Nicola Hodges

I run the Motor Skills Lab in Kinesiology at UBC. Here we study practice. We commonly conduct laboratory experiments with new learners to determine how and why various practice variables (such as instruction, demonstrations, feedback, order of practice) impact motor learning and transfer. These tasks range from relatively novel, yet easy to acquire skills (adapting to new visual-environments, learning 2-handed coordination actions, sequencing tasks) to more “true-to-life” skills (kicking, throwing, juggling). We also learn about practice by studying people who are already skilled and we have been involved in a number of projects related to skill development in soccer. Motor experts provide a rich source of information about practice histories and current practice habits to give insights into what practice entails to develop expert-like performance. In current work, students and I have been studying action prediction processes and the mechanisms involved in making accurate predictions as a result of various types of training (e.g., visual or motor). I am particularly interested in how we learn from watching others and mechanisms of action-observation and observational learning (through a range of techniques). This has recently involved the study of joint action and how people “share” practice and impact skill acquisition processes.