No description available.

Expertise effects on response acquisition (learning) and performance reproduction (performance) (Bandura, 1986) in dance observational learning were investigated. Over an acquisition period, forty university students with varied movement backgrounds observed dance demonstrations, arranged still photos to represent the dances, and performed each dance. Learning was assessed via a pictorial-resequencing task. Dance performance accuracy and quality were evaluated via detailed analyses of videotaped performances. Results indicated that dance experts learn more and perform better than novices (p $<$.05) in a modeling situation, and learning and performance scores are positively correlated at a moderate level. Entry-level dance skill is the best present indicator of success in dance observational learning. Elementary instruction can improve beginner dancers' observational learning ability. The findings support Bandura's social cognitive theory of modeling (1986), extend the knowledge base related to the effects of expertise in motor skill acquisition, and have implications for dance and other motor skill educators.

No description available.

No description available.

When one learns a novel motor skill, retention of that skill requires consolidation of motor learning. Previous reports have shown that preceding sessions of motor learning can interfere with the acquisition of new tasks and that new motor learning can disrupt previously retained skills. A recent study by Caithness et al. (2004) shows that new learning, even after long delays, can totally disrupt prior retention. This finding is consistent with the idea that re-activated memories become labile and subject to displacement. However the result is difficult to reconcile with day-to-day experience in which skills improve with repetition and are not disrupted by unrelated activities. In this experiment, we show that when subjects learn new dynamics the influence of one task on another depends on the similarity of the force fields involved. We used a robotic manipulandum to define environments in which subjects learned to move. We used an AB design in which subjects learned field A on day one and B on day 2. We show that the effect of having learned environment A 24-hours prior to learning B varies along a continuum from facilitation when they are identical, through little effect when they are unrelated, to total interference when they are opposite. These findings thus indicate that the nervous system encodes information about dynamics in a fashion that is predictable on the basis of the similarity between the initial and final training environments. One month following their initial training, we tested subjects environment C, whose dynamics were opposite to B. Performance on this task suggests that the nervous system retained neither discrete instances of past training nor solely the most recent motor learning, but instead constructed a running average of learned dynamics to build an individual's motor repertoire.

Typescript. / Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1977. / Bibliography: leaves 125-126. / Microfiche. / x, 126 leaves

Thesis (Ed.D.)--University of Tulsa, 1978. / Bibliography: l. 48-50.

Thesis (Ed.D.)--Teachers College, Columbia University, 1974. / Typecript; issued also on microfilm and microfiche. Sponsor: William G. Anderson. Dissertation Committee: Antoinette M. Gentile. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 94-99).

Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of Hong Kong, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 64-72). Also available in print.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hong Kong, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 159-182) Also available in print.