CONTRASTING APPROACHES TO THE STUDY OF MOTOR EXPERTISE

Current approaches to examining the nature of expert performance in mo tor skills have been derived almost entirely from approaches to expert ise used in cognitive psychology and, in general, have been influenced only minimally by theoretical advances in the motor control and learn ing field. In this paper the view is presented that future investigati ons of motor expertise should be tied more closely to conceptual devel opments in the motor control with learning field and that the selectio n of methods for studying motor expertise should be guided by a thorou gh consideration of the philosophical underpinnings of prevailing and emerging approaches. Attention is directed to current paradigmatic deb ates between cognitive and ecological/dynamical approaches to motor co ntrol and learning and to the philosophical bases of this debate. Assu mptions and limitations in each approach are briefly considered, and t he implications of each approach for methods of studying motor experti se are examined.