Abstract
In a sequential task, the grasp postures people select depend on their movement history. This motor hysteresis effect results from the reuse of former movement plans and reduces the cognitive cost of movement planning. Movement plans for hand trajectories not only transfer across successive trials, but also across hands. We therefore asked whether such a transfer would also be found in movement plans for hand postures. To this end, we designed a sequential, continuous posture selection task. Participants had to open a column of drawers with cylindrical knobs in ascending and descending sequences. A hand switch was required in each sequence. Hand pro/supination was analyzed directly before and after the hand switch. Results showed that hysteresis effects were present directly before, but absent directly after the hand switch. This indicates that, in the current study, movement plans for hand postures only transfer across trials, but not across hands.
Highlights
More than two decades ago, Rosenbaum and Jorgensen (1992) published their influential paper on the planning of macroscopic aspects of manual control
We asked whether former movement plans for hand postures would transfer between subsequent trials within the same hand, and across hands
Participants had to open a column of drawers with cylindrical knobs in a sequential order and switch hands once within each sequence
Summary
More than two decades ago, Rosenbaum and Jorgensen (1992) published their influential paper on the planning of macroscopic aspects of manual control. Participants had to pick a horizontal bar from a cradle on a tabletop, place its left or right end against a target location on the front of a bookshelf, and return the bar to the cradle This procedure was repeated for a column of 14 target locations, once in ascending and once in descending order. If participants had to place the left end on the target, they used an overhand grip for the upper and an underhand grip for the lower targets They avoided awkward arm postures at the end of the movement. This behavior was termed the end-state comfort effect (Rosenbaum and Jorgensen, 1992). It has since been reproduced in a large number of studies (cf. Rosenbaum et al, 2012)
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