Exam #2 Flashcards
What are the general categories of measuring motor performance?
Performance Outcome Measures & Performance Production Measures.
What does performance outcome measure?
Measures the result or outcome of a skill.
ex: distance thrown, speed, reaction time.
What does performance production measure?
Inform us about how the nervous system, muscular system, & limbs are acting to produce the performance outcome.
ex: EEG, EMG, force, limb kinematics.
What does Reaction Time indicate?
How long it takes to prepare & initiate a movement.
What is Movement Time?
The interval of time between the initiation of a movement & the completion of the movement.
What is Response Time?
The time interval involving both reaction time & movement time.
Reaction Time + Movement Time = Response Time
The time from the onset of a signal to the completion of a response.
What is Simple Reaction Time?
The reaction time that involves 1 signal or stimulus and 1 response.
What is Choice Reaction Time?
The reaction time that involves more than one signal & each signal requires its own specified response.
What is Discrimination Reaction Time?
The reaction time that involves more than one signal but only one response, which is to only one of the signals; the other signals require NO response.
What is the relationship between Reaction Time & Movement Time?
RT does NOT predict MT.
MT does NOT predict RT.
Separate motor abilites
What are the two parts of Fractionated Reaction Time?
Premotor Time & Motor Time. (Allow researchers to identify if changes in movement RT are due to cognitive processes or mechanical features of the limb(s).)
What is Premotor Time?
Time that elapses between the presentation of a stimulus & the first change in EMG activity.
More stimuli, the greater the premotor time.
What is Motor Time?
Begins with first change in EMG activity & ends when movement begins.
More body parts, the greater the motor time.
What are the Error Measures for 1-dimensional actions?
Absolute error, Constant error, & Variable error.
What is Absolute Error?
A measure of error without regard to direction. How far off are you from your target. Always positive.
What is Constant Error?
Deviation from the target based on direction. How far to the left or right did the target miss. Can be positive or negative.
What is Variable Error?
An error score that represents the variability of performance. How consistent you were performing the task. Always positive.
What is the Error Measure for 2-dimensional actions?
Radial error.
What is the Error Measure for continuous skills?
Root-mean-squared error (RMSE): indicates the amount of error between the performance curve produced and the criterion performance curve for a specific amount of time.
What is Kinematics?
The description of motion without regard to force or mass; displacement, velocity & acceleration.
What is Displacement?
Describes changes in spatial location as a person carries out a movement.
What is Velocity?
Rate of change of an object’s position with respect to time.
What is Acceleration?
Change in velocity during movement.
What are Kinetics?
Refers to force as the cause of motion
What are other measures of Kinematics
EMG (electromyography): measures electrical activity in muscles
EEG (electroencephalography): measures brain activity
Positron Emission Tomography (PET): used for measuring the concentration of positron-emitting radioisotopes within different body tissues.
Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI); visualizes brain function through change in fluid flow (cerebrospinal fluid, blood)
Lesions: remove portion of brain matter to see it effect on function (performed on lab animals)
What is Action Preparation?
Involves the events that occur in the nervous system from the intention of an action to the initiation of an action.
How is Action Preparation related to RT?
Action preparation is what we called reaction time.
We look at RT as an index of preparation required to produce an action at the cognitive & neuromotor level.
What is involved in planning an action at the Cognitive Level?
Making the decision to act
Developing a general plan
Adding details to the plan
What is involved in Making the Decision to Act?
Action preparation or planning begins with a decision or intention to act.
This act may be driven by internal goals or response to the environment.
What is involved in Developing a General Plan?
How appropriate the action plan is for the situation determined by:
Previous experience &
Evaluation of the situation.
What is involved in Adding Details to the Plan?
Selecting various movement parameters (force, velocity displacement).
Which body part will be used.
What environmental characteristics are present.
How does the number of response choices affect RT?
The more choices you have the greater your reaction time.
Hicks Law: RT = log (N+I)
How does Predictability affect RT?
As the predictability of one of the choices increases, RT decreases.
How does Precue Correctness influence RT?
50/50 chance of correct precue: no preference
80/20 chance of correct precue: bias toward the higher probability
How does Stimulus-response compatibility affect RT?
RT will be faster if the relationship between the stimulus and response are compatible.
How does Foreperiod length regularity affect RT?
If the foreperiod is the same for every simple RT task, RT will decrease
How does Movement Complexity affect RT?
RT increases as a function of the number of component parts in a movement increases
How does Movement Accuracy affect preparation time?
As the accuracy demand for a movement increases the amount of preparation time increases.
How does Repetition of a Movement affect RT?
If the same movement is required for many trials, the trials later in the sequence will have decrease RT’s.
What is affected by the Alertness of a Performer?
Initiation time is reduced when the performer is alert and attentive.
What is affected by Attentional Focus?
RT is reduced when performers focus on a signal rather than a movement or set movements
What are the 4 areas of the CNS that are associated with the Planning & Execution of Actions?
Limbic system
Association cortex
Protection system
Spinal system
What is the Limbic System?
Structure that surrounds hypothalamus
Responsible for our intention to act according to environmental demands
What is the Association Cortex?
Distributed throughout the cortex
Act that is generated in the limbic system is analyzed and transformed into a general plan of action
Function: recognition, selection, and integration relevant sensory input
What is the Protection System?
Main function – determines how the action should be carried out
Responsible for adding the movement dynamics to best fit the goal & environmental constraints
What is the Spinal System?
Regulates the timing of the muscle activation patterns; is the “fine tuner” of the systems
Information flowing within systems in not unidirectional
What is Attention?
The engagement in perceptual, cognitive, and motor activities before, during, and after performing motor skills.
What is Conscious Attention?
Conscious engagement in attention activities
Verbally describe the activity
Perceptual attention: “I am looking at…”
Cognitive attention: “I am thinking about…”
Motor attention: “ I am moving…”
What is Non-Conscious Attention?
Non-conscious engagement in attention activities:
Cannot or have difficult verbally describing the attention activity
Skill performance shows evidence of attention activity (ex. automaticity)
What is Limited Attention Capacity?
A key factor that influences the amount of activities people can perform simultaneously
What is Central Resource Theory?
One “supply store” (central resource) from which all attention activities must be obtained
What is Fixed amount of attention?
attention capacity is always the same amount
What is Flexible amount of attention?
attention capacity varies from situation to situation
What is Kahneman’s Theory?
An example of a flexible central resource theory.
Arousal influences the amount of attention capacity.
Maximum attention capacity = Optimal arousal level for the situation
What is Multiple Resources Theory?
Most popular has been proposed by Wicken
Resources are available from 3 sources:
1) Input/Output modalities
Vision, speech
2)Stages of information processing
Perception, memory encoding, response output
3) Codes of processing information
Verbal & spatial codes
What is Dual-Task Procedure?
Person performs two tasks simultaneously
Primary task: ex. Walking on a pathway
Secondary task: ex. Talking with someone
Person instructed to maintain normal performance on primary task
Secondary task performance assessed to determine attention demands of the primary task
What were the results of the Research on Cell Phone Use While Driving?
Missed two times more traffic signals
RT for responding to a red light significantly slower than when not using cell phone
No statistical differences between hand-held and hands-free cell phone use
Missed more traffic signals and had slower RT than when listening to the radio or to a book
