods for efficient teaching and effective carryover to life situations are primary concerns. There is also considerable applicability for improving high-level performances, such as sport, music, and surgical skills. Of course, much of what coaches and music and physical education teachers do during their professional activities involves, in one way or another, skills instruction. The practitioners who understand these skill-related processes most effectively undoubtedly have an advantage when their “subjects” begin their trained-for activities.

Other application areas can be emphasized as well. There are many applications in training skills for industry, where effective job skills can mean success in the workplace and can be major determinants of satisfaction both with the job and with life in general. Teaching job skills most effectively, and determining which of a large number of individuals are best suited to particular occupations, are common situations in which knowledge about skills can be useful in industry. Usually these applications are considered within human factors (ergonomics).The principles also apply to physical therapy and occupational therapy settings as well, where the concern is for the (re)learning and production of movements that have been lost through head or spinal cord injury, stroke, birth defects, and the like.

Although all these areas may be different and the physical capabilities of the learners may vary widely, the principles that lead to successful application are generally the same.

31

The Science of Motor Learning and Performance It is not uncommon that as an area of interest grows, the systematic study of the principles involved also develops. Motor learning and performance is no different, in that a science has emerged that allows the formalization of terms and concepts for others to use. When we use the word “science,” what do we mean?

The concept of a science implies several things: (a) the active use of theory and hypothesis testing to further our knowledge; (b) a certain “infrastructure” that involves books and journals, scientific organizations that deal with both the fundamental aspects of the science and ways to apply the knowledge to real-world situations, and granting agencies to provide funds for research; and, of course, (c) the existence of courses of study of the area in universities and colleges.

Theories and Hypotheses Certainly at the heart of every science are theories that purport to explain how things work.

A theory is a human-made structure whose purpose is to explain how various phenomena occur. The theorist conjures up what are called hypothetical constructs—imaginary elements, or pieces, that interact in various ways in the theory. The theorist then describes the ways in which the hypothetical constructs interact with each other so as to explain some empirical phenomenon. Then, using logical deduction, scientists determine certain predictions that the theory makes in its current form. These predictions form the basis of hypotheses that can be tested, typically in the laboratory. These hypotheses take the form of statements such as “If I ask learners to practice under condition x, then learning should be enhanced.”

Theories are typically tested by doing experiments, which determine whether or not the hypothesis predicts what happens. In the field of motor learning and performance, these experiments typically take the form of having at least two groups of subjects randomly assigned to experimental treatments, with one group performing a task under condition x (as in the example just mentioned) and the other group performing under some other conditions that are reasonably well understood (sometimes called a “control condition”). If, in this example, the group practicing under condition x outperforms the group in the control condition, then we say that the hypothesis is supported. However, a given theory might predict an outcome that would make sense for several different theories, so an experiment that supports a hypothesis is not always the strongest type of evidence. What is usually far stronger is if the results come out contrary to the prediction; this leads to the logical inference that the theory must be incorrect, allowing us to reject one of the possible theories. This is so because a theory cannot “survive” for long if something predicted from it turns out not to be the case. Because of this difference in the power of the ways in which hypotheses are tested, scientists tend to search out predictions from a theory that might not 32

hold if tested in the laboratory.

What Kinds of Skills Have Been Studied?

The science of motor learning and performance has been used to study many varieties of skills. In the very beginning (research and writing done in the early 1900s, or perhaps slightly before), two types of investigations can be identified: (a) investigations of relatively complex, high-level skills such as telegraphy and typing (e.g., Bryan & Harter, 1897, 1899), and (b) studies by biologists and physiologists concerning the fundamental mechanisms of neural control of muscle, muscle force production (Fullerton & Cattell, 1892), and the study of nerves and the nervous system (Fritsch & Hitzig, 1870; Sherrington, 1906).

Focus on Research 1.1 Franklin M. Henry, Father of Motor Behavior Research

33

Franklin M. Henry (1904-1993)

Before World War II and during the 1950s and 1960s when much effort was directed at military skills such as pilotry, most of the research in movement behavior and learning was done by experimental psychologists using relatively fine motor skills. Little effort was devoted to the gross motor skills that would be applicable to many sports. Franklin M. Henry, trained in experimental psychology but working in the Department of Physical Education, at the University of California Berkley, was filling this gap with a new tradition of laboratory experimentation that started an important new direction in research on movement skills. He studied gross motor skills, with performances intentionally representative of those seen on the playing fields and in gymnasiums. But he used laboratory tasks ——that enabled the rigorous study of these skills employing methods analogous to those used in experimental psychology. He examined a number of research problems, such as the differences among people, practice scheduling, the mathematical shapes of performance curves, and the roles of fatigue and rest in performance.

Henry’s influence on the fields of physical education and kinesiology was widespread by the 1970s and 1980s.

Defining Skills As widely represented and diverse as skills are, it is difficult to define them in a way that applies to all cases. Guthrie (1952) provided a definition that captures most of the critical features of skills that we emphasize here. He defined skill as “the ability to bring about some end result with maximum certainty and minimum outlay of energy, or of time and energy” (p. 136). Next, we consider some of the important components (or features) of this definition.

34

First, performing skills implies some desired environmental goal, such as holding a handstand in gymnastics or being able to walk again after a stroke. Skills are usually thought of as different from movements, which do not necessarily have any particular environmental goal, such as idly wiggling one’s little finger. Of course, skills consist of movements because the performer could not achieve an environmental goal without making at least one movement.

Second, to be skilled implies meeting this performance goal, this “end result,” with maximum certainty. For example, while playing darts a player makes a bull's-eye. But this by itself does not ensure that he is a skilled darts player, because this result was achieved without very much certainty. Such an outcome could have been the result of one lucky throw in the midst of hundreds of others that were not so lucky. To be considered “skilled” requires that a person produce the skill reliably, on demand, without luck playing a very large role. This is one reason why people value so greatly the champion athlete who, with but one chance and only seconds remaining at the end of a game, makes the goal that allows the team to win.

Third, a major feature in many skills is the minimization, and thus conservation, of the energy required for performance. For some skills this is clearly not the goal, as in the shot put, where the only goal is to throw the maximum distance. But for many other skills the minimization of energy expenditure is critical, allowing the marathon runner to hold an efficient pace or allowing the wrestler to save strength for the last few minutes of the match.

We evolved to walk as we do, in part, because our walking style minimizes energy expenditure for walking a given distance. This minimum-energy notion applies not only to the physiological energy costs but also to the psychological, or mental, energy required for performance. Many skills have been learned so well that the performers hardly have to pay attention to them, freeing their cognitive processes for other features of the activity, such as strategy in basketball or expressiveness in dance. A major contributor to the efficiency of skilled performance is, of course, practice, with learning and experience leading to the relatively effortless performances so admired in highly skilled people.

Finally, another feature of many skills is for highly proficient performers to achieve their goals in minimum time. Many skills have this as the only goal, such as a swimming race.

Minimizing time can interact with the other skill features mentioned, however. Surgeons who conduct invasive surgery need to work quickly to minimize the opportunity for infections to enter the body. Yet surgeons obviously need to work carefully, too. Speeding up performance often results in imprecise movements that have less certainty in terms of achieving their environmental goals. Also, increased speed generates movements for which the energy costs are sometimes higher. Thus, understanding skills involves optimizing and balancing several skill aspects that are important to different extents in different settings. In sum, skills generally involve achieving some well-defined environmental goal by maximizing the certainty of goal achievement, 35

Another random document with no related content on Scribd:

DANCE ON STILTS AT THE GIRLS’ UNYAGO, NIUCHI

Newala, too, suffers from the distance of its water-supply—at least the Newala of to-day does; there was once another Newala in a lovely valley at the foot of the plateau. I visited it and found scarcely a trace of houses, only a Christian cemetery, with the graves of several missionaries and their converts, remaining as a monument of its former glories. But the surroundings are wonderfully beautiful. A thick grove of splendid mango-trees closes in the weather-worn crosses and headstones; behind them, combining the useful and the agreeable, is a whole plantation of lemon-trees covered with ripe fruit; not the small African kind, but a much larger and also juicier imported variety, which drops into the hands of the passing traveller, without calling for any exertion on his part. Old Newala is now under the jurisdiction of the native pastor, Daudi, at Chingulungulu, who, as I am on very friendly terms with him, allows me, as a matter of course, the use of this lemon-grove during my stay at Newala.

FEET MUTILATED BY THE RAVAGES OF THE “JIGGER” (Sarcopsylla penetrans)

The water-supply of New Newala is in the bottom of the valley, some 1,600 feet lower down. The way is not only long and fatiguing, but the water, when we get it, is thoroughly bad. We are suffering not only from this, but from the fact that the arrangements at Newala are nothing short of luxurious. We have a separate kitchen—a hut built against the boma palisade on the right of the baraza, the interior of which is not visible from our usual position. Our two cooks were not long in finding this out, and they consequently do—or rather neglect to do—what they please. In any case they do not seem to be very particular about the boiling of our drinking-water—at least I can attribute to no other cause certain attacks of a dysenteric nature, from which both Knudsen and I have suffered for some time. If a man like Omari has to be left unwatched for a moment, he is capable of anything. Besides this complaint, we are inconvenienced by the state of our nails, which have become as hard as glass, and crack on the slightest provocation, and I have the additional infliction of pimples all over me. As if all this were not enough, we have also, for the last week been waging war against the jigger, who has found his Eldorado in the hot sand of the Makonde plateau. Our men are seen all day long—whenever their chronic colds and the dysentery likewise raging among them permit—occupied in removing this scourge of Africa from their feet and trying to prevent the disastrous consequences of its presence. It is quite common to see natives of this place with one or two toes missing; many have lost all their toes,

or even the whole front part of the foot, so that a well-formed leg ends in a shapeless stump. These ravages are caused by the female of Sarcopsylla penetrans, which bores its way under the skin and there develops an egg-sac the size of a pea. In all books on the subject, it is stated that one’s attention is called to the presence of this parasite by an intolerable itching. This agrees very well with my experience, so far as the softer parts of the sole, the spaces between and under the toes, and the side of the foot are concerned, but if the creature penetrates through the harder parts of the heel or ball of the foot, it may escape even the most careful search till it has reached maturity.

Then there is no time to be lost, if the horrible ulceration, of which we see cases by the dozen every day, is to be prevented. It is much easier, by the way, to discover the insect on the white skin of a European than on that of a native, on which the dark speck scarcely shows. The four or five jiggers which, in spite of the fact that I constantly wore high laced boots, chose my feet to settle in, were taken out for me by the all-accomplished Knudsen, after which I thought it advisable to wash out the cavities with corrosive sublimate. The natives have a different sort of disinfectant—they fill the hole with scraped roots. In a tiny Makua village on the slope of the plateau south of Newala, we saw an old woman who had filled all the spaces under her toe-nails with powdered roots by way of prophylactic treatment. What will be the result, if any, who can say?

The rest of the many trifling ills which trouble our existence are really more comic than serious. In the absence of anything else to smoke, Knudsen and I at last opened a box of cigars procured from the Indian store-keeper at Lindi, and tried them, with the most distressing results. Whether they contain opium or some other narcotic, neither of us can say, but after the tenth puff we were both “off,” three-quarters stupefied and unspeakably wretched. Slowly we recovered—and what happened next? Half-an-hour later we were once more smoking these poisonous concoctions—so insatiable is the craving for tobacco in the tropics.

Even my present attacks of fever scarcely deserve to be taken seriously. I have had no less than three here at Newala, all of which have run their course in an incredibly short time. In the early afternoon, I am busy with my old natives, asking questions and making notes. The strong midday coffee has stimulated my spirits to

an extraordinary degree, the brain is active and vigorous, and work progresses rapidly, while a pleasant warmth pervades the whole body. Suddenly this gives place to a violent chill, forcing me to put on my overcoat, though it is only half-past three and the afternoon sun is at its hottest. Now the brain no longer works with such acuteness and logical precision; more especially does it fail me in trying to establish the syntax of the difficult Makua language on which I have ventured, as if I had not enough to do without it. Under the circumstances it seems advisable to take my temperature, and I do so, to save trouble, without leaving my seat, and while going on with my work. On examination, I find it to be 101·48°. My tutors are abruptly dismissed and my bed set up in the baraza; a few minutes later I am in it and treating myself internally with hot water and lemon-juice.

Three hours later, the thermometer marks nearly 104°, and I make them carry me back into the tent, bed and all, as I am now perspiring heavily, and exposure to the cold wind just beginning to blow might mean a fatal chill. I lie still for a little while, and then find, to my great relief, that the temperature is not rising, but rather falling. This is about 7.30 p.m. At 8 p.m. I find, to my unbounded astonishment, that it has fallen below 98·6°, and I feel perfectly well. I read for an hour or two, and could very well enjoy a smoke, if I had the wherewithal—Indian cigars being out of the question.

Having no medical training, I am at a loss to account for this state of things. It is impossible that these transitory attacks of high fever should be malarial; it seems more probable that they are due to a kind of sunstroke. On consulting my note-book, I become more and more inclined to think this is the case, for these attacks regularly follow extreme fatigue and long exposure to strong sunshine. They at least have the advantage of being only short interruptions to my work, as on the following morning I am always quite fresh and fit.

My treasure of a cook is suffering from an enormous hydrocele which makes it difficult for him to get up, and Moritz is obliged to keep in the dark on account of his inflamed eyes. Knudsen’s cook, a raw boy from somewhere in the bush, knows still less of cooking than Omari; consequently Nils Knudsen himself has been promoted to the vacant post. Finding that we had come to the end of our supplies, he began by sending to Chingulungulu for the four sucking-pigs which we had

bought from Matola and temporarily left in his charge; and when they came up, neatly packed in a large crate, he callously slaughtered the biggest of them. The first joint we were thoughtless enough to entrust for roasting to Knudsen’s mshenzi cook, and it was consequently uneatable; but we made the rest of the animal into a jelly which we ate with great relish after weeks of underfeeding, consuming incredible helpings of it at both midday and evening meals. The only drawback is a certain want of variety in the tinned vegetables. Dr. Jäger, to whom the Geographical Commission entrusted the provisioning of the expeditions—mine as well as his own—because he had more time on his hands than the rest of us, seems to have laid in a huge stock of Teltow turnips,[46] an article of food which is all very well for occasional use, but which quickly palls when set before one every day; and we seem to have no other tins left. There is no help for it—we must put up with the turnips; but I am certain that, once I am home again, I shall not touch them for ten years to come.

Amid all these minor evils, which, after all, go to make up the genuine flavour of Africa, there is at least one cheering touch: Knudsen has, with the dexterity of a skilled mechanic, repaired my 9 × 12 cm. camera, at least so far that I can use it with a little care.

How, in the absence of finger-nails, he was able to accomplish such a ticklish piece of work, having no tool but a clumsy screw-driver for taking to pieces and putting together again the complicated mechanism of the instantaneous shutter, is still a mystery to me; but he did it successfully. The loss of his finger-nails shows him in a light contrasting curiously enough with the intelligence evinced by the above operation; though, after all, it is scarcely surprising after his ten years’ residence in the bush. One day, at Lindi, he had occasion to wash a dog, which must have been in need of very thorough cleansing, for the bottle handed to our friend for the purpose had an extremely strong smell. Having performed his task in the most conscientious manner, he perceived with some surprise that the dog did not appear much the better for it, and was further surprised by finding his own nails ulcerating away in the course of the next few days. “How was I to know that carbolic acid has to be diluted?” he mutters indignantly, from time to time, with a troubled gaze at his mutilated finger-tips.

Since we came to Newala we have been making excursions in all directions through the surrounding country, in accordance with old habit, and also because the akida Sefu did not get together the tribal elders from whom I wanted information so speedily as he had promised. There is, however, no harm done, as, even if seen only from the outside, the country and people are interesting enough.

The Makonde plateau is like a large rectangular table rounded off at the corners. Measured from the Indian Ocean to Newala, it is about seventy-five miles long, and between the Rovuma and the Lukuledi it averages fifty miles in breadth, so that its superficial area is about two-thirds of that of the kingdom of Saxony. The surface, however, is not level, but uniformly inclined from its south-western edge to the ocean. From the upper edge, on which Newala lies, the eye ranges for many miles east and north-east, without encountering any obstacle, over the Makonde bush. It is a green sea, from which here and there thick clouds of smoke rise, to show that it, too, is inhabited by men who carry on their tillage like so many other primitive peoples, by cutting down and burning the bush, and manuring with the ashes. Even in the radiant light of a tropical day such a fire is a grand sight.

Much less effective is the impression produced just now by the great western plain as seen from the edge of the plateau. As often as time permits, I stroll along this edge, sometimes in one direction, sometimes in another, in the hope of finding the air clear enough to let me enjoy the view; but I have always been disappointed.

Wherever one looks, clouds of smoke rise from the burning bush, and the air is full of smoke and vapour. It is a pity, for under more favourable circumstances the panorama of the whole country up to the distant Majeje hills must be truly magnificent. It is of little use taking photographs now, and an outline sketch gives a very poor idea of the scenery. In one of these excursions I went out of my way to make a personal attempt on the Makonde bush. The present edge of the plateau is the result of a far-reaching process of destruction through erosion and denudation. The Makonde strata are everywhere cut into by ravines, which, though short, are hundreds of yards in depth. In consequence of the loose stratification of these beds, not only are the walls of these ravines nearly vertical, but their upper end is closed by an equally steep escarpment, so that the

western edge of the Makonde plateau is hemmed in by a series of deep, basin-like valleys. In order to get from one side of such a ravine to the other, I cut my way through the bush with a dozen of my men.

It was a very open part, with more grass than scrub, but even so the short stretch of less than two hundred yards was very hard work; at the end of it the men’s calicoes were in rags and they themselves bleeding from hundreds of scratches, while even our strong khaki suits had not escaped scatheless.

NATIVE PATH THROUGH THE MAKONDE BUSH, NEAR MAHUTA

I see increasing reason to believe that the view formed some time back as to the origin of the Makonde bush is the correct one. I have no doubt that it is not a natural product, but the result of human occupation. Those parts of the high country where man—as a very slight amount of practice enables the eye to perceive at once—has not yet penetrated with axe and hoe, are still occupied by a splendid timber forest quite able to sustain a comparison with our mixed forests in Germany. But wherever man has once built his hut or tilled his field, this horrible bush springs up. Every phase of this process

may be seen in the course of a couple of hours’ walk along the main road. From the bush to right or left, one hears the sound of the axe— not from one spot only, but from several directions at once. A few steps further on, we can see what is taking place. The brush has been cut down and piled up in heaps to the height of a yard or more, between which the trunks of the large trees stand up like the last pillars of a magnificent ruined building. These, too, present a melancholy spectacle: the destructive Makonde have ringed them— cut a broad strip of bark all round to ensure their dying off—and also piled up pyramids of brush round them. Father and son, mother and son-in-law, are chopping away perseveringly in the background—too busy, almost, to look round at the white stranger, who usually excites so much interest. If you pass by the same place a week later, the piles of brushwood have disappeared and a thick layer of ashes has taken the place of the green forest. The large trees stretch their smouldering trunks and branches in dumb accusation to heaven—if they have not already fallen and been more or less reduced to ashes, perhaps only showing as a white stripe on the dark ground.

This work of destruction is carried out by the Makonde alike on the virgin forest and on the bush which has sprung up on sites already cultivated and deserted. In the second case they are saved the trouble of burning the large trees, these being entirely absent in the secondary bush.

After burning this piece of forest ground and loosening it with the hoe, the native sows his corn and plants his vegetables. All over the country, he goes in for bed-culture, which requires, and, in fact, receives, the most careful attention. Weeds are nowhere tolerated in the south of German East Africa. The crops may fail on the plains, where droughts are frequent, but never on the plateau with its abundant rains and heavy dews. Its fortunate inhabitants even have the satisfaction of seeing the proud Wayao and Wamakua working for them as labourers, driven by hunger to serve where they were accustomed to rule.

But the light, sandy soil is soon exhausted, and would yield no harvest the second year if cultivated twice running. This fact has been familiar to the native for ages; consequently he provides in time, and, while his crop is growing, prepares the next plot with axe and firebrand. Next year he plants this with his various crops and

lets the first piece lie fallow. For a short time it remains waste and desolate; then nature steps in to repair the destruction wrought by man; a thousand new growths spring out of the exhausted soil, and even the old stumps put forth fresh shoots. Next year the new growth is up to one’s knees, and in a few years more it is that terrible, impenetrable bush, which maintains its position till the black occupier of the land has made the round of all the available sites and come back to his starting point.

The Makonde are, body and soul, so to speak, one with this bush.

According to my Yao informants, indeed, their name means nothing else but “bush people.” Their own tradition says that they have been settled up here for a very long time, but to my surprise they laid great stress on an original immigration. Their old homes were in the south-east, near Mikindani and the mouth of the Rovuma, whence their peaceful forefathers were driven by the continual raids of the Sakalavas from Madagascar and the warlike Shirazis[47] of the coast, to take refuge on the almost inaccessible plateau. I have studied African ethnology for twenty years, but the fact that changes of population in this apparently quiet and peaceable corner of the earth could have been occasioned by outside enterprises taking place on the high seas, was completely new to me. It is, no doubt, however, correct.

The charming tribal legend of the Makonde—besides informing us of other interesting matters—explains why they have to live in the thickest of the bush and a long way from the edge of the plateau, instead of making their permanent homes beside the purling brooks and springs of the low country.

“The place where the tribe originated is Mahuta, on the southern side of the plateau towards the Rovuma, where of old time there was nothing but thick bush. Out of this bush came a man who never washed himself or shaved his head, and who ate and drank but little.

He went out and made a human figure from the wood of a tree growing in the open country, which he took home to his abode in the bush and there set it upright. In the night this image came to life and was a woman. The man and woman went down together to the Rovuma to wash themselves. Here the woman gave birth to a stillborn child. They left that place and passed over the high land into the valley of the Mbemkuru, where the woman had another child, which

was also born dead. Then they returned to the high bush country of Mahuta, where the third child was born, which lived and grew up. In course of time, the couple had many more children, and called themselves Wamatanda. These were the ancestral stock of the Makonde, also called Wamakonde,[48] i.e., aborigines. Their forefather, the man from the bush, gave his children the command to bury their dead upright, in memory of the mother of their race who was cut out of wood and awoke to life when standing upright. He also warned them against settling in the valleys and near large streams, for sickness and death dwelt there. They were to make it a rule to have their huts at least an hour’s walk from the nearest wateringplace; then their children would thrive and escape illness.”

The explanation of the name Makonde given by my informants is somewhat different from that contained in the above legend, which I extract from a little book (small, but packed with information), by Pater Adams, entitled Lindi und sein Hinterland. Otherwise, my results agree exactly with the statements of the legend. Washing?

Hapana—there is no such thing. Why should they do so? As it is, the supply of water scarcely suffices for cooking and drinking; other people do not wash, so why should the Makonde distinguish himself by such needless eccentricity? As for shaving the head, the short, woolly crop scarcely needs it,[49] so the second ancestral precept is likewise easy enough to follow. Beyond this, however, there is nothing ridiculous in the ancestor’s advice. I have obtained from various local artists a fairly large number of figures carved in wood, ranging from fifteen to twenty-three inches in height, and representing women belonging to the great group of the Mavia, Makonde, and Matambwe tribes. The carving is remarkably well done and renders the female type with great accuracy, especially the keloid ornamentation, to be described later on. As to the object and meaning of their works the sculptors either could or (more probably) would tell me nothing, and I was forced to content myself with the scanty information vouchsafed by one man, who said that the figures were merely intended to represent the nembo—the artificial deformations of pelele, ear-discs, and keloids. The legend recorded

by Pater Adams places these figures in a new light. They must surely be more than mere dolls; and we may even venture to assume that they are—though the majority of present-day Makonde are probably unaware of the fact—representations of the tribal ancestress.

The references in the legend to the descent from Mahuta to the Rovuma, and to a journey across the highlands into the Mbekuru valley, undoubtedly indicate the previous history of the tribe, the travels of the ancestral pair typifying the migrations of their descendants. The descent to the neighbouring Rovuma valley, with its extraordinary fertility and great abundance of game, is intelligible at a glance—but the crossing of the Lukuledi depression, the ascent to the Rondo Plateau and the descent to the Mbemkuru, also lie within the bounds of probability, for all these districts have exactly the same character as the extreme south. Now, however, comes a point of especial interest for our bacteriological age. The primitive Makonde did not enjoy their lives in the marshy river-valleys.

Disease raged among them, and many died. It was only after they had returned to their original home near Mahuta, that the health conditions of these people improved. We are very apt to think of the African as a stupid person whose ignorance of nature is only equalled by his fear of it, and who looks on all mishaps as caused by evil spirits and malignant natural powers. It is much more correct to assume in this case that the people very early learnt to distinguish districts infested with malaria from those where it is absent.

This knowledge is crystallized in the ancestral warning against settling in the valleys and near the great waters, the dwelling-places of disease and death. At the same time, for security against the hostile Mavia south of the Rovuma, it was enacted that every settlement must be not less than a certain distance from the southern edge of the plateau. Such in fact is their mode of life at the present day. It is not such a bad one, and certainly they are both safer and more comfortable than the Makua, the recent intruders from the south, who have made USUAL METHOD OF good their footing on the western edge of the CLOSING HUT-DOOR plateau, extending over a fairly wide belt of country. Neither Makua nor Makonde show in their dwellings anything of the size and comeliness of the Yao houses in the plain, especially at Masasi, Chingulungulu and Zuza’s. Jumbe Chauro, a Makonde hamlet not far from Newala, on the road to Mahuta, is the

most important settlement of the tribe I have yet seen, and has fairly spacious huts. But how slovenly is their construction compared with the palatial residences of the elephant-hunters living in the plain.

The roofs are still more untidy than in the general run of huts during the dry season, the walls show here and there the scanty beginnings or the lamentable remains of the mud plastering, and the interior is a veritable dog-kennel; dirt, dust and disorder everywhere. A few huts only show any attempt at division into rooms, and this consists merely of very roughly-made bamboo partitions. In one point alone have I noticed any indication of progress—in the method of fastening the door. Houses all over the south are secured in a simple but ingenious manner. The door consists of a set of stout pieces of wood or bamboo, tied with bark-string to two cross-pieces, and moving in two grooves round one of the door-posts, so as to open inwards. If the owner wishes to leave home, he takes two logs as thick as a man’s upper arm and about a yard long. One of these is placed obliquely against the middle of the door from the inside, so as to form an angle of from 60° to 75° with the ground. He then places the second piece horizontally across the first, pressing it downward with all his might.

It is kept in place by two strong posts planted in the ground a few inches inside the door. This fastening is absolutely safe, but of course cannot be applied to both doors at once, otherwise how could the owner leave or enter his house? I have not yet succeeded in finding out how the back door is fastened.

MAKONDE LOCK AND KEY AT JUMBE CHAURO

This is the general way of closing a house. The Makonde at Jumbe Chauro, however, have a much more complicated, solid and original one. Here, too, the door is as already described, except that there is only one post on the inside, standing by itself about six inches from one side of the doorway. Opposite this post is a hole in the wall just large enough to admit a man’s arm. The door is closed inside by a large wooden bolt passing through a hole in this post and pressing with its free end against the door. The other end has three holes into which fit three pegs running in vertical grooves inside the post. The door is opened with a wooden key about a foot long, somewhat curved and sloped off at the butt; the other end has three pegs corresponding to the holes, in the bolt, so that, when it is thrust through the hole in the wall and inserted into the rectangular opening in the post, the pegs can be lifted and the bolt drawn out.[50]

MODE OF INSERTING THE KEY

With no small pride first one householder and then a second showed me on the spot the action of this greatest invention of the Makonde Highlands. To both with an admiring exclamation of “Vizuri sana!” (“Very fine!”). I expressed the wish to take back these marvels with me to Ulaya, to show the Wazungu what clever fellows the Makonde are. Scarcely five minutes after my return to camp at Newala, the two men came up sweating under the weight of two heavy logs which they laid down at my feet, handing over at the same time the keys of the fallen fortress. Arguing, logically enough, that if the key was wanted, the lock would be wanted with it, they had taken their axes and chopped down the posts—as it never occurred to them to dig them out of the ground and so bring them intact. Thus I have