KINE 3650 Assessment 1
considering the processes occurring in the stimulus identification stage, some sensory information can be processed in parallel and without much interference - that is, without attention; "cocktail party" effect - what's this? talking to someone at a large party and hear your name across the room; other example (s) - signal itself of of raise your right hand, then raise your left hand, how do we reroute that signal? shifting or rerouting of signal
parallel processing
FMRI
provides with structural and functional images of the brain set up an ROI and often cut out the cerebellum because they focus on PFC
golgi tendon organs
send information about muscle tension to decrease activation of alpha motor neurons, monitor and maintain muscle force
muscle spindles
send information about speed and stretch of muscle fibers to increase activation of alpha motor neurons; these must be set to an appropriate length in order to detect changes in length and speed, they monitor and maintain muscle length
it is a temporary holding place for information (e.g., a phone number given to you verbally); unless we repeat the item, we know that this phone number will be lost from memory in a short time (need repetition and rehearsal to remember); rehearsal is the process by which we keep from losing information from STM; when we want to use something stored in STM, we transfer it to WM; how do STM and WM affect performance (RT), according to information processing model?
short term-memory (STM)
as the required force is bigger you need bigger motor units
size principle of motor unit recruitment
in addition to golgi tendon organ (GTO) input, inhibitory neurons also receive input from cutaneous mechanoreceptors and joint receptors - information being sent on afferent pathway - afferent (arriving) / efferent (exiting)
somatosensation and alpha motor neurons
there are three stages (are mutually exclusive - they cannot happen at the same time) through which information must pass on the way from input to output; stages are non-overleaping (processing in two different stages cannot occur at the same time); a ton of information being processed at the same time
stages of information processing
hair cells in the cochlea convert sound waves into nerve impulses; these nerve impulses travel through the auditory nerve to the cochlear nuclei in the brain system and then to the superior olivary complex, also in the brain stem; from the brain stem, the impulse travels to the superior colliculus in the midbrain and then to the medial geniculate body (MGN) in the thalamus; from the MGN, and impulse arrives at primary auditory cortex
stss - auditory
reduced activity in cerebral cortical areas engaged by task. that is, cerebral cortical activity becomes more efficient. priming - search for shoes on google, then later on Facebook an ad pops up suggesting you buy these shoes, and then you buy them; initiating something in your mind without you actually realizing it, can be a good and bad thing - have to be careful when it comes to research, you can reduce their processing allowing them to become more efficient;
LTM: how is LTM for priming and perception relevant to motor and performance?
Hick's law is the number of stimulus response alternatives increases reaction time also positively increases - goes from 1-8 alternatives
RT factor 1: number of stimulus - response alternative - Hick's law
RT is the time required to detect and recognize the stimulus (S) and select the initiate the proper response (R); as the number of possible S-R alternatives increases, there is an increase in the time required to respond to any one of the stimuli; examples - when you're driving - people in the car distracting you, music, phone
RT factor 1: number of stimulus - response alternatives
it is the extent to which the stimulus and the response it evokes are connected in a natural way; for a given number of S-R alternatives, increasing S-R compatibility decreases choice RT (meaning, you get faster!!) examples - lights to have to key a certain thing, drummer processing at drumming, while body is doing all different things; practice can help (not always) overcome low S-R compatibility
RT factor 2: stimulus response compatibility
it is a type of stimulus-response compatibility. the association of the stimulus and response is likely learned in population stereotypes (e.g., red for stop, green for go) we sometimes act habitually due to specific cultural learning. example(s) - light switch being opposite in different countries, hot/cold water being switched
RT factor 3: population stereotypes
information about pain
What information does free nerve endings send?
similar to Golgi tendon organs, but function isn't clear
What information does ligament receptors send?
information about joint movements (e.g., velocity)
What information does paciniform corpuscles send?
information about joint position and joint movements
What information does ruffini endings send?
muscles (muscle spindles), tendons (golgi tendon organs) and joints
Where are mechanoreceptors found?
external - because you are limiting the things you have to process
Which is better internal or external focus of attention?
serial skills
a group of discrete skills strung together to make up a new, more complicated skilled action (e.g., shifting gears in a car - gear 1, 2, 3, 4); the word serial implies that the order of the elements is usually critical for successful performance
variable error (VE)
a measure of the subject's inconsistency** - computed by squaring the difference between each trial's error score and the subject's CE sum those over all of the trials, and divide by the number of trials compute the square root of this value
consolidation
all this information coming in and we have to consolidate it together (pack it together); cognitive process we are looking to stabilize a memory trace occurring after the initial memory trace; we can do this by rehearsal and repetition and sleep*
extra
alpha motor neurons
very small group of
are there 'supertaskers' (people who can do two tasks concurrently without decrement to either)?
in many skills, there is an overwhelming amount of relevant (what is important) and irrelevant (what is not important) information (Stimuli) that could be processed. examples of relevant and irrelevant information - high school quarterback comes to auburn to pay - ton of information to process, acclimate young athletes to the noise of stadiums; the performer's problem is how to cope with this potential overload.
attention and understand performance
the performer must learn what to attend to and when to attend to it to shift attention between the following: events in the environment, monitoring and correcting his or her own actions, planning future actions
attention and understanding skilled performance
constant error (CE)
average all the scores for each subject; interpreted as an overall tendency to under throw or overthrow the target
a correct anticipation can result in the processing lag equivalent to RT = 0 ms (Car race - start the second the light turns green); it can start an action simultaneously with a signal or even before it; one factor that affects the capability to predict effectively is the regularity of events
benefits of anticipation
motor unit
bunch of muscle fibers innervated by the spinal cord, nerves firing the muscles by way of electricity, neuromuscular junction where that nerve is making a connection to the muscle (similar to how a router gives wifi to so many devices - each device would be a motor unit)
commissural
bundle (nerves)
compute the distance of the subject's tracking response from target line at every set distance point along the track or at a constant distance point along the track or at a constant interval of time along the track (must run the RMSE to know the noticeable error or bias)
calculating RMSE
now distracted by irrelevant information - like the crowd, a bird
choking under pressure - distraction
under pressure use internal focus of attention - so they're using more attention to split into different things and not just focused on the task at hand; they shouldn't be thinking about mechanics because they have done it for years
choking under pressure - explicit monitoring
absolute error (AE)
consider the absolute value (e.g., with the sign ignored or removed) of the error on each trial, and take the average of those error scores for the various trials interpreted as one person or group being more off target than another
the primary disadvantage occurs when the anticipated action is not what actually happens; an incorrect anticipation will require more processing activities and longer delay compared to a response to a neutral or unanticipated event - why?; it can create a biomechanical disadvantage - why?
costs of anticipation
automaticity is developed through lots of practice; although very fast processing is effective when the environment is stable and predictable, it can lead to terrible errors when the environment changes the action at the last moment; why? examples - computer is going up when there is turbulence on airplane; it is most effective in closed skills - why? because closed skills are stable and predictable, like in bowling it is closed skill so it is easier to develop automaticity
developing automaticity
no it doesn't matter, still using our attentional system to process the conversation
does the research suggest hands-free phones are safe?
researchers are usually interested in second reaction time as a function of the SOA (stimulus onset asynchrony) - as the SOA changes (whether it becomes longer or shorter) they want to know the time lag why it is shifting so much in second movement - sound = move right hand; light = move left hand; sports example - quarterback gets the ball trying to throw downfield, and defensive lineman is coming after; quarterback might have to change position before ball is hiked; we can only really process one thing at a time
double stimulation paradigm and psychological refractory period
first task - catch ball and throw it back (70% of neural resources); leaving about 30%ish to solve the math problems; as the speed of throwing the ball increased the speed of answering the math problems decreased; the more you split your attention the less you have to focus on each thing
dual-task figures
closed skills
environment is stable and predictable ex. drilling a hole in a block of wood, swimming Sunday afternoon where there is no one there in a pool
continuous tasks, like tracking, are capable of producing many error scores on a single trial. RMSE represents two types of behaviors: 1. subject's bias tendency 2. inconsistency in the tracking behavior
error scores in continuous tasks
computing an error score for a given subject who was attempting a series of trials on a test requiring accuracy (e.g., the subject threw 5 darts); various ways to compute an error score
error scores in discrete tasks
Dr. Franklin Henry
experimental psychologist who worked in the physical education department at Univ of CA at Berkley; studied how gross motor skills often involving the whole body, a new tradition of laboratory experimentation; father of motor behavior research
skin, muscle, and tendon mechanoreceptors convert mechanical signals (pressure, friction, stretching, vibration, tension) into nerve impulses, which are sent through peripheral nerves to spinal cord; impulses travel up the lemniscal pathway to the thalamus (primarily to the ventral posterior nucleus (VPN) of the thalamus) and then to primary somatosensory cortex
stss - somatosensation
photoreceptor cells in retina convert light into electrical impulses (nerve impulses); these nerve impulses are carried through the optic nerve and optic tract to lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) of the thalamus; from the LGN nerve impulses are sent through the optic radiation to primary visual cortex (V1)
stss - vision
controlled processing
(conscious) processing that is thought to be slow and attentional resource-demanding - examples - writing with non dominant hand - nervous system is malleable
external focus of attention
(e.g., a target, such as an object to be struck or the intended effect that the action will have on the environment) - see the bulls eye want to hit it
internal focus of attention
(e.g., monitoring the ongoing movement) - focus on movement to hit bulls eye
automatic processing
(nonconscious) processing that is fast and not attentional resource-demaning - examples - writing with dominant hand
after a period of time, the task of concentrating on a single target of our attention becomes a progressively more difficult chore. factors known to affect vigilance include motivation, arousal, fatigue, and environmental factors. - examples of occupations - sleep is a huge factor
sustained attention
open skills
the environment is variable and unpredictable ex. team sports, swimming across channel in 35 degrees with sharks
hypothesis
formed from a theory and is testable
efficiency = output/input
formula for efficiency
intra, motor neurons in motor neuronal pools innervate muscle spindles
gamma motor neurons
meissner corpuscle
mechanoreceptor from friction
pacinian corpuscle
mechanoreceptor from rapidly changing pressure (vibration)
ruffini cylinder
mechanoreceptor from steady pressure from large objects and stretching
somatosensation
mechanoreceptors in skin
being aware that you are aware why you are multitasking which helps you which between tasks
meta-cognition in multi-tasking
neurotracker - improves split attention in sports
other dual-task examples
response selection stage
the system's job is deciding what response to make, given the nature of the situation and environment (e.g., the stimulus and context in which it occurred) it is a transition process between sensory input and movement output; example(s) startle response - how do you respond?
stimulus identification stage
the system's job is to decide whether a stimulus has been presented and, if so, what it is. it is primarily a sensory stage. the components of stimuli are thought to be assembled in this stage. patterns of movement are detected. example(s)- normally happening in visual senses notice object coming towards you
movement programming stage
this system's job is organizing the motor system to make the desired movement, based on the response selection. before producing a movement, the system must ready the lower-level mechanisms in the brain stem and spinal cord for action and retrieve and organized a motor program. example(s) - this is before a moment has been made
continuous skils
have arbitrary beginning and end points; behavior flowing for minutes or hours (e.g., swimming and knitting - starting and stopping can't tell how long they're going
before 1940s - investigations of relatively complex, high-level skills ex. telegraphy and typing; studies by biologists and physiologists concerning the fundamental mechanisms of muscle and muscle-force production; studies by biologists and physiologists concerning the study of nerves and the nervous system
history of motor learning and performance research
theory
human-made structure whose purpose is to explain how various phenomena occur
long distance local neural circuits
important for maintaining and adjusting posture, hence their 'full body' control
we can miss seemingly obvious features in our environment when we are engaged in attentive visual search; a number of automobile accidents seem linked to this phenomenon (e.g., "looked-but-failed-to-see" accidents) ex. hotel receptionist switching
inattention blindness**
researchers have found it useful to think of the human being as a processor of information, like a computer (you input information into the computer, which then outputs information); a goal of researchers interested in the performance of motor skills is to understand the specific nature of the processes in the box labeled "the human" - input --> human --> output
information processing approach
1. M1 doesn't excite putamen 2. Putamen doesn't excite globes plaids 3. Globus pallidus continues to thalamus 4. Thalamus doesn't allow upper motor neurons in M1 to send command to lower motor neurons in spinal cord (like a bridge if its up there is no connection - then you are in inhibition, but if it is down you are getting ready to move)
inhibitory mode for voluntary movement initiation
long-term memory (LTM)
it contains very well-learned information that has been collected over a lifetime. a vast amount of information can be stored in LTM by processing in STM (requires effort). to say that someone has learned something means that information was consolidated from STM to LTM; how does LTM affect performance (RT- reaction time), according to information processing model?
reaction time (RT)
it is an important performance measure indicating the speed and effectiveness of decision making; this interval is a measure of the accumulated durations of the three stages of processing; any factor that increases the duration of one of more of these stages will lengthen this
anticipation
it is one way in which a performer can shorten RT, a performer can organize movements in advance; event, spatial, and temporal (when a stimulus will arrive) anticipation - examples of each - defensive lineman ball is snapped - trying to anticipate to get advantage over offensive lineman; experts have a large advantage over novices in perceptual anticipation
short-term sensory store (STSS)
it is responsible for storing vast amounts of sensory information only long enough for some of it to be abstracted and further processed. how does STSS affect performance (RT), according to information processing model? can affect overall reaction time; visual information lasts no more than seconds in STSS, think about reaction time, sports - soccer - goalie looking at shooters foot, hip movement, and chest
deccaussation
transfer of information from one side of the body to the other
discrete skills
usually have an easily defined beginning and end often with a very brief duration of movement ex. throwing a ball, firing a rifle, or turning on a light switch
1. M1 excites putamen 2. Putamen excites globus pallidus 3. Globus pallidus stops inhibiting thalamus 4. thalamus allows upper motor neurons in M1 to send command to lower motor neurons in spinal cord
voluntary movement initiation
slow, fast fatigue-resistant, fast fatigable
what are the different types of motor neurons?
short-term, working, and long term
what are the three memory systems?
perceiving the relevant environmental features, deciding what to do and where and when to do it to achieve the goal, and producing organized muscular activity to generate movements that achieve the goal
what are three elements critical to almost every skill?
a theory cannot survive if something predicted from it turns out not to be the case
what does it mean for a theory if one of its hypotheses is wrong?
it affects all stages - the more stimuli we add the more we effect this model
what information processing stages are affected by distracted driving?
skills involve achieving some well-defined environmental goal in these ways: maximizing the certainty of goal achievement, minimizing the time used, minimizing the physical and mental energy costs of performance
what is a skill?
attention is a resource (or pool of slightly different resources) that is available and that can be used for various purposes. the ways in which attentional resources are allocated define how we use attention. (we allocate our attention to different things through our eyes like when we look for the board that doesn't exist). a way to think of attention is related to the limitations in doing two things at the same time
what is attention?
reciprocal inhibition
what is required with the monosynaptic reflex?
fast fatigable
what kind of motor unit would you want the gastrocnemius to have?
slow
what kind of motor unit would you want the soleus to have?
hippocampus x various areas of cerebral cortex
what parts of the brain are used for consolidation? declarative memory - explicit
hippocampus, basal ganglia, motor areas, cerebellum, parietal cortex
what parts of the brain are used for consolidation? motor memory - implicit/procedural
hippocampus
what parts of the brain are used for encoding? declarative memory - explicit
hippocampus, basal ganglia, motor areas, cerebellum, parietal cortex, prefrontal cortex
what parts of the brain are used for encoding? motor memory - implicit/procedural
various areas of cerebral cortex
what parts of the brain are used for retrieval? declarative memory - explicit
basal ganglia, motor areas, cerebellum, parietal cortex
what parts of the brain are used for retrieval? motor memory - implicit/procedural
primarily short term and working memory
which memories use PFC?
prefrontal cortex
which part of the brain is important during the response selection stage?
parietal cortex
which part of the brain is important in the stimulus identification stage?
