lab 4 - ACTION

Question 1

the _________ is responsible for the initiation and inhibition of movements and reward-based learning.

Answer 1

basal ganglia

Question 2

the _________ is responsible for the production of internally generated sequences of movements

Answer 2

supplementary motor cortex

Question 3

the _______ is responsible for the control of eye movements

Answer 3

Superior colliculus

Question 4

the _______ is responsible for motor planning and awareness of motor intentions

Answer 4

Premotor cortex

Question 5

the ______ is responsible for coordination, error correction, and learning of fine skilled movements

Answer 5

cerebellum

Question 6

the _______ is the cortical source of movement signals sent to brainstem and spinal cord

Answer 6

primary motor cortex

Question 7

The premotor cortex is _____________ to the primary motor cortex

Answer 7

rostral

Question 8

The basal ganglia and the cerebellum are two important subcortical components of the motor system. The cerebellum is ______________ to the basal ganglia.

Answer 8

posterior and inferior

Question 9

Expanding on the flexion reflex example shown in the animation, if the animal stepped on a sharp tack with the right hindlimb, what signals would be sent to the left hindlimb?

Answer 9

Excitatory signal to the motor neurons for the extensor muscle, inhibitory signal to the motor neurons for the flexor muscle.

Question 10

In Experiment #1, you are targeting three different colored circles of the same size and same distance from a white circle. The text on Slide 5 asserts you that the time to target each color of circle should be identical. Were your times identical? If not, why not? (Note that ‘identical’ means exactly the same value.)

Fitt’s Law

Answer 10

No, movement times are highly variable, and so the chances that three average times from a small number of trials will be identical is vanishingly small.

Question 11

According to Fitts’s Law:
1) The time to move to a target ________ as the distance to the target gets longer.

2) The time to move to a target ________ as the width of the target gets larger.

Answer 11

1) increases, 2) decreases

Question 12

According to the simplified version of Fitts’s Law on Slide 17, if a participant is reaching for a target whose center is 30 cm away and the target is 7 cm wide along the direction of reach, how long will it take?

Note: Answer with the number only and no units. You can round to 2 decimal places.

Note: Remember your rules of logarithms: loga(b) = logx(b) / logx(a)

Answer 12

2.40

Question 13

According to Fitts’s Law, would a person be faster to move their cursor on the computer screen to button X, which is 10 cm away and 2 cm wide, or to button Y, which is 30 cm away and 6 cm wide?

Answer 13

same time for both

Question 14

Based solely on Fitts’s Law, if you are designing a new keyboard, how should you design the keys that are used most often in order to increase typing speed?

Answer 14

Make them smaller and/or closer to the resting position of the fingers

Question 15

Consider the results of Experiment #5, and the complete specification of Fitts’s Law in Slide 24.

Now imagine we run an experiment where participants point at targets with either their finger or their elbow. Let’s say we find that participants are able to initiate movements equally fast with both their finger and elbow, but the actual movements are slower with their elbow than their finger. How would this difference be represented in Fitts’s Law?

(Hint: Notice the similarity to the equation for a line, y = a + bx.)

Answer 15

Constant b would be larger for elbows.