Between exploitation and exploration of motor behaviours: unpacking the constraints-led approach to foster nonlinear learning in physical education

Efficient search under constraints and not working memory resources supports creative action emergence in a convergent motor task

“…This follows previous work in striking tasks focused on how movement variability at the control levels can improve striking force -including by varying how the limb is used (Bolander, Neto, & Bir, 2009), range of motion (Estevan, Álvarez, Falco, Molina-García, & Castillo, 2011;Estevan, Falco, Álvarez, & Molina-García, 2012;Falco et al, 2009;Kim, Kim, & Im, 2011;Loturco, Artioli, Kobal, Gil, & Franchini, 2014), and foot positioning (Kim, Kwon, Yenuga, & Kwon, 2010;Loturco et al, 2016). Identifying/classifying different control solutions based on movement patterns of coordination has also been approached in a range of other tasks such as tennis (Lee, Chow, Komar, Tan, & Button, 2014), swimming (Komar, Potdevin, Chollet, & Seifert, 2018), and climbing (Herault, Orth, Seifert, Boulanger, & Lee, 2017). Also, for an extensive review related to the functional role of movement variability in striking actions in combat sports see Orth, van der Kamp, and Rein (2018).…”

Search Strategies in the Perceptual-Motor Workspace and the Acquisition of Coordination, Control, and Skill

“…A consequence of studying different levels of search is that we have the opportunity to investigate the exploration/exploitation dilemma – the dilemma between maintaining a given strategy with known return and exploring other strategies with unknown but potentially higher returns (Hills et al, 2015, see also, Komar et al, 2019). This aspect is present (as exemplified in the soccer example) but largely disregarded in the motor behavior literature.…”

Dynamics of Experience in a Learning Protocol: A Case Study in Climbing

“…During these transitions, new behaviors may temporarily alternate with previous behaviors in a socalled "intermittent regime" and are accompanied by an interplay of regressions and progressions in "measurable" performance (Nourrit et al, 2003;Teulier and Delignières, 2007). These periods of intermittent regime are nevertheless functional as they indicate the learner's exploration and exploitation of new coordination solutions to achieve the task (Chow et al, 2011;Komar et al, 2019). This perspective led to the development in non-linear pedagogy (Chow, 2013) using a constraintsled approach (Davids et al, 2008), where teachers and/or practitioners manipulate a set of constraints (i.e., environment and task) in order to prompt improvements in the quality of learners' explorations and thereby provoke the development of adaptable behaviors (Komar et al, 2019).…”

“…These periods of intermittent regime are nevertheless functional as they indicate the learner's exploration and exploitation of new coordination solutions to achieve the task (Chow et al, 2011;Komar et al, 2019). This perspective led to the development in non-linear pedagogy (Chow, 2013) using a constraintsled approach (Davids et al, 2008), where teachers and/or practitioners manipulate a set of constraints (i.e., environment and task) in order to prompt improvements in the quality of learners' explorations and thereby provoke the development of adaptable behaviors (Komar et al, 2019). In addition, the evidence is growing that learning is characterized by individual pathways in the interactions with constraints (Pacheco et al, 2017;Pacheco and Newell, 2018).…”