A neuropsychological theory of motor skill learning.

Abstract

This article describes a neuropsychological theory of motor skill learning that is based on the idea that learning grows directly out of motor control processes. Three motor control processes may be tuned to specific tasks, thereby improving performance: selecting spatial targets for movement, sequencing these targets, and transforming them into muscle commands. These processes operate outside of awareness. A 4th, conscious process can improve performance in either of 2 ways: by selecting more effective goals of what should be changed in the environment or by selecting and sequencing spatial targets. The theory accounts for patterns of impairment of motor skill learning in patient populations and for learning-related changes in activity in functional imaging studies. It also makes a number of predictions about the purely cognitive, including accounts of mental practice, the representation of motor skill, and the interaction of conscious and unconscious processes in motor skill learning.

Cites (26)

1. The attention system of the human brain
   Posner, Michael I., Petersen, Steven E. · 1990 · Annual Review of Neuroscience
2. Controlled and automatic human information processing: II. Perceptual learning, automatic attending, and a general theory
   Shiffrin, Richard M., Schneider, Walter · 1977 · Psychological Review
3. Controlled and automatic human information processing: I. Detection, search, and attention.
   Schneider, Walter, Shiffrin, Richard M. · 1977 · Psychological Review
4. Memory and the hippocampus: A synthesis from findings with rats, monkeys, and humans.
   Squire, Larry R. · 1992 · Psychological Review
5. A theory of cerebellar cortex
   Marr, David · 1969 · The Journal of Physiology
6. The effect of emotion on cue utilization and the organization of behavior
   Easterbrook, J. A. · 1959 · Psychological Review
7. Posterior parietal association cortex of the monkey: command functions for operations within extrapersonal space
   Mountcastle, V. B., Lynch, J. C., Georgopoulos, A., Sakata, H., Acuna, C. · 1975 · Journal of Neurophysiology
8. Functional MRI evidence for adult motor cortex plasticity during motor skill learning
   Kami, Avi, Meyer, Gundela, Jezzard, Peter, Adams, Michelle M., Turner, Robert, Ungerleider, Leslie G. · 1995 · Nature
9. Categorization of action slips
   Norman, Donald A. · 1981 · Psychological Review
10. A Closed-Loop Theory of Motor Learning
    Adams, Jack A. · 1971 · Journal of Motor Behavior

Show all 26 references

Cited by (40)

1. Contributions of memory circuits to language: the declarative/procedural model
   Ullman, Michael T · 2004 · Cognition
2. Neuroplasticity Subserving Motor Skill Learning
   Dayan, Eran, Cohen, Leonardo G. · 2011 · Neuron
3. Reorganization and plasticity in the adult brain during learning of motor skills
   Doyon, Julien, Benali, Habib · 2005 · Current Opinion in Neurobiology
4. Central mechanisms of motor skill learning
   Hikosaka, Okihide, Nakamura, Kae, Sakai, Katsuyuki, Nakahara, Hiroyuki · 2002 · Current Opinion in Neurobiology
5. A neurocognitive perspective on language: The declarative/procedural model
   Ullman, Michael T. · 2001 · Nature Reviews Neuroscience

See all 799