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
what is movement time?
movement time comes after reaction time, it is the time it takes to move
-together, both reaction time and movement time are known as response time
hick’s law
RT = a + bLog2 (N)
- choice RT increases as a constant amount of every time the number of stimulus response alternatives is doubled
- related to the amount of uncertainty
what influences reaction time?
1) population stereotypes
- even if a stop sign doesn’t have the word stop on it, you’d still stop
- defined by the population - ex: driving on the right vs driving on the left
2) spatial compatibility
3) number of choices
4) expertise/anticipation/
what are three ways in which practice can help decrease reaction time?
1) anticipation: one way performers try to overcome delays
2) preparation: organize movements in advance
3) expertise: experts have a large advantage over novices in perceptual anticipation
spatial compatibility - def
whether a response is compatible in space
what are the two types of anticipation?
1) spatial anticipation
- ex: knowing cues from a kicker in soccer to try and make a decision as a goalie before the ball is in flight
2) temporal anticipation
- knowing when something is going to occur
simple reaction time
A-type task
- requires one stage
- stimulus detection - 1 stimulus, one response
discrimination reaction time
-C-type task
-go/no-go task
-ex: only respond if the circle is green
two stages:
-stimulus detection and stimulus identification - do not need to select the response, already know what it is, it’s just whether you respond that you need to decide
choice reaction time
- requires three things
- stimulus detection
- stimulus identification
- response selection
startle effect
- happens when you have stimuli about 100 dB
- reaction time is less than 100 ms
- fastest human voluntary reaction to a stimulus without anticipating a response
memories for how you move are primarily related to the ___ and the _____
goal, sensory information
what are the three types of memory
1) short term sensory store
2) rshort term memory
3) long term memory
short term sensory store (STSS)
-very brief, lots of information
STM
7 +/- 2
- if we choose to pay attention to something, can enter STM
- temporary, requires rehearsal
- also referred to as working memory
LTM
- with practice, STM can transfer to LTM
- long lasting, lots of information
- if something makes it to LTM, never truly forget it but can forget how to retrieve it
procedural memory
- something you do
- ex: riding a bike
semantic memory
ex: cat, blue
episodic memory
-playing outside in the snow when you were a kid
When a skill is produced reliably and on demand, where luck plays a minimal role, the goal is to achieve this with:
a) Minimum energy expenditure
b) Minimum movement time
c) Max certainty
d) Max energy expenditure
c) max certainty
A “________” skill occurs in a stable and predictable environment
a. Closed
b. Discrete
c. Serial
d. Open
closed
According to hick’s law, choice RT increases a constant amount every time the number of stimulus-response alternatives is _______
a. Doubled
b. Halved
c. Squared
d. Tripled
doubled
The extent to which a stimulus and response are connected in a natural way is called ________
a. Stimulus-response compatibility
b. Population stereotype
c. Spatial compatibility (this is an example of a)
d. Stimulus-response adaptability
stimulus-response compatibility
what are three different definitions/applications of attention?
1) perceptual - external sensory stimuli (environment)
2) cognitive - internal mental operations (ex: studying)
3) motor - internal sensory (motor tasks)
attention is needed for which 4 types of tasks?
1) multitasking
2) attention to detail (forming memories)
3) respond rapidly to stimuli
4) sustain attention
- vigilance
what are the three ways in which we can interpret attention?
1) a pool
- ex: multitasking
2) allocated
- spotlight; attention to detail
3) limited
- how many tasks we can do and how long we can maintain attention
as we practice tasks, we learn how to shift our attention in an efficient manner in which 4 ways?
1) events in the environment
2) monitoring and correcting our actions
3) planning future actions
4) doing many other processes that complete for the limited resources of attentional capacity
stroop effect
phenomenon that occurs when you must say the color of a word but not the name of the word
-For example, blue might be printed in red and you must say the color rather than the word
-limitations in the stimulus identification stage
cocktail party effect
- Hearing your name in a noisy room
○ Even though you didn’t hear the rest of the information in the conversation
We filter a lot of information but we are not consciously processing it
-limitations in the stimulus identification stage
parallel processing
-some sensory info in the stimulus identification stage can be processed in parallel
1) parts of the visual display
- ex: saying colour while looking at words where you don’t read that language
2) sensory signals posture and locomotion
- a lot are processed in parallel
3) salient information - cocktail
- relevant to you
inattention blindness
- we can miss obvious features in our environment when we are engaged in attentive visual search
- could consciously miss something but that doesn’t mean we don’t unconsciously process it
- ex: magicians
sustained attention
- vigilance
- driving
- working in security situations when people are having to look for an unknown stimulus
what are four things that affect our ability to sustain attention?
1) motivation
2) arousal
- how awake and interested you are
3) fatigue
- being tired - you are as impaired as if you were drunk
4) environmental factors
- can make it harder or easier to maintain attention for a period of time