Attention & Arousal
According to the Yerkes–Dodson law, what happens to performance when arousal is too low or too high?
Both under- and over-arousal reduce performance; moderate arousal is optimal.
What is the approximate capacity of working memory?
About 7 ± 2 items (or chunks).
Define motor learning in contrast to performance.
A relatively permanent change in capability to perform a skill.
Define massed vs. distributed practice.
Massed = little rest; Distributed = more rest between trials.
Define Knowledge of Results (KR) and Knowledge of Performance (KP).
KR = info about outcome; KP = info about movement pattern.
In Kahneman’s model, what determines how much attentional capacity is available?
Arousal level, task demands, momentary intentions, and enduring dispositions.
Name one difference between working memory and long-term memory in duration.
Working = seconds; Long-term = hours → years.
What experimental design if your best shot at separating learning from temporary performance effects?
Retention / transfer design.
Which practice schedule produces high contextual interference?
Random / interleaved practice.
What is the Guidance Hypothesis?
Excessive feedback guides performance short-term but harms learning via dependency.
Which model proposes multiple independent pools of attention (e.g., modality, processing stage, response type)?
Wickens’ Multiple-Resource Theory.
Give one example each of explicit and implicit memory tests.
Explicit = recall/recognition; Implicit = motor performance or priming task.
What are typical performance characteristics that improve as learning occurs? 5 of them
Improvement, consistency, stability, persistence, adaptability.
Explain the elaboration hypothesis for contextual interference.
Random practice forces learners to compare and elaborate distinctions among tasks.
Which feedback-frequency pattern gradually decreases over practice?
Faded feedback schedule.
During a dual-task balance test, body sway increases when adding a mental task. According to Kahneman’s theory, what does this reveal about attention allocation?
It shows that balance requires attentional resources and shares capacity with the cognitive task—exceeding total available attention reduces stability.
What theory explains why similarity between learning and test contexts improves recall?
Encoding Specificity Principle.
Name the three stages in Fitts & Posner’s model of learning.
Cognitive → Associative → Autonomous.
What is segmentation and when is it useful?
Breaking skill into parts practiced sequentially; for complex, serial tasks.
Give one advantage of self-selected feedback schedules.
Promotes autonomy, motivation, and active error detection.
When athletes “choke under pressure,” what is the explanation of this phenomenon from attentional focus perspective?
They shift from automatic/external to conscious/internal focus, disrupting control.
What two primary causes explain forgetting?
Decay (time) and interference (new or competing information).
According to Schmidt’s Schema Theory, why does variable practice strengthen learning?
It builds a richer recall/recognition schema by linking parameters ↔ outcomes.
Typically, variable practice improves learning/retention. When might constant (or more blocked) practice be preferable?
When the skill is complex and/or performed in an open environment, or when learners are novices—to avoid overload from high contextual interference.
Differentiate descriptive vs. prescriptive KP and indicate which suits novices.
Descriptive = what happened; Prescriptive = how to fix it → better for beginners.