Richard Magill is interested in motor skill acquisition processes and how practice related variables influence skill acquisition, especially forms of instruction, augmented feedback, and practice schedules. Also of interest is the study of how successful performance of motor skills can be accomplished under a variety of conditions. His most recent research has investigated how implicit and explicit learning processes are involved in motor skill acquisition, and the influence of contextual interference in motor skill learning.
He has authored or co-authored more than 80 articles and chapters in research journals and edited books, and he has given more than 80 invited presentations at national and international meetings. He currently serves on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Motor Behavior. He has served as Editor-in-Chief of the Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport. He is author of the textbook, Motor Learning and Control: Concepts and Applications, published by McGraw-Hill, which is now in its eighth edition. He received a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology from Florida State University. He comes to NYU after being on the faculty of the Department of Kinesiology at Louisiana State University for 29 years.