Psychology

Many experiments and much theoretical debate have come from Adams motor learning theory. Adams theory makes use of two concepts, perceptual trace and memory trace. It is Adams theory that has given birth to the concept of differentiation of two different types of learning apparent when one acquires most motor skills.

The two most important concepts for Adams theory are perceptual trace and motor or memory trace (Mazur, 2006, p. 310). Perceptual trace is synonymous to reference input or what it feels like to perform the task. Motor or memory trace on the other hand focuses on the need for a person to be able to coordinate his or her muscles to produce the needed action.

Along with Adams concepts are his big contributions to motor learning  the two stage theory, the first stage being the verbal-motor stage. The stage was named as such because of verbal feedback dependent improvement. KR (knowledge of results) must be available from the instructor to the learner to compensate for lack of perceptual trace and lack of differentiation between good or bad performance (Mazur, 2006, p. 311).

The second stage is that of the motor stage which happens when the learner has good perceptual trace and has no need for external KR. Adams  says that while performance is possible without external KR, it could be improved by refining the precision of the motor trace (as cited in Mazur, 2006, p.310). The point of debate is where studies show the importance of external KR to motor learning.

Adams theory has launched many experiments and caused many a debate. His work brought to attention the concepts of perceptual and motor trace as well as his two stages, the verbal-motor and motor stages. Though there are still debates on his work, his most important contribution is the idea that two types of learning are possible during motor learning.