Gabriele Wulf and Rebecca Lewthwaite have proposed a new theory of motor learning that includes the latest research on recent lines of evidence demonstrating motivational and attentional effects on performance and learning.
The theory has been named : Optimizing performance through intrinsic motivation and attention for learning: or OPTIMAL theory of motor learning.
The OPTIMAL theory (Optimizing Performance through Intrinsic Motivation and Attention for Learning), proposed by Gabrielle Wulf and Rebecca Lewthwaite, focuses on how motivational and attentional factors influence motor learning. It suggests that certain conditions enhance motor learning by improving the learner’s motivation and directing their attention appropriately. The theory is built on three core principles:
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Enhanced Expectancies: This principle suggests that learners perform better when they believe they can succeed. High expectations help create a positive feedback loop where successful attempts reinforce a learner’s confidence, leading to even better performance.
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Autonomy Support: Giving learners some control over their learning environment enhances motivation and performance. This sense of autonomy, even in simple ways (e.g., choosing tasks or the timing of feedback), increases intrinsic motivation.
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External Focus of Attention: Learners perform better when they focus on the effects of their actions rather than on their movements themselves. For instance, focusing on hitting a target rather than on how their body moves to perform the action enhances motor learning.
"Effective motor performance is important for surviving and thriving, and skilled movement is critical in many activities. Much theorizing over the past few decades has focused on how certain practice conditions affect the processing of task-related information to affect learning. Yet, existing theoretical perspectives do not accommodate significant recent lines of evidence demonstrating motivational and attentional effects on performance and learning. These include research on (a) conditions that enhance expectancies for future performance, (b) variables that influence learners' autonomy, and (c) an external focus of attention on the intended movement effect. We propose the OPTIMAL (Optimizing Performance through Intrinsic Motivation and Attention for Learning) theory of motor learning. We suggest that motivational and attentional factors contribute to performance and learning by strengthening the coupling of goals to actions. We provide explanations for the performance and learning advantages of these variables on psychological and neuroscientific grounds. We describe a plausible mechanism for expectancy effects rooted in responses of dopamine to the anticipation of positive experience and temporally associated with skill practice. Learner autonomy acts perhaps largely through an enhanced expectancy pathway. Furthermore, we consider the influence of an external focus for the establishment of efficient functional connections across brain networks that subserve skilled movement. We speculate that enhanced expectancies and an external focus propel performers' cognitive and motor systems in productive "forward" directions and prevent "backsliding" into self- and non-task focused states. Expected success presumably breeds further success and helps consolidate memories. We discuss practical implications and future research directions."
Reference
Wulf G, Lewthwaite R. Optimizing performance through intrinsic motivation and attention for learning: The OPTIMAL theory of motor learning. Psychon Bull Rev. 2016 Jan 29. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 26833314.
The Motor Learning and performance Lab http://gwulf.faculty.unlv.edu/motor-performance-and-learning-laboratory/
