Complex Perceptual-motor Skill Research Articles

Analysis of Gender Differences in Online Handwriting Signals for Enhancing e-Health and e-Security Applications

Handwriting is a complex perceptual–motor skill that is mastered around the age of 8. Although its computerized analysis has been utilized in many biometric and digital health applications, the possible effect of gender is frequently neglected. The aim of this paper is to analyze different online handwritten tasks performed by intact subjects and explore gender differences in commonly used temporal, kinematic, and dynamic features. The differences were explored in the BIOSECUR-ID database. We have identified a significant gender difference in on-surface/in-air time of genuine and skilled forgery signatures, on-surface time in cursive letters and numbers, and pressure, speed, and acceleration in text written in capital letters. Our findings accent the need to consider gender as an important confounding factor in studies dealing with online handwriting signal processing.

The Effect of Perceptual-Motor Skills Training on Improvement of Handwriting in Preschool Children

Background and Purpose: Illegible handwriting is one of the common problems in preschool children. Handwriting is a complex perceptual-motor skill that depends on the evolution and integration of a number of cognitive-perceptual and motor skills that can develop through training. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the effect of training the perceptual-motor skills on the improvement of handwriting in preschool children. Method: This research was a quasi-experimental study with control group pretest-posttest design. The population included all the 5 to 6-year old pre-school boys who had been referred to the counseling center of Education Administration in District 2 of Isfahan city in the academic year 2017-2018. They were screened by Handwriting Problems Checklist (Keshavarzi& Shojaee, 2015). A sample of 20 children with handwriting problems was selected by convenience sampling and then randomly placed in the experimental or control group (10 per group). The experimental group received the cognitive-movement skills training program for sixteen 45-min sessions but the control group received no training. Then, both groups completed the posttest. The measurement tool in this research was Handwriting Problems Checklist (Keshavarzi& Shojaee, 2015). For data analysis, uni-variate analysis of variance and multivariate analysis of variance were used. Results: Data analysis showed that cognitive-motor skills training program was effective on the improvement of handwriting problems (F = 14.73, P = 0.001) and on the subscales of handwriting errors (F = 12.40, P = 0.002) and body condition error at the time of writing (F = 6.12, P = 0.024) in the 4 to 6-year old pre-school boys. Conclusion: Based on the results, it can be concluded that cognitive-motor skills training was effective on the improvement of handwriting skills through strengthening the hand muscles and reinforcing the gross and fine motor skills. As a result, this method can be used as a supplementary treatment along with other therapies available for this problem.

Advanced Parametrization of Graphomotor Difficulties in School-Aged Children

School-aged children spend 31–60% of their time at school performing handwriting, which is a complex perceptual-motor skill composed of a coordinated combination of fine graphomotor movements. As up to 30% of them experience graphomotor difficulties (GD), timely diagnosis of these difficulties and therapeutic intervention are of great importance. At present, an objective, computerized decision support system for the identification and assessment of GD in school-aged children is still missing. In this study, we propose three novel advanced handwriting parametrization techniques based on modulation spectra, fractional order derivatives, and tunable Q-factor wavelet transform to improve the identification of GD using online handwriting. For this purpose, we analyzed signals acquired from 7 basic graphomotor tasks performed by 53 children attending 3rd and 4th grade at several primary schools around the Czech Republic. Combining the newly proposed features with the conventionally used ones, we were able to identify GD with 84% accuracy. In this study, we showed that using advanced parametrization of basic graphomotor movements can be potentially used to improve our capabilities of quantifying problems with the development of legible, fast-paced handwriting, and help with the early diagnosis of handwriting difficulties frequently manifested in developmental dysgraphia.

To develop an occupational therapy kit for handwriting skills in children with dysgraphia and study its efficacy: A single-arm interventional study

Background: Handwriting is a complex perceptual-motor skill dependent on the maturation and integration of a number of cognitive, perceptual, and motor skills. Handwriting develops through instruction and is a complex process of managing written language by coordinating the eyes, arms, hands, pencil grip, letter formation, and body posture. Handwriting Without Tears Methodology™ (HWT) is an established handwriting curriculum created by Jan Olsen and is used by occupational therapy (OT) practitioners in traditional one-on-one service delivery. It is also designed for full classroom implementation and instruction and is used in thousands of Mainstream and Special Schools across the world. Objectives: The objective of the study is to analyze the impact of handwriting intervention with OT Kit (OTK) in treating children with dysgraphia (OTK included HWT products, other multisensory material, and fine-motor activities) and to establish the norms on OTK to enable it to be used by therapists for handwriting intervention in India. Study Design: Single-arm interventional study design was chosen for the research. Methods: In a pre- and post-single-arm interventional study design, 40 children diagnosed as dysgraphia (age group 6–11 years; male:female: 31:9) were recruited from a regular school and OT clinic. The handwriting performance was assessed using HWT Screener™ for 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Grade from mainstream school and the Print tool®. The intervention using OTK was based on HWT program™, multisensory activities, and fine-motor activities. Results: Boys had difficulty in lowercase formations more than girls, and 9-year olds were found to have maximum difficulties in sequencing and memory components of written production. Variables of memory, placement, letter, and word spacing have shown maximum improvement. Where the primary outcomes are P

The relationship between visual\u2014motor integration and handwriting skills in Arabic-speaking Egyptian children at the age of 4\u20136 years

BackgroundHandwriting is a complex perceptual-motor skill that is dependent on the maturation and integration of a number of cognitive, perceptual, and motor skills.AimTo examine the relationship between visual–motor skills and handwriting skills (HS) in Arabic-speaking Egyptian children at the age of 4–6 years.Patients and methodsOverall, 200 typically developing kindergarten and primary school Arabic-speaking children, in the age range of 4–6 years, were tested using a constructed battery for assessment of both visual–motor integration (VMI) and HS.Results and conclusionPerformance on both VMI and HS tasks improved with age. Moreover, the older the child was, the lesser the duration for completion of the tasks. Copying lines was found to be the best predictor of copying letters, copying words, and copying numbers. Reliability and validity of the designed VMI and HS assessment battery proved to be excellent. VMI is an important prerequisite for Arabic HS.

Postural Control During Cascade Ball Juggling: Effects of Expertise and Base of Support.

Cascade ball juggling is a complex perceptual motor skill which requires efficient postural stabilization. The aim of this study was to investigate effects of experience (expert and intermediate groups) and foot distance (wide and narrow stances) on body sway of jugglers during three ball cascade juggling. A total of 10 expert jugglers and 11 intermediate jugglers participated in this study. Participants stood barefoot on the force plate (some participants wore a gaze tracking system), with feet maintained in wide and narrow conditions and performed three 40-seconds trials of the three-ball juggling task. Dependent variables were sway mean velocity, amplitude, mean frequency, number of ball cycles, fixation number, mean duration and its variability, and area of gaze displacement. Two-way analyses of variance with factors for group and condition were conducted. Experts' body sway was characterized by lower velocity and smaller amplitude as compared to intermediate group. Interestingly, the more challenging (narrow) basis of support caused significant attenuation in body sway only for the intermediate group. These data suggest that expertise in cascade juggling was associated with refined postural control.

Translating Key Methodological Issues into Technological Advancements When Running In-Situ Experiments in Sports: An Example from Sailing

In recent years there has been an increasing interest in capturing and understanding skilled performance by studying complex perceptual-motor skills. In this context, we identify and discuss key methodological issues that are particularly relevant when aiming to translate sport scientific knowledge into practical guidelines for coaches and athletes. These issues are: the representative performance environment (including fidelity of stimuli and type of response), generalisability, and experimental control. After a short introduction of the methodological issues, we first review and critically discuss to what degree past research studying complex perceptual-motor skills in sports has or has not sufficiently taken these issues into account. Second, we illustrate an examination of expertise in sailing as an example of how to address the key issues when performing experiments in-situ. We conclude that the presented example illustrates how the collaboration between coaches, athletes and sports scientists advances the methodological and technological developments to capture skilled performance in complex sports.

Better Retention of Skill Operating a Simulated Hydraulic Excavator After Part-Task Than After Whole-Task Training

We examined whether part-task training produces better learning and retention than whole-task training of a trench-and-load task performed on a hydraulic excavator simulator. For complex perceptual-motor tasks that involve several components and require spatial awareness of the environment, part-task training will be effective if the benefit of being able to focus attention on each component outweighs the cost of integrating the components. We predicted that such would be the case for learning to operate an excavator. A part-task training group practiced separate Carrier Positioning, Trenching, and Truck Loading modules, whereas a whole-task training group practiced the Trench and Load module, which combines elements from the other modules. The latter module, involving different scenarios, was performed by both groups immediately after training and following a 2-week retention interval. Production rate on the trench-and-load task was better overall on the retention test than on the immediate test. The part-task group showed improvement on the retention test compared with the immediate test, whereas the whole-task group did not. The part-task group showed higher productivity rates than did the whole-task group on the retention test. Part-task training on the excavator simulator results in better skill retention than does whole-task training. The benefit of part-task training is likely to be found for other tasks requiring control of implements in various environments. Part-task training can result in better retention of complex perceptual-motor skills involving several components, even when immediate transfer to the whole task does not show better performance than whole-task training.

Teaching memory-impaired people to touch type: The acquisition of a useful complex perceptual-motor skill

This study provides ecological validity for laboratory findings that people with memory difficulties following brain injury can learn new skills. This was done by testing the acquisition of a useful real-world perceptual-motor skill. Using a conventional computer software training package supplemented by one-to-one coaching, a woman with severely impaired memory and a man with poor memory learned to touch type. They achieved the initial criterion of 20 wpm with over 90% accuracy; reached a top speed of 30 wpm and retained their skill a year later. The memory-impaired participants received short sessions of distributed practice and as far as possible were taught under error-free learning conditions. Their performance was broadly comparable with that of two non-memory-impaired comparison participants in terms of acquisition, consolidation and transfer, speed and accuracy, and retention.

A Longitudinal Examination of the Comparative Criterion-Related Validity of Additive and Referent-Shift Consensus Operationalizations of Team Efficacy

Using a longitudinal design, the authors examined the criterion-related validity of two operationalizations of task-specific team efficacy that differed in their approximation to the level of analysis of the criterion, team performance. Data were obtained from 85 highly interdependent dyadic teams trained over a 2-week period to perform a complex perceptual-motor skill task. Results indicated that, as expected, the operationalization with a team-level referent (referent-shift consensus) was superior to the operationalization with an individual-level referent (additive) across all three data collection periods. For the referent-shift consensus operationalization, within-team agreement and the criterion-related validity improved between the first and second data collection periods but not between the second and third. However, for both operationalizations, despite the increased strength of the team efficacy and team performance relationships, efficacy ratings collected later in the study protocol did not explain unique variance in subsequent team performance once the effect of previous performance was statistically controlled.

The scope of preserved procedural memory in amnesia.

The finding that patients with amnesia retain the ability to learn certain procedural skills has provided compelling evidence of multiple memory systems in the human brain, but the scope, defining features and ecological significance of the preserved mnemonic abilities have not yet been explored. Here, we tested the hypothesis that subjects with amnesia would be able to learn and retain a broad range of procedural skills, by examining their acquisition and retention performance on five novel experimental tasks. The tasks are based on real-world activities and encompass a broad range of perceptual-motor demands: (i) the weaving task involves weaving pieces of fabric from woollen strings, using a manual weaver's loom; (ii) the geometric figures task consists of tracing geometric figures with a stylus as they move horizontally across a touch screen monitor; (iii) the control stick task involves tracking a sequence of visual target locations using a joystick control; (iv) the pouring task consists of pouring 200 ml of water from a watering can into a series of graduated cylinders, from a point 20 cm above the cylinders; and (v) the spatial sequence task involves learning an ordered sequence of pushing five spatially distributed buttons without visual guidance. Ten chronic and stable amnesic subjects (nine with bilateral medial temporal lobe damage due to herpes simplex encephalitis or anoxia, and one with thalamic stroke) and 25 matching normal comparison subjects were tested on three occasions: initial learning at time 1; retention at time 2 (24 h later); and retention at time 3 (2 months later). Despite impaired declarative memory for the tasks, the amnesic subjects demonstrated acquisition and retention of the five skills; their learning slopes over repeated trials were comparable with those of comparison subjects. These findings indicate that preserved learning of complex perceptual-motor skills in patients with amnesia is a robust phenomenon, and that it can be demonstrated across a variety of conditions and perceptual-motor demands. The comparability of the tasks employed in this study with real-world activities highlights the potential application of this memory dissociation in the rehabilitation of patients with amnesia.

Use of proprioception in normal and clumsy children

This study investigates the relation between performance on simple tasks dependent on proprioception, and performance of complex perceptual-motor skills in clumsy children and age-matched control children. One hundred and forty-six right-handed children aged between 5 and 8 years were tested on non-visual aiming, non-visual posture matching, the Kinaesthetic Sensitivity Test (KST), and the Movement Assessment Battery for Children (ABC). Half of the children had scores below the 15th centile on the Movement ABC and were classed into the developmental coordination disorder (clumsiness) group. Scores on the proprioceptive tasks were used to predict performance on complex tasks of the subscales of the Movement ABC (manual dexterity, ball skills, and balance). Specific relations were found between the proprioceptive tasks and the subscales of the Movement ABC, but the KST did not predict differences in motor skills, and no relation was found between tasks carried out without vision. Simple non-visual movement tasks do predict performance in more complex skilled tasks but this is affected by many task features rather than simply the reliance on proprioception for information about movement.

Adaptive and part-whole training in the acquisition of a complex perceptual-motor skill

The benefit of two instructional strategies: adaptive training and part training in teaching complex perceptual motor skills was evaluated. One method was the part training method, where a subject practiced on essential subtasks before performing the whole task. The other method was adaptive training, where the time pressure of the task was continually adjusted to conform to the subject's performance level until his performance was sufficient to handle the ultimate task difficulty. The task was a computer-controlled video game, developed for research purposes. The task was challenging and proficiency could be achieved only through significant amount of practice. The results found the part training regime superior to all others. The two adaptive training regimes brought mixed results, with one group superior and one equal to a control group. Negative transfer from the slow to the fast version of the game was evident, and may be the reason for the lack of clear advantage to the adaptive regimes.

Acquisition of Perceptual-Motor Skill: Adaptive and Part-Whole Training

The effectiveness of two training methods was investigated in the training of a complex perceptual-motor skill. Subjects learned how to play a computer controlled video-game. In adaptive training, pacing of the game elements was the adaptive variable. In the part training condition subjects received training in four subtasks which were designed to train specific elements of the skill necessary for the performance of the task. A comparison of training time as well as performance at fixed time points against a control group indicated that the training manipulations were effective. The part training method was clearly the best. The adaptive training method yielded mixed results. However, some support for the effectiveness of the method was observed. The results are discussed in terms of the principles for design of training devices and programs.

Programmed Lessons in Teaching a Complex Perceptual-Motor Skill

Programmed Lessons in Teaching a Complex Perceptual-Motor Skill