title: Implicit and explicit learning: applications from basic research to sports for individuals with impaired movement dynamics.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Motor skills can be learned in an explicit or an implicit manner. Explicit learning places high demands on working memory capacity, but engagement of working memory is largely circumvented when skills are learned implicitly. We propose that individuals with impaired movement dynamics may benefit from implicit learning methods when acquiring sports-related motor skills.
  
  
  METHODS
  We discuss converging evidence that individuals with cerebral palsy and children born prematurely have compromised working memory capacity. This may in part explain the difficulties they encounter when learning motor and other skills. We also review tentative evidence that older people, whose movement dynamics deteriorate, can implicitly learn sports-related motor skills and that this results in more durable performance gains than explicit learning.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Individuals with altered movement dynamics and compromised working memory can benefit from implicit motor learning.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We conclude with an appeal for more extensive evaluation of the merits of implicit motor learning in individuals with impaired movement dynamics.
authors.affiliation: Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands. b.steenbergen@pwo.ru.nl
authors.forename: Bert
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Steenbergen
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: van der Kamp
authors.forename: Marion
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Verneau
authors.forename: Marjolein
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Jongbloed-Pereboom
authors.forename: Rich S W
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Masters
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged / Q000502:physiology; D002547:Cerebral Palsy / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D009048:Motor Skills / Q000502:physiology*; D047928:Premature Birth; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*