THE ACQUISITION OF COORDINATION IN SKILL LEARNING

This paper raises the issue of the contribution of laboratory based experimental work on skill learning to the practical situation. Utilising a ski-movement apparatus, a series of experiments on skill acquisition is presented and discussed. A change of approach, over the years, from the traditional information-processing to a dynamical systems paradigm is explicated and justified. The adoption of a dynamical systems perspective enabled the isolation of a collective variable phase lag (between the oscillatory movements of the platform of the apparatus and the centre of mass of the subject) that captures the essence of the task performance as well as providing empirical support for Bernstein's (1967) third learning stage in which active muscular force are seen to complement the exploitation of reactive forces that arise as a natural consequence of the dynamics of the system. These findings lay the groundwork for the exploration of how the emergent movement patterns of subjects give rise to such phase lag changes and how their coordination patterns evolve over learning trials.