Product Description

Expanded and completely updated, the fourth edition of Motor Control and Learning: A Behavioral Emphasis is a comprehensive introduction to motor behavior. The authoritative text frames the important issues, theories, persons, and research in the field in a reader-friendly way, allowing students to learn the most pertinent information in the field.

Motor Control and Learning: A Behavioral Emphasis, Fourth Edition, is the only graduate textbook that combines motor control and motor learning with the in-depth details students need in order to understand the topic and distinguish between different sides of an issue. Authored by two of the leading researchers in the field, the new edition features an up-to-date review of the latest research, more than 400 new references, new figures, and these new features: · Highlight boxes featuring in-depth discussion of relevant issues, new topics, and classic research · Selected quotes representing important contributions to the field, interpreted for current and future researchers · Web-based references that support and enhance students’ comprehension of the material

Motor Control and Learning: A Behavioral Emphasis, Fourth Edition, is the only text that focuses specifically on the motor learning and motor control areas of motor behavior. The new features and ancillaries make it ideal for students to use as a text and for professionals to access as a reference.

Part I introduces the fields of motor control and learning. It provides a brief history; explains the tools of motor behavior research; presents the information-processing approach, which is fundamental to understanding how humans think and act; and describes how attention influences motor behavior.

Part II addresses various factors contributing to the complex whole of the human motor system. It examines the roles of sensory information and the ways in which information from the environment influences movement behavior, considers the central control and representation of action, deals with laws and models regarding speed and accuracy, looks at the coordination needed for more complex tasks, and addresses factors that make people differ in their skilled behaviors.

Part III addresses performance changes that accompany motor learning. It describes the research methods used for studying and measuring motor learning, discusses the effects of various conditions under which a learner can practice motor skills, considers the effects of providing augmented information about what was done, and examines the empirical relationships and principles concerned with the retention and transfer of motor skills.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #354898 in Books
• Published on: 2005-01-31
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 544 pages

Review
(It allows) students to understand the complexities of the human motor control system from a behavioral and cognitive perspective. -- David E. Sherwood, PhD University of Colorado, Boulder (review of previous edition)

Review

This book fulfills the need to have students understand the nature and complexities of the human motor control system from a behavioral and cognitive perspective.
David E. Sherwood, PhD University of Colorado, Boulder (review of previous edition)

"This book has been the mainstay of an entire field and clearly will remain so."
Peceptual and Motor Skills (review of third edition)

About the Author
Richard A. Schmidt, PhD, is professor emeritus in the department of psychology at UCLA. He currently runs his own consulting firm, Human Performance Research, working in the area of human factors and human performance. Known as one of the research leaders in motor behavior, Dr. Schmidt has more than 35 years’ experience in this area and has published widely.

The originator of schema theory, Dr. Schmidt founded the Journal of Motor Behavior in 1969 and was editor for 11 years. He authored the first edition of Motor Control and Learning in 1982, followed up with a second edition of the popular text in 1988, and collaborated with Tim Lee for the third edition in 1999.

Dr. Schmidt received an honorary doctorate from Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium, in recognition of his work. Dr. Schmidt is a member of the North American Society for the Psychology of Sport and Physical Activity (of which he was president in 1982), the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, and the Psychonomic Society. Dr. Schmidt has received the C.H. McCloy Research Lectureship from the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance.

His leisure-time activities include sailboat racing, amateur Porsche racing, and skiing.

Timothy D. Lee, PhD, is a professor in the department of kinesiology at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. He has published extensively in motor behavior and psychology journals. He has contributed as an editor for the Journal of Motor Behavior and the Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport and as an editorial board member for the Psychological Review. Since 1984 his research has been supported by grants from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada continuously.

Dr. Lee received the Young Scientist Award from the Canadian Society for Psychomotor Learning and Sport Psychology in 1980. He also received a Senior Research Fellowship by the Dienst Onderzoekscoordinatie, Catholic University in Leuven, Belgium, in 1991-1992.

Dr. Lee is a member and past president of the Canadian Society for Psychomotor Learning and Sport Psychology and a member of the North American Society for the Psychology of Sport and Physical Activity, the Psychonomic Society, and the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.

In his leisure time Dr. Lee enjoys playing hockey and golf and listening to the blues.

Customer Reviews

Schmidt and Lee Have Provided A Tribute to Motor Learning
Franklin Henry is acknowledged as the father of motor behavior research. His work on reaction time, the motor program, and development of the Specificity Hypothesis have spurred an unparalleled amount of research in the field. Building off the work of Henry, Schmidt, who is a direct student of Henry developed the Schema Theory of Motor Learning. Over the past 30 years the theory has generated much research, being referenced in over 700 journal articles, and achieving the `citation classic' award by the Institute for Scientific Information (Lee, 2003).

Schmidt has also founded the Journal of Motor behavior. Therefore no one is more qualified to write a book on Motor Behavior. Further, Richard Lee is just as qualified, publishing extensively in motor behavior and psychology journals. He is also on the cutting edge of Motor program research, constructing his Cognitive Effort Theory of motor learning.

As a second generation student of Henry, I have been fortunate to have studied under and researched with two first generation students of Henry. Including Dr. Ostarello and Dr. Caplain, as well as studied extensively with one of the nations greatest scientists, and a second generation student of Henry, Dr. Sawyer. I have also instructed in College Motor Control Labs.

Through my extreme study of Motor Behavor, including countless journal articles, and an extensive list of Motor Behavior books I can say with assuredy that this is the most proficient, and outstanding book in its class on the market.

What I am especially impressed with, is the detail Schmidt and Lee go into when describing a certain motor phenomenon. For example in the Speed Accuracy Trade off Chapter, they take you from the work of Woodworth (1899) in which he first formally studied the phenomenon, to the work of Fitts. In doing so they painstakingly and accurately describe each study used by these Giants. They then take you to the present and discuss if these scientists theories have continued to recieve support. Of particular interest in that Chapter was work presented by Schmidt on the Linear Speed accuracy trade off.

Current dominant theory on how movements, namely ballistic movements are controled is Henry's (1958) Motor Program Theory origionally called the Memory Drum Theory. Schmidt has carried this research to the more modern Schema Motor Program Theory. As critical as this concept is to Motor Behavior students, it is a priveledge to be able to read directly from the men who devised these theories. This book provides just that.

Whether you are a student, professor, or scientist working in the field, this book should be on your shelf.

Excellent review, clear and thorough.
I first had to buy this textbook for an undergraduate course in Motor Control, but I have gone back to it many times in my graduate career. It serves as an excellent resource for learning the first time you read it and a veritable mine of resources in subsequent re-readings.