Perceptual-motor Activities Research Articles

Improved Basic Locomotor Movements of Children through the Multiple Intelligence-Based Perceptual Motor Activity Model

Kindergarten is a period of basic movement development. Basic locomotor movements are the basis of various skills that require training and guidance that will be able to develop in the child so that the child can perform well. This study aimed to determine the improvement of basic locomotor movements of kindergarten children through motor perception activities based on multiple intelligence. This research is pre-experimental research, with a one-group pre-test and post-test design. The subjects of this research were 2kindergarten’s students. The research instrument used the Test of Gross Motor Development-2 (TGMD-2) from Ulrich (2000). Data analysis used the t-test, by comparing the average pre-test results with the average post-test results. The results of the research on basic locomotor movements, which include: run, gallop, hop, leap, horizontal jump, and slide, show the value of sig. 0.000 0.05 and there was an increase in the post-test mean of each basic locomotor movement. The application of the model of perceptual motor activity based on multiple intelligences can improve basic locomotor movements, so kindergarten teachers can apply the model of perceptual motor activity based on multiple intelligences to improve basic locomotor movements.

A Qualitative Meta-analysis of Perceptual-motor Problems in Visually Impaired People

Introduction: Perceptual motor activities improve motor skills and learning. These skills play an effective role in receiving, interpreting and responding to the sensory stimuli. This study aimed to identify perceptual-motor problems in visually impaired people. Methods: This qualitative research was conducted using a research synthesis method. Therefore, the analysis unit consisted of all the related scientific studies. With regard to the systematic research in internal and external databases based on the inclusion criteria, 1052 scientific studies were identified, and finally, according to the exclusion criteria, 71 studies were selected for the final analysis. To collect the required data, a researcher-made worksheet was used, and to ensure of the coding, two examiners were asked to reencode the findings. For data analysis, Roberts’ six-step research synthesis model with open and axial coding methods was used. Results: The results from this study led to the identification of 41 categories, which was eventually narrowed down to 14 codes of alternative concepts. The most common perceptual -motor problems of the blind were navigation, coordination of motor function, and balance disorders. Conclusion: Success in implementing educational programs and its effectiveness on the blind requires providing solutions in line with their most important problems in order of priority. Providing appropriate infrastructure, proper preparation regarding knowledge, skill and attitude among students and professors, as well as appropriate designing of educational programs for the blind prioritizing their navigation, motor coordination, and balance problems are suggested.

Perceptual-motor skill transfer: Multidimensionality and specificity of both general and specific transfers

This paper aims to investigate perceptual-motor skill transfer, both through the specific as well as the general aspect of skill transfer. Specifically, we examined differences in skill transfer that occurred between participants who are skilled in practicing a perceptual motor activity involving striking with an implement and participants who are skilled in their own sports but are novice to striking task (i.e., batting an immobile ball). Skill transfer was assessed through the effect of practicing a new, novel task on the performance (ball velocity), intrinsic behavior (elbow and shoulder kinematic) as well as on the impetus for exploratory behavior (variability of elbow and shoulder kinematics) in the two groups of participants (n = 8 for each group), with reference to another group of expert participants (n = 8) for this batting task. Results showed that positive skill transfer was present and was multidimensional in the group of participants who have experience in using an implement in striking tasks. In addition, both specific transfer as well as general transfer were dependent on the task dynamics. More precisely, positive transfer was observed both through a sharing of similar movement patterns, an impetus for exploration and a direct transfer of performance in a novel task between groups who have experience in using an implement in striking tasks.

A micro-analytic approach to understanding electronic health record navigation paths.

Clinician task performance is significantly impacted by the navigational efficiency of the system interface. Here we propose and evaluate a navigational complexity framework useful for examining differences in electronic health record (EHR) interface systems and their impact on task performance. The methodological approach includes 1) expert-based methods-specifically, representational analysis (focused on interface elements), keystroke level modeling (KLM), and cognitive walkthrough; and 2) quantitative analysis of interactive behaviors based on video-captured observations. Medication administration record (MAR) tasks completed by nurses during preoperative (PreOp) patient assessment were studied across three Mayo Clinic regional campuses and three different EHR systems. By analyzing the steps executed within the interfaces involved to complete the MAR tasks, we characterized complexities in EHR navigation. These complexities were reflected in time spent on task, click counts, and screen transitions, and were found to potentially influence nurses' performance. Two of the EHR systems, employing a single screen format, required less time to complete (mean 101.5, range 106-97s), respectively, compared to one system employing multiple screens (176s, 73% increase). These complexities surfaced through trade-offs in cognitive processes that could potentially influence nurses' performance. Factors such as perceptual-motor activity, visual search, and memory load impacted navigational complexity. An implication of this work is that small tractable changes in interface design can substantially improve EHR navigation, overall usability, and workflow.

Effect of Perceptual-Motor activities on the Mirror Neurons Training, Behavioral Disorders and Social development in Children with High Functioning Autism

Effect of Perceptual-Motor activities on the Mirror Neurons Training, Behavioral Disorders and Social development in Children with High Functioning Autism

The effects of different combinations of perceptual-motor exercises, music, and vitamin D supplementation on the nerve growth factor in children with high-functioning autism

The present study investigated the effects of different combinations of perceptual-motor exercises, music, and Vitamin D consumption on the nerve growth factor (NGF) in children with high-functioning autism. 48 children with autism, aged between six and nine years, were divided into four groups: Group A— perceptual-motor activities along with music (n = 12); Group B—Vitamin D supplementation (n = 12); Group C—perceptual-motor activities along with music and Vitamin D (n = 12); and Group D—control (n = 12). Participants' blood NGF level was measured before and after the intervention. The results showed a significant improvement in the NGF levels in Groups B and C due to the interventions. Also, in Group A, the NGF levels increased compared to Group D, although this increase was not significant. In addition, the intake of Vitamin D along with perceptual-motor exercises resulted in a significant increase in the levels of NGF compared to Groups A, B and D. These findings suggest that perceptual-motor exercises along with music as well as taking Vitamin D may provide two appropriate interventions for improving NGF in children with autism.

A Study on Effect of Occupational Therapy Intervention Program Using Cognitive-Perceptual and Perceptual-Motor Activities on Visual Perceptual Skills in Children with Cerebral Palsy

A Study on Effect of Occupational Therapy Intervention Program Using Cognitive-Perceptual and Perceptual-Motor Activities on Visual Perceptual Skills in Children with Cerebral Palsy

Metacognition and action: a new pathway to understanding social and cognitive aspects of expertise in sport.

For over a century, psychologists have investigated the mental processes of expert performers – people who display exceptional knowledge and/or skills in specific fields of human achievement. Since the 1960s, expertise researchers have made considerable progress in understanding the cognitive and neural mechanisms that underlie such exceptional performance. Whereas the first modern studies of expertise were conducted in relatively formal knowledge domains such as chess, more recent investigations have explored elite performance in dynamic perceptual-motor activities such as sport. Unfortunately, although these studies have led to the identification of certain domain-free generalizations about expert-novice differences, they shed little light on an important issue: namely, experts’ metacognitive activities or their insights into, and regulation of, their own mental processes. In an effort to rectify this oversight, the present paper argues that metacognitive processes and inferences play an important if neglected role in expertise. In particular, we suggest that metacognition (including such processes as “meta-attention,” “meta-imagery” and “meta-memory,” as well as social aspects of this construct) provides a window on the genesis of expert performance. Following a critique of the standard empirical approach to expertise, we explore some research on “metacognition” and “metacognitive inference” among experts in sport. After that, we provide a brief evaluation of the relationship between psychological skills training and metacognition and comment on the measurement of metacognitive processes. Finally, we summarize our conclusions and outline some potentially new directions for research on metacognition in action.

Effects of kinesiological activity on preschool children's motor abilities

Introduction Physical activity and motor skills acquisition play a key role in childhood development especially during the preschool period [1] . Previous studies have confirmed the effect of kinesiological activity on the children's motor abilities [2] , [3] . The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of additional kinesiological treatment on motor abilities in preschool children. Methods An experimental treatment was carried out on a sample of 70 preschool boys (6.10 ± 1.24 years) by applying kinesiological activities. The 60-minute treatment was applied over a period of one school year (9 months), twice a week. The experimental treatment was saturated with many skills, balance and agility-based drills. Means of exercising to develop and improve co-ordination, timing, agility, balance, speed, flexibility, strength, endurance, cardiovascular recovery, speed of solving complex motor problems, etc.: perceptual-motor activities, creative movements, rhythms and dances, stunts, tumbling, and apparatus activities, running, jumping, throwing, games and basic elements of team sports. This variety of movement raises interest in preschool children for kinesiological activity. A control group of 41 boys (5.60 ± 0.54 years) were trained according to the regular program for preschool institutions. Treatment effects were assessed by 10 motor ability tests: Obstacle course backwards, Arm plate tapping, Seated straddle stretch, One-leg test, Crossed-arm sit-ups, Bent-arm hang, Standing broad jump, Speed of simple movements, Darts and 20-meter run. Results The significant differences between the groups were observed, demonstrating positive impact of kinesiological treatment on motor development. The most significant effect of experimental treatment was the improvement in explosive strength (Standing broad jump) and flexibility (Seated straddle stretch) of preschool boys. Conclusion These findings, obtained only in one school year, point to the importance of physical exercise and the application of additional kinesiological activities with various modalities, to improve motor development. The effects of the perennial application of kinesiology activities could be beneficial and could form the basis for a better biological and motor development in old age.

Assessing Handwriting Intervention Effectiveness in Elementary School Students: A Two-Group Controlled Study

This study examined the effectiveness of two approaches used in elementary schools to improve children's handwriting. Participants were 72 New York City public school students from the first and second grades. A nonequivalent pretest-posttest group design was used in which students engaged in handwriting activities using two approaches: intensive handwriting practice and visual-perceptual-motor activities. Handwriting speed, legibility, and visual-motor skills were examined after a 12-wk Handwriting Club using multivariate analysis of variance. The results showed that students in the intensive handwriting practice group demonstrated significant improvements in handwriting legibility compared with students in the visual-perceptual-motor activity group. No significant effects in handwriting speed and visual-motor skills were found between the students in intensive handwriting practice group and the students in visual-perceptual-motor activities group. The Handwriting Club model is a natural intervention that fits easily into existing school curriculums and can be an effective short-term intervention (response to intervention Tier II).

Walking down memory lane: Where walkers look as they descend stairs provides hints about how they control their walking behavior

Walking down stairs is a challenging perceptual-motor activity, as indicated by the large number of documented falls on stairs each year. The present study suggests that descending stairs is also a challenging memorial activity. A total of 147 people were videotaped as they descended a staircase. When the walkers were in the middle of the stairs, they looked down every third step on average, but as they neared the bottom, they looked down with high probability on or around the fourth step. The trigger for the last look down, by hypothesis, was disappearance of the stairs from the lower visual field. A model is proposed in which mid-stair walking is controlled primarily on the basis of visual guidance, whereas end-stair walking is controlled primarily on the basis of memory.

Soft constraints in interactive behavior: the case of ignoring perfect knowledge in-the-world for imperfect knowledge in-the-head

Constraints and dependencies among the elements of embodied cognition form patterns or microstrategies of interactive behavior. Hard constraints determine which microstrategies are possible. Soft constraints determine which of the possible microstrategies are most likely to be selected. When selection is non-deliberate or automatic the least effort microstrategy is chosen. In calculating the effort required to execute a microstrategy each of the three types of operations, memory retrieval, perception, and action, are given equal weight; that is, perceptual-motor activity does not have a privileged status with respect to memory. Soft constraints can work contrary to the designer’s intentions by making the access of perfect knowledge in-the-world more effortful than the access of imperfect knowledge in-the-head. These implications of soft constraints are tested in two experiments. In experiment 1 we varied the perceptual-motor effort of accessing knowledge in-the-world as well as the effort of retrieving items from memory. In experiment 2 we replicated one of the experiment 1 conditions to collect eye movement data. The results suggest that milliseconds matter. Soft constraints lead to a reliance on knowledge in-the-head even when the absolute difference in perceptual-motor versus memory retrieval effort is small, and even when relying on memory leads to a higher error rate and lower performance. We discuss the implications of soft constraints for routine interactive behavior, accounts of embodied cognition, and tool and interface design.

Motor memory is a factor in infant perseverative errors

Why do infants make perseverative errors when reaching for two identical targets? From a dynamic systems perspective, perseverative errors emerge from repetitive perceptual–motor activity in novel and/or difficult contexts. To evaluate this account, we studied 9‐month‐old infants performing two tasks in which they repetitively reached toward either a single target or two identical targets. Results showed that, in the context of the two identical targets, perseverative responses were preceded by the creation of strong memories of previous reach directions and trajectories. In contrast, we found little evidence for convergence on habitual reach trajectories when the infants performed the less taxing single‐target task, suggesting that the demands of reaching for two identical targets strongly constrained the reaching behavior. In total, results indicated that memories of prior movements make a critical contribution to performance in the A‐not‐B task and its variants.

Therapists' consistency in following their treatment plans for sensory integrative and perceptual-motor therapy.

Treatment integrity is concerned with whether treatment conditions as provided are consistent with specifications for the treatment. Therapists' consistency in following their treatment plans that called for the use of sensory integrative and perceptual-motor techniques was evaluated. Three occupational therapists were rated on their consistency in 46 sessions each of sensory integrative and perceptual-motor therapy. Ratings were made both earlier (1 month) and later (4 months) in treatment. Consistency was rated with a five-point scale for 10 categories of the treatment plans. Overall consistency did not differ significantly (86% for sensory integrative techniques and 79% for perceptual-motor techniques). Perceptual-motor activities showed less consistency early in treatment but approached the level for sensory integrative techniques by later treatment sessions. Consistency differed significantly among therapists for sensory integrative activities that addressed tactile defensiveness and perceptual-motor activities associated with fine coordination and dexterity. Despite the less structured, more child-centered nature of sensory integrative techniques, consistency in using these techniques was as high as that found for more scripted, program-centered, perceptual-motor techniques. Therapists reported that gaining the interest and attention of some children with the more structured perceptual-motor activities was more difficult early in treatment but could be achieved with time. Differences in consistency among therapists require verification with a larger sample.

Reading with magnifiers.

The design of low vision aids for partially sighted people, such as magnifiers, is evaluated theoretically in order to identify meaningful directions of research for improving these aids. Both reading with and without a magnifier involves alternating sequences of locating and recognizing textual information. Little is known, however, about these processes in magnifier reading. On the basis of an extensive review of the literature, two topics are identified that stand out as being in need of experimental investigation: (1) the relationship between the (typo)graphical characteristics of printed text and the location and recognition of textual information, and (2) the interplay of location and recognition processes in magnifier reading, including the role of non-visual factors, such as movements of the hand, trunk, head and eyes in this interplay. With regard to the first topic, it is expected that the visibility and, hence, the recognition of textual information by partially sighted people can be improved by matching the fundamental spatial frequencies of graphical structures with the spatial contrast sensitivity of partially sighted people. With regard to the second topic, it is argued that persistent problems in the design of the magnifiers, such as the optimal window size, can only be resolved by studying reading with a magnifier as a (multimodal) perceptual-motor activity.

Optical Flow, Spatial Orientation, and the Control of Posture in the Elderly

Stabliographic techniques were used to better understand the role of the visual system in the perceptual motor activity of older people as it relates to the maintenance of postural control. The central research question was to determine the sensitivity of the subject's visual system to changes in three standard conditions of optical flow generated by an experimental moving room. Any movement that was present as a function of this optical flow field was recorded on a force platform and expressed in movement of a computed center-of-pressure variable. Movement of the center of pressure was recorded in a baseline condition and in the experimental conditions, and the data were analyzed with respect to differences in the three conditions of optical flow and between both younger and older subjects. The older subject group exhibited less stability than the younger subjects in response to the baseline conditions; and, after adjusting for baseline movement, the center-of-pressure motions of younger and older subjects, in response to the experimental conditions, were compared. No reliable differences were present between younger and older subjects for the radial optical flow condition; in the lamellar flow condition, older subjects moved significantly more than younger subjects; and, in the combined condition (global), the movement of the older subjects was significantly greater than that of the younger subjects for all motion variables recorded. The results are interpreted and discussed both in terms of their implication for falling in the elderly and in the context of an ecological interpretation of the role of vision in maintaining postural stability while both stationary and in motion.

Behavioral observations of sensory substitution in neonate macaques (Macaca arctoides).

The ability of neonate macaque monkeys to learn to respond to artificial spatial sensory information was studied through the use of compact, head-worn, electronic spatial sonars with audible displays, which translate spatial information into auditory dimensions specifying distance, direction, and surface characteristics. Three animals were born in the dark and raised without vision for 1 to 3 months while wearing either the Binaural Sensory Aid (Animal 1; Kay, 1974) or the Trisensor (Animals 2 and 3; Easton & Jackson, 1983) airborne sonars. Each animal demonstrated alertness to information transmitted by the devices in spontaneous reaching or reinforced discrimination tasks, and more device-related, perceptual-motor activities were observed when the sensors were switched on than when they were switched off. The results show that neonate monkeys can learn effective use of information obtained from sensory substitution devices through unstructured interaction with the environment.

Some data concerning a sensorimotor versus semiotic processing in a form-recognition task.

This study investigated how sensorimotor activities interact with the geometric characteristics and the meaning of an object during development of writing. These changes were studied in 4- to 7-yr.-old girls. Analysis showed that visuo-spatial activities play a role in denomination and graphic activities, especially during critical periods of development. These activities have varying effects at different stages of development. The spatial factors studied here act differently in a verbal task (denomination) and in a perceptual-motor activity (graphic activity).

The Play of Sikh Children in a Nursery Class and at Home

Abstract Sikh children were observed in a multi‐ethnic nursery class. A time sampling method was used to record the numbers of children involved in different activities during free play. Staff involvement was also recorded. Sikh children were compared with indigenous white children and some significant differences were found between the results of the two groups. A number of Sikh parents replied to a questionnaire concerning their children's play interests at home. In the second part of the investigation six of the Sikh children were observed as individuals; their interaction, activity and location being recorded on a structured precoded observation schedule. Interaction between staff and children occupied only a small percentage of the time. Fine perceptual motor activity was the category in which the highest proportion of time was spent. The scoring of imaginative play presented some difficulties but few extended complex play bouts were observed. Parallel play was seen most frequently.

The use of media in a diagnostic prescriptive model for educating deaf multi-handicapped students.

The author discusses the use of media in a diagnostic-prescriptive model for educating deaf multi-handicapped students at the Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind. The use of Project Life as a remediation program and the use of the overhead projector in the areas of visual perception and perceptual motor activities are specifically discussed.