ABSTRACT
The concept of a motor schema has received considerable support as a central explanation for motor skill acquisition. Maintained in memory, the rule is used to modify parameters for that movement pattern, or a variant that makes use of the same motor program. This chapter analyses whether performance of a specific set of physical movements results in learning of a restricted kinesthetic motor pattern or whether that practice produces a rule that allows the learner to generalize to an extended task that incorporates the same movement schema. It explores whether requesting the learner to express a rule would induce search and formulation of a rule that would lead to enhanced physical performance. Familiarization on horizontal-vertical arm angles, where attributes of the transformation were used separately, led to greater improvement on the test trials – especially on diagonal arm angles, where attributes of the transformation had to be used in combination.
