Landscape dynamics of motor learning and development

Learning and development over the lifespan influence the dynamics of the human motor system. Our ideas about the dynamics of motor learning and development are grounded in the phenomena of the continuous evolution of movement patterns and outcomes over multiple time scales.¹ In this review, we present examples of time scales distinguishing properties of motor learning and development, including the direction of change in the complexity of motor behavior, the transient and persistent processes of learning, scaling and transition properties of change, and consolidation effects of motor learning. The pathways of changes in movement dynamics over the lifespan are channelled by the confluence of constraints to action embedded in the interaction of the individual with the environment and with tasks at hand.