Midterm 1 Flashcards
motor learning
- relatively permanent changes in motor behaviours resulting from practice or experience
- focuses on acquiring or modifying the capability to perform skilled movements
motor control
- the process of initiating, directing, and grading purposeful voluntary movement
- an area of study dedicated to understanding the neural, physical, and behavioural aspects of movement
- how the brain, nervous system, muscles, and sensory systems work together to initiate and regulate movements
motor performance
- the execution of a motor skill at a specific time and in a specific situation
- can be measures in terms of outcome (eg. accuracy, distance, speed) or quality of movement (eg. coordination, balance)
- may vary from one attempt to another due factors like fatigue, stress, or learning
why study motor skills?
applies to:
- coaching and teaching
- rehabilitation
- medicine
- ergonomics
- robotics
motor behaviour sub-categories
- motor learning
- motor development
- motor control
motor skills definition
the ability to bring about some end result with maximum certainty and minimum outlay of energy, or of time and energy
characteristics of a motor skill
- a well defined goal
- must produce skill reliably, on demand, without luck
- minimize physical and mental energy costs of performance (not require of all motor skills)
- speed is the main goal of many motor skills (eg. races, surgery)
factors affecting motor skills
constraints
- individual: knowledge, previous experiences
- environment: what’s going on, opponents
- task: what are we being asked to do
3 elements critical to production of most motor skills
steps of information processing
- perceiving relevant environment features
- deciding what to do, where and when to do it to achieve the goal
- producing organized muscular activity to generate movements that achieve the goal
exceptions of motor skills
- reflexive movements: involuntary, rapid, and localized
- learned automaticity: expertise, effortless execution, low cognitive load, subconscious control
classifications of motor skills (5)
discrete vs. continuous
open vs. closed
fine vs. gross
manipulation of object (Y/N)
body transport (Y/N)
discrete motor skills
defined beginning and end, typically briefer, defined outcome
serial motor skills
typically a series of discrete skills to make a more complicated action, typically slightly longer than discrete skills
continuous motor skills
more arbitrary beginning and end points, measure with tracking tasks, typically last minuted to hours
produce many error scores on a single trial
open motor skills
- affected by: reaction time, anything that affects adaptability
- unpredictable environment making it difficult to predict how it will change
closed motor skills
- more predictable and stable environment
- usually performers can predict task and plan motor skills
fine motor skills
smaller muscle groups, more precise
gross motor skills
large muscle groups, doesn’t require much accuracy, trying to produce greater force
taxonomy
a complex classification system for characterizing motor skills
scientific method steps (7)
- observation and question generation
- hypothesis development
- experimentation
- data collection and analysis (typically more quantitative in this field)
- interpretation and conclusion
- publication and peer review
- replication and further research
theories
well-developed explanations of how various phenomenon occur
very comprehensive, involve relevant scientific constructs
scientists pull out specific predictions (ie. hypotheses) from theories
hypotheses
identify relationships between scientific constructs that can be measured (ie. variables)
error
on a single trial we can calculate how far the arrow is away from the target
constant error (CE)
- measures the amount and direction of bias away from target (ie. accuracy)
- when averaged among trials can have cancellation effects which can incorrectly quantify accuracy
- tells us average error
constant error equation
CE = sum of [(Xi-T)/N]
- start by calculation the error deviation of each trial relative to target, then calculate the average of these error deviations
absolute error (AE)
- measure of the overall accuracy in performance
- not interested in direction (whether target was over- or under thrown
- was commonly used in foundational research
absolute error equation
AE = sum of absolute value of [(Xi-T)/N]
variable error (VE)
- measures how consistent someone’s performance is
- it is the variability in the movement outcome about the mean value
- variable error does to depend on whether the performer was close to the target
variable error equation
VE = square root of {sum of [(Xi-CE)^2/N]}
- square the deviations between each trial’s error score and the subject’s CE
- add together all of the values from the previous step and divide by the number of trials
- compute the square root of this value
total variability (E)
- measure of overall error
- similar to VE, but reference to target position
- preferred when representing a combined measure of accuracy and variability
total variability equation
E = square root of {sum of [(Xi-T)^2/N]}
- square the difference between each trial’s error score and the target
- sum those over all the trials and divide by the number of trials
- compute the square root of this value
E^2 = VE^2 + CE^2
root mean squared error (RMSE)
- measures the deviations between performed trajectory and target trajectory at a constant interval (distance or time)
- similar to total variability: provides measure of bias (accuracy) and consistency in the tracking behaviour
RMSE equation
RMSE = square root of {sum of[Xi-Xt)^2/N-1]}
- N-1 = degrees of freedom (DoF) provides a more accurate picture of error, because one value is tied to other values (eg. calculating a mean)
- square the deviations between each trial’s error score and the target at the constant interval
- add together all of the values from the previous step and divide by DoF
- compute the square root of this value
correlation
- simple statistical way to quantify the strength of a relationship between two variables
- measures both the direction and strength of a relationship
- correlation coefficient (r), number = strength, sign = direction
input
- the information to be processed by the human
- comes in all sensory forms: vision, tactile, proprioception, auditory, smell, and taste
- most complex input comes from vision: object, movement, perception
- the greater the amount of information to process, the greater the time require to process
steps of information-processing
input > stimulus identification > response selection > movement programming > output
stimulus identification stage
- first individual must perceive the stimulus
- involves stimulus detection and then identification, detection is influenced by stimulus clarity and intensity
- stimulus must be sensed and processed, processed until it contacts memory
response selection stage
- once we identify stimulus, we need t decide how to respond with consideration of the situation, environment, and goals
- process of determining what to do and how it should be done
- involves memory and stimulus comes from environment
movement programming stage
- final stage begins after receiving decision about what movement to make
- preparation of the motor system to make the desired movement
- readies mechanisms of brainstem (eg. substantia nigra: fine movements) and spinal cord (eg. motor neurons, ascending sensory pathways)
- retrieve and organize learned motor programs
what is output?
- stages involved in producing motor output (ie. voluntary and involuntary movements)
- often the focus of motor control research
reaction time (RT)
- performance measure of speed and effectiveness or accuracy of decision making
- RT interval is period of time that elapses from when a stimulus is presented to the beginning of the response
factors that influence information processing
- any factor increasing duration of greater or equal to 1 of the stages will increase the RT interval
- two main factors affect RT (ie. motor performance) at response selection stage:
- number of stimulus response (S-R) alternative (ie. number of choices)
- stimulus-response compatibility, more compatible = more natural response and will likely occur faster
number of S-R alternatives
- amount of information in a situation = amount of uncertainty in the situation
Hick’s Law
- in log base 2 scale, the relationship between S-R alternatives and RT
becomes linear - choice RT linearly relates to the logarithm to the base 2 of the # of S-R alternatives, choice Rt increase ~ constant amount (150 ms) when # of S-R alternatives doubled
- as number of S-R alternatives increases the reaction time increases curvalinearly
- as one variable increases, the other also increases by not at a constant rate
- largest gap is observed between 1 and 2 S-R alternatives
choice RT equation
= a + b[Log base 2 (N)]
a is the y-intercept
b is the slope
S-R compatibility
extent to which the stimulus and response are connected in a natural way, as S-R compatibility increases RT decreases
Fits and Seeger S-R compatibility study
- had participants respond to combinations of stimulus and response patterns
- population stereotypes: arbitrary S-R relationships become natural through practice and experience
- spatial and anatomical relationships: alignment of mental representation of stimuli and the possible responses
types of S-R compatibilty
- stimulus and response intensity
- Simon effects
- compatibility and complex actions
