Motor Control in Everyday Actions

Timothy D. Lee, PhD, is a professor in the department of kinesiology at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. Lee, whose research on practice and motor learning has been frequently cited, is the author of more than 80 research papers in peer-reviewed publications in the area of motor control and learning. He is also the coauthor, along with Richard Schmidt, of the seminal text Motor Control and Learning: A Behavioral Emphasis, now in its fifth edition. Lee is the former president of the Canadian Society for Psychomotor Learning and Sport Psychology and also a former editor of both Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport and Journal of Motor Behavior. As an amateur golfer, Lee was ranked 22nd among senior golfers in Ontario in 2010. He also enjoys playing right wing for the Dundas Oldtimer ice hockey team and is a blues music enthusiast. Tim and his wife, Laurie Wishart, reside in Ancaster, Ontario.

Part I. Stories About Perception and Action Gone Wrong Chapter 1. Perceptual Errors The Magnetic Hill How do visual illusions distort perception and influence action? The Farmers' Market What are the roles of motor error and hypervigilance in unintended acceleration accidents? The Grocery Store How do population stereotypes shape our interactions with manufactured environments? Push or Pull? How do product designs influence people to perform specific actions? Chapter 2. Decision Errors Friendly Fire What role did decision errors play in the death of Patrick Tillman? Method to His Bratness Did John McEnroe's verbal abuse of line judges influence their decisions? Choking Under Pressure What changes in information processing cause athletes such as Jean Van de Velde to fail under pressure? Turn Right at the Next Gorilla What is inattention blindness, and what role does it play in common traffic accidents? Chapter 3. Action Errors The Calculator How can product designs accommodate Fitts' law? The Gimme Putt Can Schmidt's law be used to predict the accuracy of golf putts? Pouring Coffee How does the information-processing rate create a speed-accuracy trade-off? Is the Bean Dizzy? What do Spoonerisms reveal about motor control? Part II. Adventures in Perception and Action Chapter 4. Fun With Numbers Public Opinion Polls What do central tendency, variability, and statistical significance mean in the context of motor research? Cutting Wood and Missing Putts How are constant error, variable error, and absolute error useful for understanding motor control? The Hot Hand Do statistics support the existence of hot streaks in sports? Chapter 5. Perception in Action Red Light, Green Light What factors influence reaction time and its measurement? Jumping the Gun How can a reaction be distinguished from an anticipation? Antilock Brakes How does the complexity of a motor program influence reaction time? Preventing Penalties and Batting Baseballs How do athletes use temporal and spatial anticipation? Craps and Weighted Bats What role do perceptual illusions play in sport performance? Chapter 6. Attention The Toad and the Centipede Is an internal or external attentional focus better for improving performance? The Preshot Routine Why does a consistent mental preparation ritual benefit performance? Gumbo What are the limits of attentional capacity? Fakes What role does the psychological refractory period play in sport? Chapter 7. Motor Control Websites and Silly Walks How do redundancies help us solve motor problems? The Curling Draw What sport skills use open- and closed-loop systems of motor control? Cool Papa Bell When vision is interrupted, how does iconic memory guide motor tasks? Moving Sidewalks and Beer Glasses How does the end-state comfort effect influence movement planning? The Tickle How do motor commands influence sensory feedback during motor control? The Point of No Return Is there a point in time after which an initiated motor program cannot be stopped? Forensic Motor Control What are generalized motor programs and what do keystroke dynamics reveal about them? Party Tricks How does our nervous system use functional linkages to coordinate movements? Disappearing Act What makes some coordination patterns more automatic than others? Part III. Stories About Learning Motor Skills Chapter 8. Measuring Motor Learning How You Get to Carnegie Hall What is the best way to measure progress in motor learning? The Babe Can a general motor ability be defined and measured? Learning to Win From Losing Why is the learning-performance distinction important? Zero-Sum Training What is the practical impact of ineffective training methods? Chapter 9. Organizing Practice But I Was Great on the Practice Range! How does practice repetition influence performance and learning? The Coach as a Dictionary What roles does augmented feedback play in motor learning? The Golfer's Little Helper What elements of motor learning are neglected when we use mechanical training aids? Chapter 10. Skill Development Bend It Like Becker What types of models are best to observe when learning a skill? Sport Snake Oils Can visual training programs improve sport performance? The Keypad How do explicit and implicit memories influence skilled performance? Wayne Gretzky What role does skilled perception play in sport performance? Chapter 11. Skill Retention Shooting Two From the Line How does the warm-up decrement affect repeated performances? Like Riding a Bicycle How are motor skills stored in memory? H.M. What does the amnesia suffered by Henry Gustav Molaison reveal about memory and motor skills?