The Late Eight by Bleile Ken M.;

Author:Bleile, Ken M.; [Bleile, Ken M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Plural Publishing, Incorporated
Published: 2018-02-26T16:00:00+00:00

Figure 5–2. Principles of motor learning.

Using random practice can be more beneficial for learning than blocked practice. In our experience, blocked practice may be more effective for the early learners, whereas random practice is more effective for the advanced learner. However, when we use blocked practice, we must allow for learning from each repetition of the production. Therefore, we impose delays of up to 5 seconds between reiterations of the practice item. During the pause, we do not allow the learner to talk, play games, or fidget or the clinician to speak because we have hypothesized that one variable underlying the poor learning of speech is a lack of attention devoted to the recognition schema and modification of the GMP.

Focus

Where should the learner focus his/her attention during practice? The learner has two options in that he/she can focus on the internal aspects of the movement (e.g., kinesthetic, kinematic, and somatosensory, as in the feel of the tongue during the production of the /r/) or the external aspects (e.g., how does the /r/ sound or how does the listener respond?). The evidence is very strong that an external focus produces a strong advantage for learning in the nonspeech motor domain. The movements tend to be more accurate and less variable, but even so, there may be some interaction between the level of performance (new or more experienced learner) and the task (Wulf, Shea, & McNevin, 2003).

Thinking About It

This issue may lie at the heart of some children trying to learn to speak. When clinicians suggest that attention be directed to the feel of the act, they assume that the mechanisms of perception are normal. Our current state of the art does not allow us to test those senses. Because the movements of the pharynx, velum, and tongue essentially are invisible to the learner, poor sensory ability to detect, identify, and remember sensations of speech may make internal focus of feedback and instruction frustrating. On the other hand, some ability to know what the structures are doing is necessary (not necessarily at the conscious awareness level) or the next try is essentially random.

External focus is thought to enhance learning because the learner is not encouraged to constrain the motor system through conscious control, and the more automatic motor response is encouraged (e.g., Lisman & Sadagopan, 2013). One could also think of this as a conflict of open-versus closed-loop control. Paying attention to internal characteristics is effort intensive and slow, thus encouraging the use of a closed-loop control system, which is neurophysiologically different from open-loop control. Consequently, one would not expect a great deal of learning or generalization to automatic performance from closed-loop practice.

However, since external versus internal control of speech movements has not been investigated up to this point, we will have to make some assumptions. First, we know that speech movements are highly complex and fast. Second, we know that speakers proceed with talking with little effort allocated to the internal aspects of speech. Consequently, at present, I am willing to

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