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Mental Processes

Chapter 4: Discovering your Students

From Core Concepts for Snowsports Instructors
PSIA , © 2001

How the Brain Works

• Learning begins when specialized nerve cells, called neurons, make connections with other neurons in response to a movement or sensory input

• Groups of neurons build pathways that form a sort of map for the body to access information

• When we first learn something it goes slowly, as nerve cells are simulated again and again myelin is laid down and it goes more quickly – “practice makes perfect”

Sensory Contribution
• Learning is dependant on the sensori-motor systems that process all experiences

• Sensory information related to movement comes primarily through visual, auditory and kinesthetic (feeling and balance) senses (VAK)

• Senses also provide the thrill and fun

Vision
• Visual development is usually complete by age 7, the ability to process and interpret visual input is still developing

• Visual acuity begins to decline in the 40s or 50s, in depth perception, peripheral vision, adaptation to light, ability to focus closely, tolerance to glare and ability to distinguish colors

Sounds
• For most people the sense of hearing is perfect at birth and deteriorates through life

• Young children may often seem to be “tuned out” when in fact they are “tuned in” to too many sounds, refocus verbal instructions

• After 50, most adults have difficulty to discriminate different sounds and the ability to separate your voice from background

Sense of Motion
• One of the first sensory systems to develop is the vestibular system which  controls balance and the sense of movement

• Located in the inner ear, provides information about the position of the head relative to the ground controls balance and the sense of movement


• Proprioceptive system gives sense of where we are in space, monitor flexion and extension.  The brain uses this information to maintain balance and alignment


Feeling or Touch
• Kinesthetic awareness is the ability to perceive body positions through feeling or touch

• The ability to feel the snow sliding beneath your feet and distinguish differing amounts of force or friction is important for learning to adjust and refine movements

• Sense of touch can reassure
 
Development of Mental Processes

• Children don’t understand information the same way adults do

• The way an individual understand is largely influenced by past experiences that have spaced the way new information is received and processed

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