Mental Learning Assignment Paper
Lesson 4 Neural Mechanisms: Contributions and Control Written Assignment Visual Dominance (5 points) EQUIPMENT NEEDED: Pencil, mirror, and 1 piece of 8” x 8” cardboard. ACTIVITY 1: Sit in front of a mirror with your textbook open to pg. 88 in front of you on a flat surface such that the diagram below is visible. Now place the tip of your pencil between the two lines, you may start anywhere. Using the cardboard, cover up the hand using the pencil so that you can only see your hand and its movements through the mirror in front of you. Using only the image and the mirror, trace the diagram below by moving the pencil around the shape while staying between the lines. You may move in either direction. How did you do? Mental Learning Assignment Paper
ORDER YOUR PAPER HERE
Were you able to stay in the lines and move around the shape efficiently? ACTIVITY 2: Partner needed. Hold your arms straight out in front of you so that they are parallel with the floor. Now, cross your arms over one another. From this position, turn your palms so that they are facing one another, and then interlock your fingers. Pull your hands down and towards your chest, continuing the rotation until your knuckles are facing the sky. Once you are in position, ask your partner to point to one of your fingers. It is important that they only point to it and that they do not touch it. Your task is to simply move the finger that your partner pointed to. Do you think the result would have been different if your partner touched the finger to be moved while your eyes were closed? Try it. How does this support or not support the concept of visual dominance? Explain. Ambient VS Focal Vision: (5 points) ACTIVITY 1:
Try walking around your apartment while reading a couple paragraphs of your textbook. You should be able to accomplish this without running into your furniture because of the combined efforts of focal and ambient vision. Focal vision was used to read, while ambient vision allowed you to locate obstacles and successfully move about the room. 1-Kin 370_20140116 ACTIVITY 2: Now perform the task again with your dark sunglasses on. What influence did your sunglasses have on your performance? How can these results be explained? ACTIVITY 3: For the final activity, you will need a piece of three-hole punched paper. Hold the paper about one inch from your face so that you can see through the middle hole. Wrap the rest of the paper around to touch the sides of your head. Now walk around your apartment again. Explain the results. Eye Dominance (5 points) Find a small object, such as a clock on a wall. Stand directly in front of it, approximately 10 feet away. Once you are in this position, create a small triangle with your hands by overlapping your thumbs. Stretch your arms in the direction of the wall so that you can see the object through your triangular window. Close one eye, and then open it; repeat with the other eye. Your dominant eye is the one for which the object remained in the triangular window. How might this knowledge be applied for sport activities for better success? Mental Learning Assignment Paper
2 Lesson 5 Stages of Learning Written Assignment Juggling Reflection (5 points) Return to the juggling activity presented in the Exploration Activity from Chapter 1. If you can consistently juggle two balls with your nondominant hand five or more times, then try to juggle four balls with both hands. Juggle for 10 minutes and then answer the following questions: What were you thinking during each juggling attempt? What decisions did you make during the 10 minutes with regard to strategy? Why did you make those choices? Could you determine the cause of your errors? Were you then able to make appropriate adjustments? Juggle one more time, but recite the alphabet backwards while juggling. How did the recitation influence your juggling performance? Why? Think of a skill you are very familiar with that you can perform with a high degree of proficiency. Would you answer the above questions differently following a performance of your chosen skill? Explain. Automatic Behaviors (5 points) EXERCISE 1: Count how many times you breathe in 15 seconds. EXERCISE 2: Everyone has a walking pace that is natural for them. Determine your natural pace by walking down a hallway several times. Describe what happened when you tried to count how many times you breathed in 15 seconds. Why did this occur? Describe what happened when you tried to determine your natural walking pace. Why did this occur? When a practitioner asks a patient to walk naturally across the clinic in order to evaluate his or her gait, would you expect to see results similar to those in Exercise 2? Provide suggestions that would ensure an accurate assessment. Chapter Review Questions (15 points) Be sure to have read the entire chapter before answering and include the questions with your answers. 1. What are the names of each stage of learning in Fitts and Posner’s model? How do the names reflect the corresponding stage? 2. Explain how the role of the instructor shifts as a learner progresses through Fitts and Posner’s three stages of learning. 3. How does Gentile’s model differ from that of Fitts and Posner? 4. Define fixation and diversification, and explain their relationship to closed and open skills. Mental Learning Assignment Paper
5. Explain how the role of the instructor shifts as a learner progresses through Gentile’s two-stage model of learning. 1-Kin 370_20140116 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. List five performance characteristics that can help you infer learning has occurred. What does the term “freezing the degrees of freedom” mean? What are the two consequences of automaticity? Explain how experts are able to build a better representation of the movement problem. What can you look for to determine whether a learner’s error detection and correction capabilities have improved? 11. Why might it be a false assumption that someone is no longer learning if they do not display any performance improvements? 12. Compare and contrast retention and transfer tests. 2 Lesson 6 The Learner: Pre-Instruction Considerations Written Assignment Self-Analysis (15 points) Videotape yourself teaching a 10-minute lesson on a skill of your choice. While reviewing your video, tabulate the number of cue words and strategies you use in each of the four perceptual mode categories (visual, kinesthetic, auditory, analytical). Do you have a tendency to teach the way you prefer to learn, as research suggests? Do you incorporate all four modes of presentation, or do you have a tendency to use only one mode? Suggest areas on the tape where you could have used a different mode. Give a specific example of an alternative cue word or strategy for each area suggested. Chapter Review Questions (10 points) Be sure to have read the entire chapter before answering and include the questions with your answers. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. What are characteristics of effective communication? Define learning style What is the significance of matching presentation style and learning style? Two major theories have been proposed to account for transfer. Compare and contrast them. What four subcomponents of a skill would you assess to determine the similarities and differences between two skills? 6. Explain why it is important to point out both the similarities and differences when comparing two skills for the purpose of transfer. 7. What is motivation, and why is it a pre-instruction consideration? Lesson 7 Skill Presentation Written Assignment Verbal Instructions (10 points)Mental Learning Assignment Paper
For this experience, you will need a partner, a piece of paper, and a pencil. Your partner should sit facing away from you with the paper and pencil. Your task is to describe the following diagram so that your partner can replicate it. Throughout the exercise you CANNOT look at what your partner is drawing and your partner CANNOT look at the diagram. Your partner can ask you questions but cannot use gestures to augment those questions. Once you have completed your description and your partner has finished his or her interpretation of what you described, compare diagrams. Perform the exercise again using the following diagram. This time the person drawing is not permitted to ask any questions. How accurate was your partner’s reproduction of the diagrams you described? Do the differences give you any hints about how you communicate? What type of clarification questions did your partner ask? Do these questions give you any hints about how you communicate? How did you feel during the second reproduction when questions were not permitted? Can you generalize any of that information to other learning situations? 1-Kin 370_20140116 What changes, if any, could you make to improve your communication effectiveness in the future? Evaluating Skill Presentation Effectiveness (20 points) Using the information presented in Chapter 7, design an evaluation checklist that could be used to determine skill presentation effectiveness. (i.e., Did the practitioner use a clear signal to call the learners together?)Mental Learning Assignment Paper
ORDER HERE
Observe a teacher, coach, or therapist presenting a new skill. Using the checklist designed above, evaluate the effectiveness of the skill presentation. Videotape yourself presenting a new skill. Review the tape using the checklist to evaluate your performance. How might you improve your demonstration effectiveness? Chapter Review Questions (10 points) Be sure to have read the entire chapter before answering and include the questions with your answers. 1. Why is it critical to capture the learner’s attention before skill instruction begins? 2. Explain why practitioners who are highly familiar with their subject matter are not always the most effective instructors. 3. What is the function of a verbal cue? 4. Compare and contrast instructor-directed verbal cues and self-talk. 5. What guidelines should be followed to optimize the use of cues. 6. Compare and contrast the social cognitive theory of observational learning and the dynamic interpretation of modeling. 7. Which of the four subprocesses in Bandura’s observational learning theory might be influenced by model characteristics? Justify your answer. 8. What is a learning model? What are some advantages of using a learning model? 9. Using a motor skill of your choice, explain what decisions you will make regarding the mechanics of its demonstration. Mental Learning Assignment Paper