This review focuses on the contributions made by exploratory behaviors to skilled perception and action. 

Hacques, Guillaume et al. “Exploring to learn and learning to explore.” Psychological research, 10.1007/s00426-020-01352-x. 10 May. 2020, doi:10.1007/s00426-020-01352-x

KEY POINTS: LEARNING TO EXPLORE

• Exploratory activities are those that generate information about the association between environmental factors and action capabilities.
• Exploration describes the active process by which individuals disclose information during control of action.
• In ecological psychology, information resides as patterns in ambient arrays (mechanical, acoustic, and optical).
  • These ambient arrays specify the relationship between the individual and his/her environment.
• When information is relevant to the relationship between an individual and their environment, they perceive opportunities for action.
• Through exploratory-perpetual motor...

This small study observed the motor learning effects of allowing small choices by individuals.

An, Jongseong, Rebecca Lewthwaite, Seungmin Lee, and Gabriele Wulf. "Choice of practice-task order enhances golf skill learning." Psychology of Sport and Exercise 50 (2020), 101737. doi:10.1016/j.psychsport.2020.101737.

KEY POINTS: CHOICE OF PRACTICE ORDER & SKILL LEARNING

• Autonomy is a key motivational factor in the OPTIMAL theory of motor learning.¹
  • Enhances expectancies for performance.
  • Increases task focus.
  • Enhanced processing of task errors.
  • Greater neuro-cognitive engagement.
• Lack of autonomy can be stressful and therefore negatively impact performance.
  • Stress also takes focus away from task performance.
• In the "choice group", participants selected the order of their practice, which were seemingly small choices.
• Having a choice enhanced learning, compared to the group that did not choose the order of their practice.
• Positive...

The concept of learning styles has long been debunked, and yet they persist in all educational communities. This paper outlines why it is difficult to use theories of learning styles in practice: "the same term means different things to different teachers."

Papadatou-Pastou, Marietta, Anna K. Touloumakos, Christina Koutouveli, and Alexia Barrable. "The learning styles neuromyth: when the same term means different things to different teachers." European Journal of Psychology of Education, 2020. doi:10.1007/s10212-020-00485-2.

KEY POINTS: LEARNING STYLES NEURMYTH

• There are many models of learning styles, and therefore little consensus on what different learning styles connote.
• The Visual-Auditory-(Reading)-Kinaesthetic (VARK/VAK) is the most common understanding of learning styles.
• Theories of learning and learning styles are often confused.
• Learning styles are also often confused with learning approaches and/or motivation theories.

There are...

Interested in keeping up to date with research relevant to your clinical practice?

The Calibrate Pilates team rounds this up so that you can integrate new information into your evidence-informed practice: join our newsletter now.

Exploring to Learn and Learning to Explore

Hacques, Guillaume et al. “Exploring to learn and learning to explore.” Psychological research, 10.1007/s00426-020-01352-x. 10 May. 2020, doi:10.1007/s00426-020-01352-x

This review focuses on the contributions made by exploratory behaviors to skilled perception and action. 

Key Points

• Exploratory activities are those that generate information about the association between environmental factors and action capabilities.
• Exploration describes the active process by which individuals disclose information during control of action.
• In ecological psychology, information resides as patterns in ambient arrays (mechanical, acoustic, and optical).
  • These ambient arrays...