The Adaptation Process in the Serial Learning of Perceptualmotor Skills Under Three Learning Conditions.

Man is an open system because he is interacting constantly with the environment through the exchange of energy and information. The fact that the system is open to the environment means that it is influenced by changes in the environment. So, for any open system, the process of adaptation to these changes is one of the most fundamental problems for survival. When we think about perceptual-motor skills as a kind of adaptation, the following hypothesis can be set up. First, if skills are learned only as fixed motor patterns, then a low performance level of adaptation may be the result. On the other hand, when skills are learned as flexible motor patterns, a higher performance level in adaptation may result. Thirty six female undergraduate students participated in this experiment to test the above hypothesis. They were divided in three groups each with twelve subjects. Three learning conditions based on the degree of freedom in relation to response choice were set up and the three groups were respectively assigned to each learning condition. The task was a serial learning of basketball skills. The results were analyzed in terms of number of trials, execution time of trials, successful trials, anticipation and timing. It can be summarized as follows: 1) The group that performed under the higher degree of freedom showed a high performance level in relation to number of trials, execution time of trials, successful trials and anticipation in the situation of adaptation. 2) All tree groups showed a tendency of decrease in performance level in relation to timing in the situation of adaptation. But, this tendency was more remarkable in the group that performed under the higher degree of freedom. In general, the results showed support for the hypothesis and were interpreted as evidence in favor of the assumption that as the teaching program becomes stricter, the degree of freedom of the learner's action becomes lower. And as a consequence, it becomes more and more difficult to acquire flexible and organized skills which are so important in the process of adaptation to environmental changes.