Motor Experts Research Articles

Design of a sensor technology-based hand-eye coordination measuring tool: Validity and reliability

This research aims to design a sensor-based hand-eye coordination measuring tool and test its validity and reliability. A total of 9 experts were involved in assessing its feasibility, each of them 3 sports measurement experts, 3 motor experts, and 3 technology experts. Meanwhile, 50 students at one of the Faculty of Sports Sciences, Indonesia participated in field trials. Participants were students taking physical condition courses (aged 18-20 years), consisting of male (n1=30) and female (n2=20). A validation questionnaire was prepared and discussed with experts as a guide in providing an assessment of the relevance of the instrument (suitability, accuracy, ease, and practicality of the tool), and test-retest reliability for field trials carried out twice with the difference between the first and second tests being one week. Data were analyzed using Aiken's V Index, Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC), and Pearson correlation. The research results showed that the assessment of all aspects of the measuring instrument was in the high category, and the ICC value also showed no differences between assessments (P>0.05). Then, the test-retest reliability testing results obtained a significant regression analysis with a high correlation coefficient (r=0.801; P<0.05). In conclusion, this measuring tool can collect data to improve performance in sports involving hand-eye coordination (such as volleyball, badminton, tennis, basketball, hockey, martial arts and other sports that predominantly use the hands), both for coaches, athletes and sports practitioners. Keywords: validity, reliability, coordination, sensors

Cognitive load causes kinematic changes in both elite and non-elite rowers

The current motor literature suggests that extraneous cognitive load may affect performance and kinematics in a primary motor task. A common response to increased cognitive demand, as observed in past studies, might be to reduce movement complexity and revert to previously learned movement patterns, in line with the progression-regression hypothesis. However, according to several accounts of automaticity, motor experts should be able to cope with dual task demands without detriment to their performance and kinematics. To test this, we conducted an experiment asking elite and non-elite rowers to use a rowing ergometer under conditions of varying task load. We employed single-task conditions with low cognitive load (i.e., rowing only) and dual-task conditions with high cognitive load (i.e., rowing and solving arithmetic problems). The results of the cognitive load manipulations were mostly in line with our hypotheses. Overall, participants reduced movement complexity, for example by reverting towards tighter coupling of kinematic events, in their dual-task performance as compared to single-task performance. The between-group kinematic differences were less clear. In contradiction to our hypotheses, we found no significant interaction between skill level and cognitive load, suggesting that the rowers' kinematics were affected by cognitive load irrespective of skill level. Overall, our findings contradict several past findings and automaticity theories, and suggest that attentional resources are required for optimal sports performance.

Action Perception in Athletes: Expertise Facilitates Perceptual Discrimination.

Prior research has demonstrated that athletes outperform non-athletes on action perception tasks involving anticipation of sport-related actions. We conducted two experiments to determine whether this advantage persists on tasks without anticipation and/or transfers to non-sport actions. In Experiment 1, motor experts (sprinters) and non-experts were shown two consecutive videos of an athlete either walking or sprinting. The participants' task was to indicate whether the videos were identical or different. The sprinters were more accurate in these judgments than non-experts, indicating that their athleticism was associated with motor expertise that enhanced their perception of both expert and everyday actions. Further analysis revealed that participants who reported basing their decisions on a specific and informative cue (i.e., the distance between where the athlete's foot landed and a line on the track) outperformed those who did not. However, the sprinters benefitted more from using this cue than the non-sprinters. In Experiment 2, we assessed whether non-experts' performance improved if the number of available cues was reduced to make the informative cue easier to identify. Non-experts completed the same task as in Experiment 1, with half of the participants viewing the upper part of the athletes' body and the other half viewing the lower part containing the informative cue. However, the non-experts still did not reliably identify the cue, and performance did not vary between the two non-expert sub-groups. The results of these experiments suggest that motor expertise indirectly affects action perception by improving experts' ability to identify and use informative cues.

Using a chopping task to compare expert and competent motor memory.

Here, we consider the memory of motor experts using a real-world task-chefs chopping vegetables. We compare expert chefs to competent home cooks, defined as skill enthusiasts or very good performers whose performance experience is narrower than experts. We considered the possibility that competent home cooks' memory for knife skills is organized differently than chefs', and we predicted that their performance will be more vulnerable to interference than experts' in the face of challenges. We used a novel vegetable-chopping task to test the hypothesis that experts are less vulnerable to motor interference than competents. Trained chefs and competent home cooks performed a chopping task in which they were asked to chop a sweet potato into 5-mm wide slices, matching the beat of a metronome (120 beats/min). Following an initial block of trials, each participant was exposed to an altered frequency interference condition and then performed trials of the original task again. Interference was inferred if the second performance of the original task was changed compared with initial performance. Competents' timing and spatial variability were significantly affected by the interference task, but experts' performance was stable. These results support the idea that the vulnerability of motor memory to interference changes with experience, and that in addition to better performance, experts' motor memories are stored and recalled differently than competents'.NEW & NOTEWORTHY From the lab, a comparison of expert chefs to competent home cooks on a defined chopping task shows that vulnerability of motor memory to interference changes with expertise.

Strike or ball? Batters know it better: an fMRI study of action anticipation in baseball players.

To assess whether the brain processes of action anticipation are modulated differently by perceptual and motor experiences, baseball batters, pitchers, and non-players were asked to predict the fate of pitching actions (strike or ball) while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging. Results showed both batters (perceptual experts of pitching action) and pitchers (motor experts) were more accurate than non-players. Furthermore, batters demonstrated higher perceptual sensitivity in discriminating strikes than non-players. All groups engaged the action observation network, putamen, and cerebellum during anticipation, while pitchers showed higher activity than non-players in the left premotor cortex, which has been implicated in the internal simulation of observed action. Only batters exhibited differences in strike versus ball pitches in their left ventral extrastriate cortex, which might be associated with the processing of relevant visual information conveyed by the observed pitcher's movement kinematics and pitch trajectory. Moreover, all groups showed higher activity selectively in the striatum, thalamus, sensorimotor cortices, and cerebellum during correct predictions than during incorrect ones, with most widespread activation in batters, reinforcing the greater involvement of the sensorimotor system in perceptual experience. Our findings demonstrate that perceptual experience might enhance action anticipation ability to a greater extent than motor experience, with overlapping but specific neural underpinnings.

Classification characteristics of fine motor experts based on electroencephalographic and force tracking data

The application of machine learning techniques provides a data-driven approach for a deeper understanding of the development and expressions of expertise. In extension to the common procedure of comparing experts' and novices' performances in expertise-domain-related tasks we applied conventional classification algorithms. We distinguished between tasks for each participant and between groups, i.e., experts or novices, based on electroencephalographic (EEG) activity patterns and force output variables during four different force modulation tasks. The tasks under investigation involved sinusoidal and steady force tracking tasks, which were performed with the left and right hand. Classification of tasks based on EEG patterns as well as force output was possible with high accuracy in novices and experts, whereas classification of group membership, i.e., experts or novices, was at chance level. In follow-up analyses, we found a high degree of individuality in the EEG patterns of the experts, implying the long-term development of specialized central processing during fine motor tasks in fine motor experts. Taken together, the results suggest that continuous practice in the work context leads to the development of a highly individual and task-specific central control pattern.

Motor expertise and performance in sport-specific priming tasks: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

ObjectiveThe present study aimed to summarize findings relevant to the influence of motor expertise on performance in sport-specific priming tasks and to examine potential moderators of this effect.MethodologyData were collected from the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), PsychInfo, Medline, Google Scholar, Web of Science, Baidu Scholar and Sport Discus and Dissertation s Online databases from January 1999 to April 2020, supplemented by manual bibliographies and meeting minutes. Stata software was used to perform the meta-analysis. Study quality was evaluated systematically using the Newcastle-Ottawa scale (NOS). Standard mean differences (SMDs) with 95% CIs were calculated with a random-effects model. The Cochrane Q test and I2 statistic were used to evaluate heterogeneity. Begg funnel plots and Egger tests were conducted to assess publication bias.ResultsNine articles (including 12 studies) were ultimately included in the meta-analysis. Significant heterogeneity was observed among these studies (Q = 44.42, P < 0.001, I2 = 75.2%) according to random-effects modeling. The results showed an overall advantage in favor of motor experts in sport-specific priming tasks (SMD = −1.01, 95% CI [−1.41 to −0.61]). However, the magnitude of that effect was moderated by sport type (interceptive sports/independent sports) and prime stimulus type (subliminal stimulus/supraliminal stimulus). No publication bias was detected by the Begg and Egger tests.ConclusionsIn general, compared with those of nonexperts, the responses of motor experts’ responses to a target stimulus are easier and faster when the prime and target stimuli are consistent. However, the magnitude of this effect is moderated by sport type and prime stimulus type.

The Relationship Between the Perceived Movement Quality and the Kinematic Pattern of Complex Skills in Gymnastics.

The study aimed to investigate the relationship between the perceived movement quality of a gymnastics skill and its kinematic pattern, as well as the influence of expertise. Thirty participants with different levels of gymnastics expertise (n = 10 visual experts, n = 10 motor experts and n = 10 novices) were recruited for the study. They were instructed to compare the movement quality of eleven video sequences, showing different handstand - back handspring performances. To extract the kinematics, the performances were digitized. By means of an ongoing cluster analysis, the kinematic pattern as well as the pattern of the perceived movement quality of the skills were determined for each experimental group. The results of the cluster analysis of the different experimental groups were analyzed and compared. Expertise differences were found regarding the pattern of the perceived movement quality. There was a significant correlation between the dendrograms of the visual experts and the motor experts (p = .021), as well as between the dendrograms of the visual experts and the novices (p = .011). There was no significant correlation between the dendrograms of the motor experts and the novices (p = .173). The pattern of the perceived movement quality was not correlated with the holistic kinematic pattern of judged skills (p > .143). These results suggest perceptual and cognitive differences of the participants due to their different previous visual and motor experience.

Brain activation patterns during visuomotor adaptation in motor experts and novices: An FDG PET study with unrestricted movements

BackgroundSpeed of performance improvements and the strength of memory consolidation in humans vary with movement expertise. Underlying neural mechanisms of behavioural differences between levels of movement expertise are so far unknown. New methodIn this study, PET with [18F]fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) was proposed as a powerful novel methodology to assess learning-related brain activity patterns during large non-restricted movements (ball throwing with a right hand). 24 male handball players (‘Experts’) and 24 male participants without handball experience (‘Novices’) performed visuomotor adaptations to prismatic glasses with or without strategic manoeuvres (i.e., explicit or implicit adaptation). ResultsRegional changes in FDG uptake as a marker of neuronal activity, relative to a control condition, were assessed. Prismatic adaptation, in general, was associated with decreased occipital neuronal activity as a possible response to misleading visual information. In ‘Experts’, the adaptation was associated with altered neuronal activity in a network comprising the right parietal cortex and the left cerebellum. In ‘Novices’, implicit adaptation resulted in an activation of the middle frontal and inferior temporal gyrus. Comparison with existing methodsThis study demonstrates the versatility of FDG PET for studying brain activations patterns in experimental settings with unrestricted movements that are not accessible by other techniques (e.g., fMRI or EEG). ConclusionsObserved results are consistent with the involvement of different functional networks related to strategic manoeuvres and expertise levels. This strengthens the assumption of different mechanisms underlying behavioural changes associated with movement expertise. Furthermore, the present study underscores the value of FDG PET for studying brain activation patterns during unrestricted movements.

Pengembangan Buku Pembelajaran Pendidikan Jasmani Bagi Anak Usia Dini

The problem in this research is the availability of textbook teaching physical education for early childhood or manual for sports teachers in schools is still there, in the previous learning still uses the book physical education in general. The aim of this research is generating a guide text book for teacher at PAUD and Kindergarten in physical education and recreation learning. This study is the research of development that refers from Borg and Gall concept which is shortened to seven steps as needed. Small-scale testing involves 10 subjects and field testing involves 35 subjects. In order the resulting product can be valid so in this study involves three validators consisting of motor experts, physical education learning experts and early childhood education learning experts. From the result of small-scale trials of expert validation is obtained an average score of 3.5 with the category of "Good" and large-scale trial result of expert validation is obtained an average score of 3.9 with the category of "Good". Based on this assessment, it can be concluded that product of physical education learning textbooks for early childhood are considered suitable for used. For further research can be conducted effectiveness of textbooks that have been developed so that they can see how much influence this textbook in PAUD physical education learning.

Temporal-order judgement task suggests chronological action representations in motor experts and non-experts.

Motor priming studies have suggested that human movements are mentally represented in the order in which they usually occur (i.e., chronologically). In this study, we investigated whether we could find evidence for these chronological representations using a paradigm which has frequently been employed to reveal biases in the perceived temporal order of events—the temporal-order judgement task. We used scrambled and unscrambled images of early and late movement phases from an everyday action sequence (“stepping”) and an expert action sequence (“sprinting”) to examine whether participants’ mental representations of actions would bias their temporal-order judgements. In addition, we explored whether motor expertise mediated the size of temporal-order judgement biases by comparing the performances of sprinting experts with those of non-experts. For both action types, we found significant temporal-order judgement biases for all participants, indicating that there was a tendency to perceive images of human action sequences in their natural order, independent of motor expertise. Although there was no clear evidence that sprinting experts showed larger biases for sprinting action sequences than non-experts, considering sports expertise in a broader sense provided some tentative evidence for the idea that temporal-order judgement biases may be mediated by more general motor and/or perceptual familiarity with the running action rather than specific motor expertise.

Exploring Cognitive and Perceptual Judgment Processes in Gymnastics Using Essential Kinematics Information.

The aim of the current study was to transfer the method of using isolated kinematics information combined with the examination of perceptual-cognitive processes to gymnastics judging and thereby investigating the informational underpinnings of skilled perception and judgment. More specifically, a combination of process-tracing methods that include both the gaze pattern (via eye tracking) and the performance judgment (via ratings on a six-point Likert scale) of participants with different gymnastics expertise (visual experts, n = 14, motor experts, n = 17, novices, n = 18) was employed for gymnastics performances of a floor routine (round off, back handspring, back layout somersault), which were shown as videos in original or in stick-figure format. Gaze pattern was analyzed for the whole floor routine as well as for the particular temporal-spatial windows of the three motor skills. Differences between visual experts, motor experts, and novices could be found concerning the judgment score, ηp2 = .242, and the judgment accuracy, ηp2 = .196, but not the gaze pattern. The significant interaction effects between skill and format for the gaze pattern show the importance of the last skill in the judgment processes. Further research should investigate the influence of judgment instruction on the gaze pattern as well as the importance of the last skill for the judgment score.

Learning Model Developing of Basic Technique for Three-Dimensional Table Tennis Punch Drive for Beginner Players

This study aims to develop a learning model of three-dimensional table tennis-based basic drive punch techniques in beginner players, obtain information on the effectiveness of the three-dimensional basis-based learning drive technique models in improving basic skills of beginner player drive punch techniques. This study is research and development using the Borg and Gall (2007) model which consists of ten steps, namely (1) Research and information collection, (2) Planning, (3) Preliminary from of product, (4) Preliminary field testing, (5 ) Main product revision (6) Main field testing, (7) Operation product revision, (8) Operational field testing, (9) Revision product, (10) Dissemination and implementation. The sample in this study was students of the Physical Education and Recreation Education Study Program. The instruments used questionnaires, documentation, tests and assessment sheets. Then the effectiveness test is carried out using a before-after experimental design (one-group pre-test and post-test design). The research result is the compilation of a book on the basic three-dimensional table tennis drive learning technique for beginner players. This product was developed based on evaluation and advice from experts which included three table tennis learning experts, one media expert and two motor experts. The evaluation results of the experts stated that the model developed was suitable for use by novice players. Then the results of the small group trial stated that the product developed could be applied by students but still being improved and needed to be tested in large groups. The results of a large group trial stated that the product developed was able to be carried out well by students without repeated explanation. The results of the effectiveness test showed that drive learning by using a three-dimensional based learning model was significantly better than learning table tennis by using a conventional model to improve the basic technical skills of beginner player drives.

The descending motor tracts are different in dancers and musicians.

Long-term motor training, such as dance or gymnastics, has been associated with increased diffusivity and reduced fiber coherence in regions including the corticospinal tract. Comparisons between different types of motor experts suggest that experience might result in specific structural changes related to the trained effectors (e.g., hands or feet). However, previous studies have not segregated the descending motor pathways from different body-part representations in motor cortex (M1). Further, most previous diffusion tensor imaging studies used whole-brain analyses based on a single tensor, which provide poor information about regions where multiple white matter (WM) tracts cross. Here, we used multi-tensor probabilistic tractography to investigate the specific components of the descending motor pathways in well-matched groups of dancers, musicians and controls. To this aim, we developed a procedure to identify the WM regions below the motor representations of the head, hand, trunk and leg that served as seeds for tractography. Dancers showed increased radial diffusivity (RD) in comparison with musicians, in descending motor pathways from all the regions, particularly in the right hemisphere, whereas musicians had increased fractional anisotropy (FA) in the hand and the trunk/arm motor tracts. Further, dancers showed larger volumes compared to both other groups. Finally, we found negative correlations between RD and FA with the age of start of dance or music training, respectively, and between RD and performance on a melody task, and positive correlations between RD and volume with performance on a whole-body dance task. These findings suggest that different types of training might have different effects on brain structure, likely because dancers must coordinate movements of the entire body, whereas musicians focus on fewer effectors.

Probing Representations of Gymnastics Movements: A Visual Priming Study.

In this study, we designed a visual short-term priming paradigm to investigate the mechanisms underlying the priming of movements and to probe movement representations in motor experts and matched controls. We employed static visual stimuli that implied or not human whole-body movements, that is, gymnastics movements and static positions. Twelve elite female gymnasts and twelve matched controls performed a speeded two-choice response time task. The participants were presented with congruent and incongruent prime-target pairs and had to decide whether the target stimulus represented a gymnastics movement or a static position. First, a visual priming effect was observed in the two groups. Second, a stimulus-response rote association could not easily account for our results. Novel primes never presented as targets could also prime the targets. Third, by manipulating three levels of prime-target relations in moving congruent pairs, we demonstrated that the more similar prime-target pairs, the greater the facilitation in target. Lastly, gymnastics motor expertise impacted on priming effects.

Selective Effects of Sport Expertise on the Stages of Mental Rotation Tasks With Object-Based and Egocentric Transformations.

It is well established that motor expertise is linked to superior mental rotation ability, but few studies have attempted to explain the factors that influence the stages of mental rotation in sport experts. Some authors have argued that athletes are faster in the perceptual and decision stages but not in the rotation stages of object-based transformations; however, stimuli related to sport have not been used to test mental rotation with egocentric transformations. Therefore, 24 adolescent elite divers and 23 adolescent nonathletes completed mental rotation tasks with object-based and egocentric transformations. The results showed faster reaction times (RTs) for the motor experts in tasks with both types of transformations (object-based cube, object-based body, and egocentric body). Additionally, the differences in favour of motor experts in the perceptual and decision stages were confirmed. Interestingly, motor experts also outperformed nonathletes in the rotation stages in the egocentric transformations. These findings are discussed against the background of the effects of sport expertise on mental rotation.

Stimulus size matters: do life-sized stimuli induce stronger embodiment effects in mental rotation?

ABSTRACTAgainst the background of the embodied cognition approach this experiment investigated the influence of motor expertise on object-based vs. egocentric transformations in a chronometric mental rotation (MR) task using images of either the own or another person’s body as stimulus material. The present study aimed to clarify two issues: (1) whether stimulus size (life size vs. small) is able to induce embodiment effects and (2) which role self-awareness processes play when using stimuli of the own body. The same design was conducted twice using both small stimuli (Study 1) and life-size human figures (Study 2). Using life-sized figures in Study 2 resulted in an explicit advantage of self-related stimuli and improved performance for motor experts compared to non-motor experts in both object-based and egocentric transformations. In conclusion, these results suggest that life-sized figures do indeed induce stronger embodiment effects in MR.

Motor expertise and performance in spatial tasks: A meta-analysis

The present study aimed to provide a summary of findings relevant to the influence of motor expertise on performance in spatial tasks and to examine potential moderators of this effect. Studies of relevance were those in which individuals involved in activities presumed to require motor expertise were compared to non-experts in such activities. A final set of 62 effect sizes from 33 samples was included in a multilevel meta-analysis. The results showed an overall advantage in favor of motor experts in spatial tasks (d=0.38). However, the magnitude of that effect was moderated by expert type (athlete, open skills/ball sports, runner/cyclist, gymnast/dancers, musicians), stimulus type (2D, blocks, bodies, others), test category (mental rotation, spatial perception, spatial visualization), specific test (Mental Rotations Test, generic mental rotation, disembedding, rod-and-frame test, other), and publication status. These findings are discussed in the context of embodied cognition and the potential role of activities requiring motor expertise in promoting good spatial performance.

Contributions of perceptual and motor experience of an observed action to anticipating its result.

To gain deeper insight into respective contributions of perceptual and motor experience of an observed action to anticipating its result, we examined the perceptual anticipation of players with different action roles in striking sports. Baseball pitchers and batters at both advanced and intermediate levels were asked to make a decision about whether to swing the bat when viewing a series of videos showing incomplete sequences of a model pitcher throwing a strike or a ball. The results revealed that first 100 ms of ball flight could discriminate advanced batters from intermediate pitchers and batters (with no difference between intermediate pitchers and batters). Particularly, advanced batters (perceptual experts with regard to pitching action) were statistically more accurate and less uncertain in making decisions than were intermediate players, whereas advanced pitchers (motor experts) only showed this tendency without reaching a statistically significant level. Moreover, advanced batters demonstrated greater perceptual sensitivity in discriminating when to swing at strikes over balls than all other players. Our findings suggested that when players were above intermediate level, perceptual experience of an observed action facilitated the perceptual anticipation to a greater extent than motor experience of producing it. (PsycINFO Database Record

Sport neuroscience revisited (?): a commentary.

Sport neuroscience revisited (?): a commentary.