Editorial: Factors that affect the motor learning process

Abstract

This editorial introduces the Brazilian Journal of Motor Behavior special issue on “Factors that affect the motor learning process”, which brings together seven studies examining how motor learning is shaped by interacting constraints across cognitive resources, practice organization, task structure, and learner characteristics. The papers collectively show that manipulating cognitive engagement (e.g., acute working-memory stimulation) does not necessarily enhance learning of complex skills and may transiently disrupt early performance, whereas practice organization (random versus constant schedules) can meaningfully influence learning expressed in transfer. In parallel, the issue highlights that greater practice volume can improve performance without necessarily changing global perceived competence, and that structuring practice to preserve functionally meaningful components of complex techniques can yield more robust outcomes at retention. The final contributions extend these questions to populations with distinct developmental or neurological profiles, emphasizing that interventions may simultaneously target cognitive and fine-motor outcomes, that fundamental motor skill competence differs under standardized assessment in ADHD, and that augmented feedback can improve performance without producing retention when removed in cerebellar dysfunction. Together, the studies reinforce that motor learning is multifactorial and that conclusions depend on how constraints are manipulated and how learning is evaluated (practice performance vs. transfer/retention), providing convergent directions for future research and applied practice.