Skill and strategic control

Abstract

This paper provides an account of the strategic control involved in skilled action. When I discuss strategic control, I have in mind the practical goals, plans, and strategies that skilled agents use in order to specify, structure, and organize their skilled actions, which they have learned through practice. The idea is that skilled agents are better than novices not only at implementing the intentions that they have but also at forming the right intentions. More specifically, skilled agents are able formulate and modify, adjust and adapt their practical intentions in ways that are appropriate, effective, and flexible given their overall goals. Further, to specify the kind of action plans that are involved in strategic control, I’ll rely on empirical evidence concerning mental practice and mental imagery from sports psychology as well as evidence highlighting the systematic differences in the cognitive representations of skills between experts and non-experts. I’ll claim that, together, this evidence suggests that the intentions that structure skilled actions are practical and not theoretical, that is, that they are perceptual and motor and not abstract, amodal, or linguistic. Importantly, despite their grounded nature, these plans are still personal-level, deliberate, rational states. That is, the practical intentions used to specify and structure skilled actions are best conceived of as higher-order, motor-modal structures, which can be manipulated and used by the agent for the purpose of reasoning, deliberation, decision-making and, of course, the actual online structuring and organizing of action.

Cognitive control, intentions, and problem solving in skill learning

“…Most accounts of action representation have focused on the representation of action form , such as motor patterns, schemas and automated procedures (Anderson, 1982 ; Buxbaum, 2001 ; Fridland, 2021 ; Pacherie & Mylopoulos, 2020 ; Schmidt, 1975 ; Wolpert et al, 1995 ). These theories propose that, when provided with a goal in a particular context, the motor system predicts what action structure will achieve the goal and then produces that structure.…”

“…Most accounts have focused on representations of action form , with an emphasis on schemas (e.g. Mylopoulos & Pacherie, 2018 ; Fridland, 2021 ). In contrast, some accounts have focused on the representation of causal structure (Christensen et al, 2015 ; Goldenberg, 2013 ).…”

“… Nanay (2020) andFridland (2021) argue that action control is based on imagistic representation, drawing on evidence that practice using mental imagery can be highly beneficial. Causal control models should be differentiated from mental images.…”

An experimental test of integrating imagery with approach bias modification for alcohol: A cautionary tale

“…By mental imagery intervention, we mean the deliberate simulation and/or manipulation of action-oriented mental content (e.g., perceptual, motor, affective, somatic) by an agent in the absence of concomitant physical movements (Driskell et al, 1994;Kosslyn et al, 2006). Mental imagery has been shown to be an effective strategy for enhancing the development of skills in multiple domains (Driskell et al, 1994;Feltz & Landers, 1983;Fridland, 2021;Guillot et al, 2009;Hanakawa et al, 2003Hanakawa et al, , 2008Jeannerod, 1994). Imaginal retraining has also been tested in the alcohol context with promising first results involving reduced craving (Moritz et al, 2019), lowered levels of alcohol consumption (Hagger et al, 2011) and decreases in heavy episodic drinking (Conroy et al, 2015).…”

Crossmodal transfer of perceptual learning: Evidence from the recognition of first and second language characters in young children.

“…This suggests that crossmodal association may develop not only between trained sensory modalities but between a trained sensory modality and an untrained sensory modality as well (see Karim et al, 2021a). For example, when children learn to read linguistic characters, such as letters or digits, they typically do this job through vision and audition (as auditory dictation is needed about how the characters pronounce), and when they learn to write those symbols they use motor programs and action plans in addition to vision and/or audition (see Fridland, 2021; Levy-Tzedek et al, 2012; Prinz, 1997). However, the association may develop not only between the used (experienced) sensory modalities but between the used and unused modalities as well, such as between vision and touch.…”