FSpS:e066 Motor learning and control - Course Information

e066 Motor learning and control

Extent and Intensity

1/0/0. 3 credit(s). Type of Completion: zk (examination).

Teacher(s)

doc. Stanisław Henryk Czyż, Ph.D. (lecturer)

Guaranteed by

doc. Stanisław Henryk Czyż, Ph.D.
Department of Physical Education and Social Sciences – Faculty of Sports Studies
Contact Person: Ing. Zuzana Florianová
Supplier department: Department of Physical Education and Social Sciences – Faculty of Sports Studies

Course Enrolment Limitations

The course is only offered to the students of the study fields the course is directly associated with.

The capacity limit for the course is 20 student(s).
Current registration and enrolment status: enrolled: 0/20, only registered: 0/20

fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with

• Multidisciplinary studies at Faculty of Sport Studies (programme CST, KOS)

Course objectives

The course's main objective is to help students understand how people perform and learn motor skills. Students will explore the theoretical basis and how these relate to the practice setting. Helpful tips on how to learn and how to teach will be provided. Real-life examples will be analyzed.

Learning outcomes

Upon successful completion of the course, the course participant will be able to:
1. understand, define and distinguish terms, concepts, theories, models existing in motor learning and control;
2. understand how people acquire and control new motor skills, what is the dynamic of learning;
3. enhance the motor learning process;
4. design and use acquired knowledge in everyday situations.

Syllabus

• 1. Introduction to motor skills and abilities
• • The classification of motor skills (skills, actions, movements, one-dimensions classifications, Gentile’s taxonomy)
• • The measurement of motor performance (reaction time, error measure, kinematic and kinetics measure, EMG, brain activity measures, coordination measures)
• • Motor abilities (abilities vs skills, classification of motor skills)
• 2. Introduction to motor control
• • Neuromotor basis for motor control (neuron, CNS, neural control of voluntary movement)
• • Motor control theories (theory, open-loop and closed-loop control systems; two perspectives on motor control, the OPTIMAL theory of motor learning)
• • Sensory components of motor control (touch, proprioception, vision)
• • Performance and characteristics of functional skills (speed-accuracy skills, prehension, handwriting, bimanual coordination, catching a moving object, striking a moving object, locomotion)
• • Action preparation (information processing)
• 3. Attention and memory
• • Attention as limited capacity (multitasking, dual-task procedure, focusing attention, automaticity, visual attention and search)
• • Memory components, forgetting and strategies (memory model, working memory, LTM and STM, remembering and forgetting, enhancing memory, practice-test context effect)
• 4. Introduction to motor skill learning
• • Defining and assessing learning (performance vs. learning, performance changes due to learning, learning assessments)
• • The stages of learning (Fitts and Posner model, Gentile’s model, Bernstein’s theory, learning dynamics, expertise)
• • Transfer of learning (definition, transfer concepts, negative, positive transfer, bilateral transfer)
• 5. Instruction and augmented feedback
• • Demonstration and verbal instruction (mechanisms, theories, cues, practical approach)
• • Augmented feedback (types of feedback, the role of feedback, feedback reduction and delay)
• 6. Practice conditions
• • Practice specificity and variability (types of variability, benefits of implementing different types of variability, practice scheduling)
• • Amount and distribution of practice (overlearning, massed and distributed practice, practice intervals and distribution)
• • Whole and part practice (complexity and organization, Naylor and Briggs hypothesis)
• • Mental practice (role of mental practice, effectiveness of mental practice)

Language of instruction

English

• Enrolment Statistics (spring 2026, recent)
  
• Permalink: https://is.muni.cz/course/fsps/spring2026/e066