Midterm Flashcards
motor behaviour - def
the overt, observable production of skilled movements (as opposed to measuring brain activity)
divided into
- motor control (performance)
- motor learning
- motor development
what are the three classes of movement?
1) reflexive
- involuntary
- given a particular stimulus, always have the same response
- no modification
2) learned
- learn to perform different actions
- ex: reach and pick up an object
3) skilled
what are the three things that skilled performers have?
1) benefited (or learned) from their experiences
2) learned what features of their environment they should attend to
3) learned what to ignore
motor skill - def
the ability to bring about some end result with maximum certainty and minimum outlay of every, or of time and energy
what are the 4 characteristics that define skills
1) environmental goal - has to require some sort of movement
2) achieve the goal with “certainty”
- can perform it reliably
3) minimize energy consumption: physical and psychological
4) minimum time
- with speed and accuracy
what are the 3 components of a skill
performer needs to know:
1) what to do
2) how to do it
- skill and strength standpoint
3) when to do it
- changing environments
- conceptual understanding
classification of motor skills: size of primary musculature
1) gross motor skill - large muscle groups
2) fine motor skills - small muscle groups
which is innervated by more motor neurons? the quads or the eye muscles?
- In quads, one motor neuron innervates 300 muscle fibers easily, because we need a lot of force
- 1 motor unit to one muscle fiber in eyes for example or hands which require more control
- Also relates to how much area of your brain is associated with it
Ex: more area in brain dedicated to hands than to quads
classifying motor skills: environment; closed skill
- you have control over the skill and when you initiate it
- environment is not changing
classifying motor skills: environment; open skill
- environment is changing, you have to time your movements with what’s going on in the environment; may have to select different responses
- ex: soccer game, driving
classifying motor skills: movement type; discrete skill
clearly defined beginning and end
-ex: typing a single letter on a keyboard
classifying motor skills: movement type; serial skill
-ex: typing - multiple letters but you can easily define each discrete motion
classifying motor skills: movement type; continuous skill
ex: riding a bike
- repeats in a more continuous fashion
- walking can be continuous or discrete depending on how it’s done
absolute error - def
consider the absolute value of the error on each trial, and take the average of those error scores for the various trials
-aka the magnitude of error
constant error
- performance bias
- ex: throwing darts and always landing on the right side of the target
- tells us about overall bias
variable error
- performance consistency
- variability in results
- ex: throwing darts and being all over the grid
how do we measure error scores for continuous actions?
- root mean square error (RMSE)
- error between desired pathway and the actual pathway
- ex: driving a car
- represents both bias and consistency
what’s the difference between a theory and a hypothesis?
theory:
- explains how things occur
- man-made
- makes predictions
hypothesis:
- if…then…
- helpful when not true
information processing approach
- started when computers were invented
- takes input, black box processes, and then a response happens, response happens
- processing happens without being aware, when we are aware, we often do the action differently
what are the three stages of reaction time?
1) stimulus identification
2) response selection
3) movement programming
reaction time - def
time it takes to begin moving after the stimulus first appears (does not include time it takes to perform the movement)
describe the stimulus identification stage of RT
-could be one sensory modality or combination
describe the response selection stage of RT
- answers the question: what should I do?
- transition point between sensory and motor processes
- moving and perceiving information to organizing movement
describe the movement programming stage
- voluntary actions require our brain at some level
- travels down synapse and begin movement