Showing papers in "Journal of Motor Behavior in 1982"
TL;DR: The difficulties of developing a taxonomy of actions for functionally specific types of behavior made up of that can be controlled is resolved by showing how kinds of action are differentiated by the kinds of affordances their components help to realize.
Abstract: It is argued that the traditional psychological construal of the distinction between central ("open loop") and peripheral ("closed loop") neural processes is no longer tenable. A review of the relevant psychobiological research on the control of movement shows that both the central-peripheral dichotomy and the distinction between sensory and motor systems derived from that dichotomy are incompatible with what is known about the processes underlying action. Based on experimental and comparative data, a new theory of action is proposed. The basic concept of this new theory is the action system: Unlike motor systems, action systems involve sensory as well as motor processes; action systems are not organized into response hierarchies, but rather in coalitional structures of adjustable movements and postures. The phylogeny of action systems is discussed, and the eight most important action systems are distinguished in terms of their evolved distinctive functions. The difficulties of developing a taxonomy of actions for functionally specific types of behavior made up of that can be controlled is resolved by showing how kinds of action are differentiated by the kinds of affordances their components help to realize.
444 citations
TL;DR: The complexity of their muscular systems may be regarded, not as a complication for the brain, but as a source of variety providing enough easily controlled movement recipes to do most of the things the authors ordinarily need to do.
Abstract: The complexity of our muscular systems may be regarded, not as a complication for the brain, but as a source of variety providing enough easily controlled movement recipes to do most of the things we ordinarily need to do. This simplifies the control task, in that if there are enough ways of moving, a recipe involving just a few of them can usually be found that will approximate any desired movement with little supervision. In particular, the presence of"redundant" degrees of freedom allows us to use ballistic (free swinging) movements, so that physics, rather than computation, accounts for much of trajectory. Computations are required to set up the constraints defining initializing a low-dimensional subsystem in such a way that a satisfactory movement exists. One theme of current research is that these recipes may generated by specifying the parameters of oscillators and spring-like components. We should expect actions to be represented as patchworks of recipes, each working best for some subset of variants of the action.
239 citations
TL;DR: The role of afferent and efferent signals in position sense is discussed with special reference to views expressed recently by different authors, and the interrelation between position sense and sense of effort is considered, based on a concept of senso-motor space.
Abstract: A model of joint position sense is considered based on the concept that central motor commands are adequately expressed in terms of shifts of the so-called invariant length-tension characteristics for agonist and antagonist muscles The main points of this concept are discussed to clarify them and to prevent misunderstanding The basic idea of the model is that the efferent copy of the central motor commands plays the role of a reference frame for evaluation of afferent proprioceptive discharges An experiment with reproduction of constrained movements was performed in order to investigate the influence of voluntary flexor or extensor muscle tension on position sense in the elbow joint The results demonstrate adequate perception of joint position on the background of voluntary muscle tension and thus are quite consistent with the model The role of afferent and efferent signals in position sense is discussed with special reference to views expressed recently by different authors The interrelation between position sense and sense of effort is considered, based on a concept of senso-motor space
221 citations
TL;DR: The results support the social learning view that observationally-learned behaviors are cognitively represented and that visual monitoring serves to decrease discrepancies between conception and action.
Abstract: The present experiment tested the hypothesis that concurrent visual feedback enhances observational learning of a novel action pattern that normally would be unobservable. Subjects repeatedly enacted a modeled action pattern with visual monitoring of their reproductions throughout enactments, during only early, or late phases of enactment, or not at all. At periodic intervals, the adequacy of their conception of the modeled pattern was also measured. Visual feedback during ongoing performance enhanced accurate reproduction of the modeled pattern; the facilitative effect was most pronounced for reproduction of complex response components. The superiority of subjects who had enacted these difficult response components with visual feedback was maintained even when both the model and feedback were withdrawn. Visual feedback did not facilitate accurate enactment of the modeled pattern before development of an adequate cognitive representation of it. The results support the social learning view that observation...
204 citations
TL;DR: The notion that damping and stiffness may be sensitive indices of hypotonia-the most common description of neuromuscular deficiency in Down's syndrome is promoted.
Abstract: Following Asatryan and Fei'dman (1965), two experiments were conducted to describe the so-called invariant mechanical properties underlying movement control in Down's syndrome and normal subjects. The invariant characteristic is a curve on a graph of joint torque versus joint angle. The task required subjects to maintain a steady joint angle against an external load (torque). Torque was systematically changed via partial unloading in order to obtain torque by length (joint angle) functions at three separate initial joint angles. Instructions required subjects "not to intervene" when unloading occurred in Experiment 1 and to "tense" their muscles prior to unloading in Experiment 2. Both normal and Down's syndrome groups revealed systematic torque by length functions that might be expected according to a simple mass-spring system model. Although the gross organization of movement in Down's syndrome subjects was nearly the same as normals, important differences between the two groups were found. Down's syndrome subjects revealed underdamped motions relative to normals (as shown by differences in the degree of oscillation about the final equilibrium position) and were less able to regulate stiffness (as shown by differences in slope of the torque by angle functions in Experiment 2). We promote the notion that damping and stiffness may be sensitive indices of hypotonia-the most common description of neuromuscular deficiency in Down's syndrome
177 citations
TL;DR: Two experiments investigated the memory drum theory's prediction that simple reaction time (SRT) increased with the complexity of the response to be initiated and indicated that the prediction of increased SRT as a function of increased complexity of response was tenable.
Abstract: Two experiments investigated the memory drum theory's prediction (Henry & Rogers, 1960) that simple reaction time (SRT) increased with the complexity of the response to be initiated. Experiment 1 (N = 9) matched the Experiment 1, Group 1, SRT condition described by Henry and Rogers. Results of Experiment 1 replicated those of Henry and Rogers and indicated that the memory drum theory's prediction of increased SRT as a function of increased complexity of response was tenable. Experiment 2 (N = 11) tested the effects of anatomical unit, extent and target size on SRT, premotor time, and motor time. The results supported the contention that alternative explanations for SRT were possible. With complexity constant, increases in anatomical unit lead to increases in SRT, but only in the motor time component which indicated electromechanical rather than neuromotor program delays. It is proposed that the increased motor time could be explained by peripheral events such as the duration maximum torque must be applied by the agonist muscle(s) to generate the angular acceleration required to initiate rapid movement. SRT, premotor time, and motor time increased when target size was reduced from 6.35 cm to 79 cm. The increased premotor time could be a function of the determining of new equilibrium points for the elbow joint during response initiation. No effects on SRT were observed for extent.
107 citations
TL;DR: Attempts to isolate three different abilities of potential relevance to skill are described, finding no evidence for a general time-sharing ability in common to different kinds of tasks, but Modest evidence was found for a trait of attentional flexibility.
Abstract: Past research has uncovered few broad abilities that underlie high level motor skill. In this paper, attempts to isolate three different abilities of potential relevance to skill are described. No ...
102 citations
TL;DR: Articular proprioception is normally considered to provide accurate information about limb position, particularly in ball skills in which the eyes are be occupied with tracking the ball, but the experiment reported here indicates that is not the case.
Abstract: Articular proprioception is normally considered to provide accurate information about limb position, particularly in ball skills in which the eyes are thought to be occupied with tracking the ball....
91 citations
TL;DR: Investigation of the relationship between age and the response programming operations underlying the execution of a ballistic motor act indicated that the basic operational characteristics of these processes remain unaffected with advancing chronological age.
Abstract: The present experiments were conducted to investigate the relationship between age and the response programming operations underlying the execution of a ballistic motor act. In an initial experiment, two separate age groups of female subjects (mean ages of 21.9 and 69.1 years) performed aimed movements of the right hand and arm in one of two movement directions (left or right), under preprogramming, programming, and reprogramming conditions. These operations were examined by providing advance information about the direction of an impending movement and manipulating the degree of correspondence between the advance information and a subsequent reaction signal. The results indicated that subjects in the older age group reacted and moved more slowly than subjects in the younger age group; however, there was no interaction between age and the three response programming conditions. Such findings indicated that the basic operational characteristics of these processes remain unaffected with advancing chronologica...
73 citations
TL;DR: The prediction emanating from memory drum theory that simple reaction time (SRT) increases as a response becomes more complex (i.e., increases in number of movement parts) was investigated and failed to support the prediction.
Abstract: The prediction emanating from memory drum theory (Henry & Rogers, 1960) that simple reaction time (SRT) increases as a response becomes more complex (i.e., increases in number of movement parts) was investigated. Experiments 1 (N = 20) and 3 (N = 16) indicated that SRT was longer for responses consisting of two and three parts than it was for a one-part response and this may be interpreted as support for the prediction. Failing to support the prediction, however, was the finding that SRT was essentially the same for responses consisting of two and three parts. This may not be too damaging to the theory because it could simply be reflecting an upper limit in terms of numbers of parts or response duration for causing an increase in SRT. Experiments 2 (N = 20) and 3 revealed an SRT effect between two responses that were supposed to be equal in complexity. At first, this finding appeared to be contrary to the prediction, but it may be interpreted as support for it because one of the responses defined as havin...
64 citations
TL;DR: The results of the three EMG timing measures showed that MT had a more pronounced effect on these measures than distance, and the timing of EMG activity in relation to total MT remained fairly consistent across the four MT-distance conditions.
Abstract: The experiment examined the effects of movement time (MT) and distance on the timing of electromyographic (EMG) activity from an agonist and antagonist muscle during rapid, discrete elbow movements in the horizontal plane. According to impulse-timing theory (Wallace, 1981) MT, not distance moved, should have a pronounced effect on the timing of EMG activity (duration of initial agonist and antagonist burst and time to onset of initial antagonist burst). The levels of MT were 100 and 160 msec and the levels of distance were 27° and 45° of elbow flexion. In general support of impulse-timing theory, the results of the three EMG timing measures showed that MT had a more pronounced effect on these measures than distance. In addition, the timing of EMG activity in relation to total MT remained fairly consistent across the four MT-distance conditions.
TL;DR: The results of this experiment support the view that precueing of movement dimensions can be accomplished without confounding the number of stimulus response alternatives and the uncertainties ofmovement dimensions.
Abstract: This experiment manipulated digit uncertainty, duration uncertainty, and response duration (dit or dah) in a choice reaction time key press task. A new method of precueing was developed that effectively “precued” the digit and/or the duration of the key press task without confounding the number of stimulus response alternatives with the levels of uncertainty of digit and duration. When the duration of the response was certain, there were no RT differences between dit and dah responses, however, when duration was uncertain, RT to dah responses were longer than dit. In addition, level of duration uncertainty and digit uncertainty produced an overadditive interaction upon RT. These results are discussed in terms of generalized motor programs and a feature construction hypothesis. In addition, these results support the view that precueing of movement dimensions can be accomplished without confounding the number of stimulus-response alternatives and the uncertainties of movement dimensions.
TL;DR: The findings show the size of impulse is related to movement timing error, although it is premature argue that impulse variability is a causal agent of timing error.
Abstract: This paper examines the relationship between response impulse and timing error in 200 msec discrete timing responses over a range of movement velocities and system masses. The results from two experiments showed that variable timing error decreased as both movement velocity and the mass of the system to be moved increased. The variability of force proportional to force (measured either as impulse or peak force) decreased curvilinearly as force output increased. The correlations between each of these parameters and variable timing errors, calculated on a group mean basis, ranged between .91 and .95. The ability to predict the movement time outcome of each individual trial from impulse-related parameters was considerably reduced, although the relationship between the various kinematic and kinetic parameters did strengthen as the movement velocity approached maximum. Collectively, the findings show that size of impulse is related to movement timing error, although it is premature to argue that impulse variab...
TL;DR: Confirmation of the finding that variations in required response duration lead to differences in reaction time supports the view that the underlying parameter of "complexity" in the "memory drum theory" may be response duration.
Abstract: Reaction time was longer prior to longer-lasting pressing responses for low probability, unanticipated movements. By contrast, reaction time was independent of response duration for high probability, anticipated movements. This replicates and extends previous findings for choice and simple reaction time in the “dit-dah” paradigm. The present results (unanticipated responses) cannot be given a selective anticipation interpretation because the comparison is between responses which are never anticipated. The previous paradigm was open to an alternative interpretation in which selective anticipation of dit rather than dah could have produced the differences in choice reaction time. Confirmation of the finding that variations in required response duration lead to differences in reaction time supports the view that the underlying parameter of “complexity” in the “memory drum theory” may be response duration.
TL;DR: Three age groups (kindergartners, fourth graders, and adults) were compared in their processing of response decisions in a two-choice reaction time task and Manipulation of spatial stimulus-response compatibility resulted in age-related differential effects on reaction time performance.
Abstract: Three age groups (kindergartners, fourth graders, and adults) were compared in their processing of response decisions in a two-choice reaction time task. Manipulation of spatial stimulus-response compatibility resulted in age-related differential effects on reaction time performance. For the younger children, selecting the appropriate response for an incompatibly paired stimulus light required proportionately longer processing time than for older subjects. Similar results were not found for performance under varying levels of response discriminability.
TL;DR: The correlations of the movement patterns during different speeds of locomotion revealed numerical coefficients which consistently and quantitatively discriminated the similarity or dissimilarity of limb movement patterns.
Abstract: A structural pattern recognition method for the quantitative determination of equivalence or similarity between movement patterns was examined. A chain encoding technique was implemented for the analysis of lower limb trajectories during walking and running. Conjoint angular displacement or angular velocity patterns provided kinematic data which were cross-correlated to determine geometric congruity of within and between subject motor patterns. The correlations of the movement patterns during different speeds of locomotion revealed numerical coefficients which consistently and quantitatively discriminated the similarity or dissimilarity of limb movement patterns.
TL;DR: Both repetition and lag effects failed to be demonstrated, providing some support for the claim that memory is unaffected by repetition at a constant level of processing.
Abstract: Whether repetition and lag improve the recognition of movement patterns was investigated. Recognition memory was tested for one repetition, two-repetitions massed, and two-repetitions distributed with movement patterns repeated at lags of 3, 5, 7, and 13. Recognition performance was examined both immediately afterwards and following a 48 hour delay. Both repetition and lag effects failed to be demonstrated, providing some support for the claim that memory is unaffected by repetition at a constant level of processing (Craik & Lockhart, 1972). There was, as expected, a significant decrease in recognition memory following the retention interval, but this appeared unrelated to repetition or lag.
TL;DR: In a pursuit-tracking task, target location varied independently of movement amplitude, calling into question information-processing and impulse-variability theories which implicate movement amplitude in determining movement accuracy, and support theories which emphasize target location.
Abstract: In a pursuit-tracking task consisting of 100 positioning movements between targets at 5 fixed positions, target location (proximity to the boundary of the task) varied independently of movement amplitude. Eighty-seven subjects performed 12 trials of the task, with target width (at 3 levels) as a between-subject variable. A microprocessor system detected the location of the end-point of each primary movement. Movement accuracy (measured as end-point dispersion not constant error) varied with target location but not movement amplitude, while movement time varied with both factors. The effect of target width on movement accuracy was less consistent. The observed effects are discussed in terms of a mass-spring model of muscular action. It is concluded that apart from having important consequences for the design of positioning experiments, these results call into question information-processing and impulse-variability theories which implicate movement amplitude in determining movement accuracy, and support the...
TL;DR: It is concluded that one variable affects simple reaction for all ages, that two (disincentive provided by a hit, and visual feedback) differentially affect subjects of different ages, and that a fourth (use of a "trade-off" strategy) is not available to the youngest subjects.
Abstract: In an exploration of factors underlying the developmental increase in the speed of simple reaction to an auditory stimulus, two experiments were undertaken, with subjects aged 4, 10, and 20. The first experiment demonstrated that provision of visual feedback caused improvement for younger subjects but not for adults, whereas neither practice nor variable feedback caused any differential change. The second experiment was a simulated game where visual feedback was contingent on a "hit" on the previous trial. Following a hit the target moved faster, following a miss, slower. Practice caused a considerable improvement for the 4-year old subjects, but not for the older subjects. The nature it or miss feedback on the previous trial had powerful effects on the simple reaction times. For all subjects, a miss resulted in a subsequent substantial increase in speed on the next trial. Following a hit, the adults were unaffected, but the youngest subjects were substantially slower. The results are interpreted in terms of inappropriate relaxation following a hit for the 4-year old subjects, with active strategic behavior by the adults, following a miss. It is concluded that one variable (incentive provided by a miss) affects simple reaction for all ages, that two (disincentive provided by a hit, and visual feedback) differentially affect subjects of different ages, and that a fourth (use of a "trade-off" strategy) is not available to the youngest subjects.
TL;DR: The results suggest the advantage of preseleted over constrained movement was constant across movement cues and that prior knowledge (strategy) was the primary variable responsible for the preselection effect.
Abstract: A series of three experiments was undertaken to determine the role of prior knowledge of different movement cues in the preselection effect. Experiments 1 and 2 examined the singular and combinative role of location and extent cues under both preselected and constrained conditions. The third experiment provided a framework for evaluating the sources of information which may contribute to the preselection phenomenon. In experiments 1 and 2, the results suggest the advantage of preselected over constrained movement was constant across movement cues. The second experiment demonstrated that the dual cue condition was superior to location alone and extent alone in both accuracy and consistency. Finally, the third experiment indicated that prior knowledge (strategy) was the primary variable responsible for the preselection effect.
TL;DR: It is suggested that Lee and Hirota (1980) findings are compatible with generation-recognition models of memory retrieval and thus, their study does not provide an adequate test for investigating encoding-retrieval relations.
Abstract: Lee and Hirota (1980) claimed to provide evidence for the encoding specificity principle for movement information. I argue that their interpretations are confounded by methodological and theoretical factors. I further suggest that their findings are compatible with generation-recognition models of memory retrieval and thus, their study does not provide an adequate test for investigating encoding-retrieval relations. Finally, I discuss the problems and dangers of borrowing theoretical concepts from the verbal domain and applying them indiscriminately to the motor domain.
TL;DR: It is argued that Crocker's view may be counterproductive to progress in the area of memory research and questions the heuristic value of utilizing theoretical issues in non-motor domains to guide scientific experimentation in the study of motor behavior.
Abstract: Crocker's (1981) comment on the Lee and Hirota (1980) paper essentially raises two issues. First, objection is made to the applicability of the encoding specificity principle to the resuits found in our study. Second, on a more general level, Crocker questions the heuristic value of utilizing theoretical issues in non-motor domains to guide scientific experimentation in the study of motor behavior. In this reply I posit that Crocker's reservations about encoding specificity are based upon improper theoretical and methodological considerations. Regarding the more philosophical issue however, I argue that Crocker's view may be counterproductive to progress in the area of memory research.