Acquisition and Automatization of a Complex Task: An Examination of Three-Ball Cascade Juggling

Abstract

The learning patterns of 3-ball cascade juggling from acquisition until automaticity were examined in 10 participants. On the basis of outcome measures derived from 26 practice sessions and 4 periodic probe sessions, the authors differentiated participants into 3 distinct learning types: a proficient group, an emerging group, and a single late learner. The proficient group was distinguished by how rapidly they learned and automatized performance. Most interesting, an inverse response cost (i.e., performance boost) on the secondary task was found in the majority of proficient group members during the dual-task condition. The present results are discussed in relation to the P. L. Ackerman model (1987, 1988) of complex skill acquisition as is the significance of the inverse response cost finding.

Automaticity of walking – implications for physiotherapy practice

“…5 Automaticity Automaticity is the term used to indicate that a skill is performed with little demand on attentional resources. 2,5,7,8 In contrast, non-automated tasks require significant attention to ensure that performance is maintained. 4 Logan 1 suggests that automaticity is not absolute; rather it occurs along a continuum.…”

“…2,[8][9][10] If tasks are automated and hence require little attention, multiple tasks can be performed concurrently without negatively impacting on performance, as they will not exceed the overall attention capacity. 2,7 However, performance of multiple non-automated tasks will be dependent on the available attentional resources: if there is insufficient attention, these tasks will suffer some deterioration in their performance. 5,11 In summary, automaticity is considered to be a feature of skilled task performance, whereas attention is the mechanism by which task performance is maintained.…”

Transfer of Skill from a Virtual Reality Trainer to Real Juggling

“…Because of the temporal-spatial constraints and complexity involved in the acquisition and performance of 3-ball cascade juggling, various aspects of the task have been investigated in previous research, including learning principles [1], coordination dynamics [2,3,4], visual perception [5,6], and skill automatization [7]. An important representation of the spatial-temporal relations in the 3-ball cascade juggling is the dwell ratio k, which is defined as the "fraction of time that a hand holds on to a ball between two catches (or throws)" [8].…”

Embodying the path of sustainability: reflections on “learning to juggle” in environmental pedagogy

“…BI can't do it^is a difficult paradigm to transcend, so every opportunity to practice doing so is valuable. Juggling provides a very concrete opportunity to transcend such pessimism, and luckily, with appropriate guidance, most people can learn to juggle if they are committed to doing so (e.g., Bebko et al 2003;Huys et al 2004). Juggling reinforces the habit of moving onward from small failures (or large ones), embodied by dropping an object, towards eventual success.…”