Midterm

Question 1

•Define motor behaviour

Answer 1

the consequence of constraints - constraints affect how we move/learn.

Question 2

•Identify the three sub-disciplines of motor behaviour

Answer 2

• Motor control: determine what constrains the neuromuscular system to carry out movements.
• Motor learning: function of practice and experience. Concerned w understanding how we learn to perform skilled movements, refers to a relatively permanent change in motor behavior, can only be inferred (observation at different times).
• Motor development: changes can just be due to maturation - has to do w/ age.

Question 3

•List 4 reasons why we study motor behaviour and where it can be applied

Answer 3

Reasons to study motor behavior: organize practice for efficient learning of skills to promote high level performance, enhance instruction and coaching, aid in (re)learning human movements, understand why people act, predict how they will act and prevent errors.

Question 4

•Contrast measures of brain and behaviour and determine when one measure would be better than another

Answer 4

• Tools: movement and eye tracking (video, eye tracking, 3D motion tracking), muscle and brain activity (EMG, EEG, fMRI).
• EEG - electrical recording of the brain: good temporal resolution and lets you see immediate change, but only captures activity at cortical surface to spatially limited and cant see specific brain regions.
• fMRI - measures blood flow, MRI images formed by magnetic fields and radio frequency pulses, measure BOLD signal during activity: high spatial resolution (deep resolution in brain), but not good temporal resolution and is expensive.
• TMS (not a measure but a tool to probe brain activity): generates a pulsed magnetic field, causes neurons in specific part of the brain to depolarize or hyperpolarize. Excite → elicits contraction in contralateral muscles, inhibit → can cause temporary virtual lesions (interrupt processes).

Question 5

•Define and identify examples of motor skills. Know the criteria for defining skills

Answer 5

4 criteria of a motor skill: goal oriented (diff to movements, goal not necessary), movement must be voluntary ( not reflexive), body/limb movements are required to accomplish the goal (diff to cognitive skills), result of practice (needs to be learned/relearned).

Question 6

•Describe three motor skill classification systems and be able to place skills along a continuum

Answer 6

3 types of classification systems: gross vs fine, discrete vs serial vs continuous, open vs closed.
Size of primary musculature required
Fine: greater control small, gross: use of large, less precision
When does it begin/end? Discrete - ongoing
Nature of movement organization: serial vs continuous
Serial = Discrete skills trung together , form more complex action. Order of elements important for success VS continuous = repetitive skill, arbitrary beginning and end, often rhythmic.
closeD: stable, predictable environment, object does not change during performance, self paced , object is acted upon → dart throwing. Open: unpredictable changing environment, object is in motion, externally paced → team games .
Predictable environment: closed, unpredictable : open.`

Question 7

•Describe RT, MT and response time measures as they relate to measurement of speed.

Answer 7

reaction time (RT) - interval between presentation of an unanticipated stimulus and beginning of a response. Measure of info processing time.
Why an unanticipated stimulus ? want a true measure of how long it takes to respond.
Foreperiod is variable, between warning signal and imperative stimulus
RT between imperative stimulus and initiation of response.
movement time (MT) - interval reflecting movement (initiation and end), reflects time to transport the limb. Time between initiation and movement end.
total response time (TRT or TT) - sum of RT+MT

Question 8

•Be familiar with terminology and equipment needed to separate and measure RT and MT

Answer 8

EMG: record electrical activity in muscles, can break up reaction time - fractionating reaction time. Muscles contract, cause electrical signal. Gives better info about time course of processes involved in responding.
Central processing time (no muscle activity) - pre motor RT, then motor RT before movement starts.

Question 9

•Identify the difference between three types of RT situations (Donders RT)

Answer 9

Three RT situations: simple RT, choice RT, go-nogo RT
Simple: 1 stimulus, 1 response. Pressing a key in response to stimulus.
Choice: wack a mole. 2 stimuli, 2 responses. Press blue key in response to blue stimuli, red and blue on screen.
go/nogo: need to make a decision whether to act or not, some discrimiation needed. Ex CoD - should or should not shoot. Hav to discriminate the stimuli to decide response, only one possible response . 2 stimuli, 1 response.

Question 10

•Know the difference between measures of accuracy, when and why they would be used and what information they give.

Answer 10

AE - absolute error: how far were you from the goal?
Absolute value or error sore, no + or - sign
Mean AE represents the mean error score for a person across a series of trials. Always positive!
CE - constant error: what is your directional bias?
Measures how far away form the target and in which direction (+ or -, signed deviation)
Measures accuracy and bias (amount and direction)
Mean CE represents average magnitude and deviation
VE - performance consistency/variability - variable error: how consistent o variable you were
Spread of scores about your own average score (M)
Or spread of errors around your own average error (CE)
Basically SD of mean

Question 11

•Describe 3 kinematic measures of movement process (i.e., measure of movement form

Answer 11

displacement, velocity, acceleration

Question 12

•Describe the IP (information processing) approach to thinking about motor control

Answer 12

A major area of motor learning and control involves the analysis of how we process information. Internal and external input comes to the performer, it is processed, resulting in some kind of output. Mental operations occur between stimulus and response, cognitive operations needed to process info, processing is time consuming, stimulus characteristics, complexity of decision making ,complexity of response will affect processing.
•Identify the 3 stages of information processing
Stimulus identification: receive sensory info, identify and classify ,extract relevant info
Response selection: recognize what stimulus it is
Response programming: select appropriate response

Question 13

•Define mental chronometry in reference to the 3 types of RT tasks and “Donders’ subtractive method”.

Answer 13

Approach to cogn psych that tracks the time that info flows through the brain. Measures speed with which the brain processes info.
•Know how to derive information processing times using the subtractive method based on the 3 types of RT situation (stimulus discrimination and response selection)
Simple RT: stimulus detection, discrimination, response selection, programming (2/4)
Choice RT: stimulus detection, discrimination, response selection, programming (4/4)
Go/nogo RT: stimulus detection, discrimination, response selection, programming (¾)

Question 14

•Identify factors that influence the 3 stages of IP

.•Describe the effect these factors have on the duration of RSand RPstages of IP

Answer 14

Clarity and intensity - visual stimulus definition sharpness ie blurry vs focus. Inc brightness, loudness = lower RT. increased clairy = incr RT.
Modality - the mode thru which stimuli is presented. Auditory RT is faster than visual RT - taked 8-10 ms for auditory signals to move, 20-40 ms for visual.
Pattern familiarity: ex - expert chess players winning fast, recognize patterns of play quickly.
Factors influencing response selection:
Event predictability: advance info allows you to bypass a stage of info processing. ex; telling you in advance where the target will appear.
Invalid precue: RT increases, compared to no precue.
Cost benefit analysis:
No anticipation; S, SI, RS, RP, R
With anticipation; bypass RS → RS, S , SI, RP, R
Correct anticipation - RT benefit
With wrong anticipation: longer RT cause have to to SI, RS and RP twice => RT cost
What can be anticipated? event /spatial anticipation - predicting spatial location of a stimulus. Most related to RS. temporal anticipation; predicting arrival/timing of stimulus. Related To bypassing several processes.

Question 15

What happens if foreperiod is constant/predictable?

Answer 15

Simple RT could be decreased to zero, know stimulus will arrive and when, and what response to respect
Choice RT: rt should remain the same, still have to ID
go/nogo RT: same - have to wait for stimulus cause uncertainty as to which one will be presented before we can select response

Question 16

Limitations in stimulus ID

Answer 16

Parallel processing: info from different aspects of the visual display can be processed together without interference. Stroop effect, cocktail party effect.
Inattentional blindness: missing man in gorilla suit when looking at passes between players.
Sustained attention: cant detect changes in time jumps as easily after a while of sustained attention.

Question 17

Limitations in response selection:

Answer 17

Automatic processing vs controlled processing
Automaticity is best in closed, predictable environments
Double stimulation paradigm: required to respond, with separate responses, to two stimuli presented closely together
Psychological refractory period: the delay in responding to the second of two closely spaced stimuli - if the experimenter presents a second stimulus during the time the system is processing the first stimulus and its response, the onset of the second response will be delayed considerably.
Grouping: systems responds to the frst and second stimulus as if they were one.
Probe-task technique: second task demands more attention

Question 18

–Calculate CRT using Hick’s Law

Answer 18

Hicks law = as the # of SR alternatives (SR pairs of choices) increases, choice RT increases. As N increases CRT increases → curvilinear relationship. Linear rel between CRT and log2 of the # of SR alternatives (N).

Question 19

•Identify the different attributes of STSS, STM and LTM.

Answer 19

STSS (short term sensory store), STM (incl working memory) and LTM.
STSS: rapid memory decay, accepts all stimulus info, limitless capacity, info coded same way it was presented, further processing possible only with immediate recall
STM: conscious manipulation of info - important for decisions, rapid decay unless rehearsed, receives info from STSS And LTM which can help with encoding
LTM: most resistant to decay, develops w practice/rehearsal, unlimited capacity

Question 20

•Know what chunking is in relation to STM and why it provides an “expertise” advantage (for recall/ recognition/ decision making).

Answer 20

Encodes info into meaningful units. Recognize patterns so can recall >7 pieces of info.

Question 21

•Differentiate between Declarative and Procedural (LT) Memory

Answer 21

Types of LT memory: declarative (explicit) and procedural (implicit)
Declarative: info (facts, knowledge) - can be consciously recalled - verbalizable. Attention demanding, linked to notion of controlled processing.
Procedural: non conscious/verbalizable memories of a motor skill, develops w practice, non attention demanding - automaticity

Question 22

•Define Attention in terms of the “pie” analogy and know what are limits/resources and how these lead to the attentional problem

Answer 22

Attention is the cognitive resource for mental processes, related to how we select info to process. How much resources does a task take, and how much attention is left over to devote to other tasks?

Question 23

•List 3 key characteristics of Attention and provide evidence for each.

Answer 23

Limited capacity and selective, can be intentional or unintentional (voluntary, involuntary) - more skilled = less need to intentionally monitor actions as we become more skilled. Attention is directionally focused - internal or external, and related to skill level (focus shifts from body/proximal to end-effector/distal)
Evidence: limited capacity - interference tasks

Question 24

•Differentiate between structural and capacity interference (think about measures, probes/ visual gaze).

Answer 24

Structural: competition for physical or neurological structures. Prevents or disrupts primary task because we cant physically do 2 things at the same time. Changing radio , turning to talk to passenger
Capacity: limitation in central attentional capacity. Divides attention/concentration from primary task (resource demanding). Listening to music, talking on phone.

Question 25

•Know the 2 main types of directional focus of attention and how they might interact with skill (drawing on study evidence)

Answer 25

Internal = directed toward performers own body movement - proximal body focus, associated w choking under pressure, associated w focus of novices
External = directed toward effects movements have on environment - more distal focus, different from distraction, associated with focus of experts.

Question 26

•Be able to cite examples of research/effects which support or refute early attention models which block information at stimulus identification stage

Answer 26

Evidence that selective attention blocks info at stimulus ID stage
Inattention blindness /change blindness
Non selected irrelevant info gets processed unintentionally - info can be processed in parallel at stimulus ID stage
Stroop effect - typed name results in interference (in response selection), error or delayed RT
semantic/meaning filter - ex dichotic listening test, parallel processing at SI stage; semantic processing before filter
Leaky filter at stimulus ID stage - some info always gets through but strength modulated based on contect. Attenuation model of attention.

Question 27

•Be able to detail the dichotic listening paradigm and know when it is used and what it means for attention allocation (and theories of attention –leaky filter)

Answer 27

Complete block of info at stim ID stage: info processed in parallel, and once selected only serial processing (one thing at a time) - ex gorilla. Evidence for: change blindness/inattention blindness, evidence against: stroop effect, cocktail party effect → leaky filter; some info always gets thry but strength modulated based on context - attenuation model of attention
PRP: some tasks can be processed in parallel, but initiation of movements cannot - bottleneck at programming stage. Double stimulation paradigm is used to study these delays

Question 28

•Explain and be able to apply your understanding of the psychological refractory period to situations such as fakes in sport.

Answer 28

PRP - psychological refractory period: attentional limitations in movement programming
Getting second stimulus while processing the first, delay in processing → bottleneck at programing stage
Example: faking in team sports
While some tasks can be processed in parallel, initiation of movements cannot. Attending to a stimulus and programming a response introduces a cost that shows up in RT to a following stimulus,
Double stimulation paradigm is the method use to study the delays.
Stimulus onset asynchrony - SOA = difference in onset
Attending and preparing to S1 introduces a cost (PRP) that shows up in RT to S2
They have to be in quick succession to take advantage of PRP

Question 29

•Discuss the role of feedback in the closed-loop model

Answer 29

Sensory feedback allows system to continuously monitor feedback and correct for discrepancies between desired and actual.

Question 30

•Identify and describe the components of the closed-loop control system

Answer 30

Closed loop = online/moment to moment control of movement - involving constant processing of feedback.
Sensory feedback based, allows system to continuously monitor feedback and correct for discrepancies between desired and actual.
Feedback, error detection and error correction used to achieve a desired goal. This type of system is very useful when the body needs to control itself for longer periods of time.
Four key closed loop components (all closed loop control systems have these):
Executive: determines the actions to be taken to achieve the desired goal state (decision making)
Effector: carries out the decision/desired action
Comparator: compass feedback of desired goal state to feedback of actual state (the error detection mechanism/reference of correctness)
Error signal: info acted on by the executive
Closed loop control of a mechanical system example → central AC
Moving a cursor, walking a beam, retrieve a fumbled football
Continuous, fine/precision, open

Question 31

•Know how to distinguish skills based on open-loop and closed-loop control

Answer 31

Time: how long will the action take?
Closed loop - longer, more continuous - swimming
Open loop - shorter, ballistic, discrete - boxing
Precision: how much tolerance is there for error?
Closed loop - fine/precise
Open loop - gross/less precise
Predictability: how constant/familiar is the environment?
Closed loop - open skills, new skills (low predictability)
Open loop - closed skills, well practiced (predictable)

Question 32

•Identify benefits and limitations of a closed-loop model

Answer 32

Time (to process feedback) is the main limitation of conscious closed loop control. In rapid movements, movement is finished before corrections can be processed. System cannot make quick voluntary changes because error detection and correction = long (requires 3 stages of info processing)

Question 33

•Describe and provide evidence for a reflexive closed-loop system

Answer 33

Reflexive (proprioceptive) closed loop control
Little or no conscious control
Does not require selective attention
Reflexive modulations during performance of a motor skill - “low level” occur in spinal cord and brainstem
More stereotypes, involuntary, rapid

Question 34

Open Loop

Answer 34

Open loop = movement is pre-programmed fully in advance and does not rely on feedback
Feedback, error detection and error correction are not needed to achieve a desired goal. This type of system is very useful in predictable environments when the movement is short.
Simple schematic: input → executive → effector → output
Examples: key press, jab in boxing, kick a punch bag
Discrete, gross, closed/predictable