The Characteristics, Mechanism And Application Of Implicit Motor Learning

To meet the needs of sports practice, this study made a systematic examination of the characteristics, mechanism and application of implicit motor learning on the basis of the theory about implicit motor learning proposed by Masters & Maxwell in 2004. The whole study is composed of three parts with nine experiments.The first part study focused on the characteristics of the motor skills acquired implicitly. In experiments 1,2 and 3, which were in two factors mixed-design, the motor skill of golf-putting was learned by means of an explicit or implicit learning method. The results showed that the motor skill acquired implicitly displayed robust under dual-tasks or under pressure, with the characteristics of Anti-interference and Anti-stress. This part study adopted analogy learning paradigm with practical value to understand the characteristics of implicit motor learning deeply.The second part study focused on the mechanism of implicit motor learning. According to the three-component model of working memory proposed by Baddeley & Hitch in 1974, the dual tasks paradigm was adopted to explore the roles of the three major subsystems of working memory in implicit motor learning in experiments 4, 5 and 6. The results showed that implicit motor learning was independent of the phonological loop and the visuospatial sketchpad, less dependent of the central executive system. Implicit motor learning occupied smaller resources of working memory relatively, which provided a theoretical basis to explain the characteristics of implicit motor learning.The third part study focused on the application of implicit motor learning. The results of experiments 7 and 8, through experimental and case-tracking methods, revealed that the self-consciousness and attention change were the main reasons for occurrence of Choking. In experiment 9, the strategies based on implicit motor learning were adopted to intervene the Choking of students specialized in basketball for nearly 1-month in nature context. The results showed that implicit motor learning was an effective means of intervention on the phenomenon of Choking. This part study provided a scientific basis for the expansion of the intervention strategies onChoking.The results of this study verified and developed the theory about implicit motor learning, and put forward the theoretical model about implicit motor learning' mechanism and characteristics. The study also suggested that the intervention strategies on Choking based on the theory of implicit motor learning have an important value in sports practice.