Motor Control and Learning

Richard A. Schmidt, PhD (1941-2015) was a professor emeritus in the department of psychology at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). At the time of his death, Schmidt ran his own business, Human Performance Research, conducting research and consulting in the area of human factors and human performance. Widely acknowledged as one of the leaders in research on motor behavior, he had more than 40 years of experience in motor learning and performance.

The originator of both schema theory and impulse-variability theory (also called Schmidt's law), he founded the Journal of Motor Behavior in 1969 and was editor for 11 years. He authored the first edition of this book, Motor Control and Learning, in 1982 and the first edition of another leading textbook, Motor Learning and Performance, in 1991.

Schmidt was highly recognized for his lifetime contributions to research and writing. He received honorary doctorates from the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium in 1992 and the Université Joseph Fourier in France in 1998. He was a longtime member of the North American Society for the Psychology of Sport and Physical Activity (NASPSPA), where he served as president in 1982 and received the organization's two highest honors: the Distinguished Scholar Award (for lifetime contributions to research in motor control and learning) in 1992 and the President's Award (for significant contributions to the development and growth of NASPSPA) in 2013. He was also a member of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society and the Psychonomic Society and received the C.H. McCloy Research Lectureship from the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance (AAHPERD). His leisure-time passions included sailboat and Porsche racing.

Timothy D. Lee, PhD, is a professor emeritus in the department of kinesiology at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. He has published extensively in motor behavior and psychology journals since 1980, has served as an editor for the Journal of Motor Behavior and Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport, and has been an editorial board member for Psychological Review. Before his retirement, his research was supported primarily by grants from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC).

Lee has been a member, secretary-treasurer, and president of the Canadian Society for Psychomotor Learning and Sport Psychology (SCAPPS) and a member of the North American Society for the Psychology of Sport and Physical Activity (NASPSPA), the Psychonomic Society, and the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society. In 1980, he received the inaugural Young Scientist Award from SCAPPS, and in 2011 he was named a fellow of the society--its highest honor. He was named an international fellow by the National Academy of Kinesiology in 1999 and awarded the Distinguished Scholar Award by NASPSPA in 2017. His leisure-time passions include golf and music.

Cheryl M. Glazebrook, PhD, is a professor in the faculty of kinesiology and recreation management at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. She is the director of the Perceptual Motor Integration Laboratory at the University of Manitoba, where her team examines fundamental and applied questions in motor control and learning with neurotypical and neurodiverse populations. Funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), her research program combines theory and established motor control paradigms with kinematic analyses to uncover how perception and action interact.

Glazebrook's pioneering research in autism and motor control, including eye-hand coordination, helped establish how motor skills are influenced by autism and neurodiverse traits. An ongoing theme of her collaborative research is to co-design adaptive dance programming in community and rehabilitation contexts. In 2025, she shared these ideas at TEDx Winnipeg in her talk, "Why We Should All Dance More: The Science Behind Connection and Joy."

Glazebrook is an active member of the motor behavior and autism research communities, including the North American Society for the Psychology of Sport and Physical Activity (NASPSPA), the Canadian Society for Psychomotor Learning and Sport Psychology (SCAPPS), and the International Society for Autism Research (INSAR). In 2017, she gave an invited talk on the future of motor control and learning at the 50th Anniversary of NASPSPA in San Diego, California. In her leisure time, she enjoys dancing (performing annually to this day), running and walking along the many riverbanks in Manitoba, and relaxing at their family camp in Northern Ontario.

Breanna E. Studenka, PhD, is an associate professor in the department of kinesiology and health science at Utah State University in Logan. She earned her BA in biomechanics from the University of Northern Colorado and her MS and PhD in motor control and learning from Purdue University. She completed postdoctoral training in motor cognition focused on motor cognition, timing, and the analyses of movement variability at Bielefeld University in Germany, McMaster University in Canada, and Pennsylvania State University in the United States.

Studenka has published extensively in the fields of motor control and motor learning, with research spanning sequential motor planning, timing, and movement coordination. Her contributions include the development of behavioral measures of motor perspective taking, novel analyses of millisecond interval timing, and applications of nonlinear time-series methods to understand motor variability and recovery from injury. Much of her recent work has focused on motor planning flexibility and hysteresis, as well as social-motor interaction and perspective taking in individuals with autism spectrum disorder.

She directs the sensory motor behavior laboratory at Utah State University, where her team examines fundamental and applied questions of motor control with neurotypical and neurodiverse individuals. Studenka is active in the motor behavior research community, including the North American Society for the Psychology of Sport and Physical Activity (NASPSPA), the Canadian Society for Psychomotor Learning and Sport Psychology (SCAPPS), and the Progress in Motor Control community. She is also dedicated to mentoring undergraduate and graduate students. In her leisure time, she enjoys illustrating children's books, skiing, triathlon training, and hiking with her family in the mountains of northern Utah.

Howard N. Zelaznik, PhD, is a professor in the department of health and kinesiology at Purdue University in Indiana. He is a fellow of the National Academy of Kinesiology (NAK), the Association for Psychological Science (APS), the Psychonomic Society, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and he is an active member of the North American Society for the Psychology of Sport and Physical Activity (NASPSPA). Zelaznik has served as executive editor for the Journal of Motor Behavior. His research specialty is human motor control. Zelaznik has developed, tested, and promoted a theoretical framework for examining issues in human movement timing. His research has received more than 30 years of support from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) as well as funding from the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF).A former college tennis player, Zelaznik is still an active (albeit unranked) tennis player. He is an active road cyclist and former marathon runner.