Search Strategies in the Perceptual-Motor Workspace and the Acquisition of Coordination, Control, and Skill

Abstract

In this paper we re-visit and elaborate-on the theoretical framework of learning as searching within the perceptual-motor workspace for a solution to the task. The central focus is the nature of search strategies to locate and create stable equilibrium regions in the perceptual-motor workspace and how these strategies relate to the emergent movement forms in the acquisition of coordination, control, and skill. In the ecological theory of perception and action, the enhanced stability of performance occurs through the attunement of the perceptual systems to the task dynamics together with modifications of action as task and intrinsic dynamics cooperate and/or compete. Thus, through practice in this search process, individuals adapt to the pick-up of task relevant perceptual variables and change their movement form according to the stability of the performed action and its outcome in relation to the task demands. Contemporary experimental findings have revealed features of the search process given the interaction of individual intrinsic dynamics in the context of task requirements and principles that drive the change – e.g., exploitation of more tolerant task-space solutions and emergence of compensatory mechanisms. Finally, we outline how the search strategy framework relates to traditional learning-related phenomena: including the dynamical pathways of learning, learning curves, factors of learning, individuality, motor development, and sport and rehabilitation interventions.

Immediate Impact of Extremity Manipulation on Dual Task Performance: A Randomized, Crossover Study

“…According to Pacheco et al [27] in the ecological theory of perception and action, enhanced stability (e.g. tube stabilization) occurs from the attunement of the perceptual systems to task dynamics together with modi cations of action as task and intrinsic dynamics cooperate and/or compete.…”

When and How to Provide Feedback and Instructions to Athletes?—How Sport Psychology and Pedagogy Insights Can Improve Coaching Interventions to Enhance Self-Regulation in Training

“…An important role of sport coaches and teachers is to guide the learner’s search of the affordance landscape, and application of instructional constraints is a powerful tool to be carefully used in important search activities ( Newell, 1986 ). Hereby, pedagogical practice is conceived as driving search processes that may be described as “learning to attend to informational variables of the task and modifying actions in terms of informational variables” ( Pacheco et al, 2019 , p. 3).…”

“…Particular emphasis in CLA has been placed on exploiting existing local-to-global self-organization processes, which ultimately aim to develop intelligent, self-regulating, and adaptable performers (see Ribeiro et al, 2019 ; Guignard et al, 2020 , for detailed elaborations of bi-directional self-organization processes in team and individual sports). In order to drive these self-regulatory tendencies, it is a major task of sport practitioners to manipulate task constraints within training session designs to facilitate skill learning ( Newell, 1985 ; Pacheco et al, 2019 ). For example, by adjusting task constraints, such as field sizes, line markings, or practice game rules, coaches can effectively impact athletes’ problem-solving behaviors in finding functional performance solutions themselves; these self-regulating tendencies can emerge, without having to prescribe movement solutions in precise detail for learners.…”

Extended Skill Learning

“…A standard formulation proposes that learning should be understood not in terms of the accumulation of bodily properties but in terms of change. Instead of viewing the learner as gathering more and more "knowledge" of its environment, we should view the learner as changing so as to become increasingly adapted to the structure of that environment (e.g., Gibson and Gibson, 1955;Pacheco et al, 2019). Similarly, Araújo and Davids (2011) suggest that it is a mistake to use the phrase "skill acquisition" to refer to this process.…”