Background: The relation between physical activity (PA), motor skills and cognitive function in children is receiving considerable attention. To transition scientific evidence into pedagogical practice, however, we need to further our understanding of which qualitative PA characteristics are best suited to stimulate motor skills and executive…

The main goal of this study was to investigate the influence of an established school programme with a high amount of physical education on visual-spatial ability in a secondary school. One hundred and forty-four adolescents, 69 from sport classes and 75 from regular classes, solved a cognitive processing speed task and a mental rotation task. The…

Purpose: As the scope of motor development and learning knowledge has successfully broadened over the years, there is an increased need to identify the content and learning experiences that are essential in preparing preservice physical educators. The purpose of this study was to generate expert consensus regarding the most critical motor…

Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder is a common developmental disorder that can cause a motor-skill delay in children. Positive illusory bias (PIB)--the belief that one is better at performing a task or a skill than one actually is--may be one cause of this delay. Although nearly everyone experiences a mild and healthy PIB, students with ADHD…

Children with autism exhibit a host of motor disorders including poor coordination, poor tool use and delayed learning of complex motor skills like riding a tricycle. Theory suggests that one of the crucial steps in motor learning is the ability to form internal models: to predict the sensory consequences of motor commands and learn from errors to…

A theory of practice in high-proficiency skills such as speech production is proposed, involving activation of a hierarchy of nodes in serial order within an output system of behavior. Increased flexibility with practice, response mechanism transfer in skills, motor equivalence, automaticity, and speed-accuracy trade-off are discussed. (Author/CM)

The purpose was to examine the effect of Brain Gym on learning the overhand throw among 42 first grade students. Participants from two intact classes were randomly assigned to an experimental or control condition. Students were tested before and after a 5-week intervention using the object control subtest from the Test of Gross Motor Development-2…

Although there are marked individual differences in the effect of aging on learning and performing motor skills, there is agreement that humans process information less efficiently with advanced age. Significant decrements have been found specifically with motor tasks that are characterized as externally-paced, rapid, complex, and requiring rapid…

Less experienced teachers may present skill tasks to physical education students and athletes in a manner that is too complicated. This paper explains how beginning and intermediate learning of motor skills occur, noting implications for teaching in the verbal-cognitive stage for beginners and the motor- associative stage for intermediate…

Eight papers present information about children's motor development and its application for program design. Jerry R. Thomas, Kathi T. Thomas, and Jere D. Gallagher discuss "Children's Processing of Information in Physical Activity and Sport." In "Toward Inclusion," G. S. Don Morris considers characteristics of children and of motor tasks with…

Research about the retention and transfer of motor skills is reviewed and applied to physical education and sport settings. More research that is theoretically and empirically based and from which practitioners can draw their technology is needed. (Authors/CJ)

Explores the literature from physical education psychomotor research in order to answer questions concerning elementary music psychomotor skills acquisition and retention by focusing on four aspects of motor-learning theories: (1) knowledge of results; (2) contextual interference; (3) cognitive strategies; and (4) modeling. (CMK)

Research review examines whether student thought processes mediate achievement in physical education. The paper offers the mediating process paradigm to explain unexpected, inconsistent research findings on teaching and describes problems associated with measuring cognitive processes, suggesting they play an active role in student motor skill…