Clinical Pilates in Practice: Analogies Speed Up Motor Learning

For motor learning tasks, analogies are usually given as a single biomechanical metaphor. This study demonstrates how analogies can influence motor kinematics and task outcome.

Zacks O, Friedman J. Analogies can speed up the motor learning process. Sci Rep. 2020 Apr 24;10(1):6932. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-63999-1. PMID: 32332826; PMCID: PMC7181737.

Key Points: Analogies & Motor Learning

• The type of instruction given is important for motor learning.

• Different aspects of movement are affected differently by different instructional styles.

"Analogies in the case of motor learning combine various task-relevant rules into a single biomechanical metaphor, usually given to the learner as a verbal instruction."

• Explicit instructions lead to smoother training for movement.

• Instructions given as a verbal analogy can support smoother movement training when movement tasks are slowed down.

• Analogies may help for motor skills that are otherwise hard to communicate or implement due to systemic limitations.

• Analogies increase cognitive efficacy due to a decrease in the verbal processing load.

Clinical Pilates in practice

• Find creative ways to communicate new tasks, especially when that task is broken down and slowed down.

• As per imagery, communication with your client is important to determine an analogy that is relevant.

• Experiment with analogies and explicit instructions, to find which allows your client to achieve the task more smoothly.