Implicit movement learning

Project Management: Claudia Classen & Prof. Dr. Armin Kibele

In the present project the question is investigated whether movement learning can be understood as a special case of implicit learning. Based on different research approaches in movement science, in which implicit learning processes are referred to again and again, an integrative theory of (implicit) movement learning was developed, which includes components of the traditional program theories as well as aspects of the newer action theories and, as a completely new element, establishes a content-related proximity to implicit learning. According to this theory, the motor adaptations underlying exercise-related and enduring skill acquisition occur unconsciously. Conscious representations of the newly acquired movement skill can be built in parallel, but they do not have to be. In the three sub-studies with four experiments conducted for this topic, the study method, the framework conditions, and the effects of implicit learning of a vertical jump with lunge were examined. The subjects were asked to optimize movement features without knowing how many or which movement features were relevant and to what extent. The results suggest that implicit movement learning can occur even without knowledge of an underlying regularity and that this learning produces more stable effects than learning the movement with explicit knowledge of the required features. Still pending are experimental findings for the question whether implicit learning can also take place in complex visual stimulus environments. For this purpose, reaction time experiments will be performed on the computer with a special software for implicit learning (SIMPLE suite) to check whether implicit identification of different stimulus features lead to shorter reaction times after a longer learning phase.

Publications:

• Kibele, A. (2001): Unconscious information processing ? a topic for sports science ?! Frankfurt: Peter Lang.
• Kibele, A. (2001): Implicit movement learning. Spectrum of sports science 13, 7-26.
• Kibele, A. (2003). Implicit learning. H. Mechling & J. Munzert (Eds.): Handbook of exercise science ? Movement science (pp. 243-261). Schorndorf: Hofmann.