Which statement best contrasts motor learning with motor performance?

• A. Motor learning results in relatively permanent changes in capacity; motor performance is a temporary demonstration
• B. Motor performance results in permanent change
• C. Motor learning requires no practice
• D. Motor performance always leads to learning

Answer: (A)

The essential idea is that learning reflects lasting changes in how well you can perform a skill, while performance is how you actually execute it at a given moment, which can vary with factors like fatigue, focus, or environment. Through practice, abilities become more stable and transferable, and you can retain or apply them later, even after a break. That’s why the best statement contrasts learning with performance by saying motor learning yields relatively permanent changes in capacity, whereas motor performance is a temporary demonstration. It also helps explain why a single good performance doesn’t guarantee lasting improvement, and why true learning depends on ongoing practice and retention, not just momentary execution. The other ideas—performance creating permanent changes, learning needing no practice, or performance always equaling learning—don’t fit because they misrepresent how practice leads to durable improvements and how performance can be context-dependent and transient.