Perceptual-motor Processes Research Articles

Implicit motor-sequence learning in humans following unilateral stroke: the impact of practice and explicit knowledge

Learning and memory are sub-served by two interrelated systems – explicit and implicit. Explicit memory involves facts, while one form of implicit memory involves perceptual-motor processes. The purpose of this series of experiments was to investigate the ability of individuals with stroke-related brain damage to demonstrate implicit motor-sequence learning and the relative impacts of (1) extended practice, or (2) explicit knowledge prior to practice. Implicit learning was severely impaired without explicit knowledge and even under conditions of extended practice. However, when explicit knowledge was provided prior to practice, participants with stroke demonstrated implicit motor-sequence learning. These data suggest that following unilateral stroke, providing explicit information about the task and sequence can attenuate implicit motor learning deficits.

Eye Movements and Eye-Hand Coordination During Typing

Typing from text (copytyping) is part of a family of complex skills that require the coordination of vi sual encoding and manual perfor mance. What distinguishes typing from other eye-hand coordination tasks is its complexity and the con tinuous nature of the performance. The perceptual task requires the encoding of linguistic symbols, and manual performance involves all fingers of both hands, which must execute spatially calibrated and precisely timed (ordered) move ments over extended periods. De velopment of the skill requires con siderable amounts of practice, and performance continues to im prove over months?and often years?of practice. Despite the complexities of copytyping, the perceptual-motor processes in volved are relatively amenable to study, as perception and manual movements are confined to small and well-defined spaces, a to-be typed segment of text and a key board, respectively. Furthermore, perceptual processes can be di rectly related to manual move ments, as the encoding of a particu lar letter, word, or word sequence is followed by manual movements to corresponding keys. The vast majority of typing studies have examined manual movements (for reviews, see Soech ting, Gordon, & Engel, 1996; Vivi ani & Terzuolo, 1983). Results from these studies converge, showing that typists plan sequences of manual movements at several lev els, ranging from lexical units (words) to individual key presses (e.g., Gentner, Larochelle, & Gru din, 1988; Gordon, Casabona, & Soechting, 1994; Inhoff, 1991; Shaf fer, 1973; Sternberg, Monsell, Knoll, & Wright, 1978; Viviani & Laissard, 1996; Viviani & Terzuolo, 1983); that execution of planned movements is a function of the bio

Mnemonic search, but not arithmetic transformation, is associated with psychophysiological inhibition.

The possibility that mnemonic search and arithmetic transformation induce transient heart rate (HR) slowing was studied. Transient HR slowing was assumed to result from the inhibition of premature responding during information processing. Twenty young men performed a 2-step reaction time task. Two precues were followed by a choice cue: 2 additional precues and 1 final choice cue. Choice cues were varied to compare spatial and perceptual-motor processing with mnemonic or arithmetic processing. Cardiac interbeat interval and impedance cardiograph measures were taken beat by beat. The preparation for the respond cue was associated with HR slowing followed by HR speeding associated with response initiation. Mnemonic search induced a transient HR slowing before the speeding initiated by the motor response. Arithmetic transformation did not, but processing of the arithmetic series decreased cue-induced transient HR slowing. Mnemonic search may be associated with a psychophysiological inhibition analagous to that observed in perceptual-motor tasks during response selection.

EFFECTS OF IN UTERO EXPOSURE TO COCAINE AND/OR OPIATES ON INFANTS' REACHING BEHAVIOR. † 95

Sensorimotor activity is important to the processes by which infants acquire knowledge from the environment. In this study, infants' reaching behavior to moving objects in the light and dark was used to evaluate 4 components of perceptual-motor processing: attention/motivation (number of reaches); speed of processing (time to achieve contact); auditory localization(number of misses); object recognition (number of closed grasps on first contact). Subjects included 18 term infants (7.5 to 8.5 months); 8 exposed to cocaine and/or opiates in utero (EXP) and 10 nonexposed (NONEXP). Sixteen trials were presented to the infants in which 4 objects emitting sounds moved clockwise into the infant's reaching space in the light and dark. The session was videotaped using infrared sensitive cameras for later coding of reaching activity by research assistants masked to the exposure status of the infants. Compared to the light condition, both groups reached and contacted the object less often, missed more often, and took longer to contact the object in the dark (P<.01 in all cases), reflecting the difficulty of the task when only auditory cues were available to elicit and guide reaching. In both the light and dark, object contacts made with a closed grasp were significantly faster than those involving open-handed touches(P<.05). While both groups reached for the object equally often in the light, EXP infants reached less than NONEXP infants in the dark(P<.05). When a reach was made, however, both groups missed the object equally often in the light and dark. While the time to contact the object was similar in both groups in the light, EXP infants were significantly slower to make contact with the object in the dark compared to NONEXP infants(P<.05). Both groups used a closed grasp equally often in the light, however EXP infants were more likely to use a closed grasp in the dark(P<.05). In sum, the reaching behavior of EXP infants did not differ from NONEXP infants when the task was relatively easy, but EXP infants showed less engagement in sensorimotor activity when the task was more demanding. Given that EXP infants localized objects as well as NONEXP infants when they tried, the decrement in reaching behavior may reflect attentional or motivational deficits that could affect the cognitive development of EXP infants.

Perceptual and perceptual-motor fluency as a basis for affective judgements: Individual differences in motor memory activation

Abstract The current study investigated the repetition-liking effect as a function of variations in perceptual-motor processing and individual differences in use of perceptual-motor information. Turkish words from earlier repetition-liking research were used in comparing: (1) perceptual (looking) versus perceptual-motor (looking and pronouncing) processing; and (2) perceptual-motor fluency versus disfluency (pronouncing words in a consistent versus an inconsistent manner). Subjects were divided into groups based on an assessment of imagery ability, a variable associated with the tendency to reactivate motor information in memory. Words were liked more after fluent than after disfluent processing, but only in people with good imagery ability. Perceptual-motor fluency had no effect on the repetition-liking effect in poor imagers. It was concluded that perceptual-motor fluency has an important impact on liking judgements, and that this effect is mediated by individual differences in the tendency to automatic...

Techniques for Enhancing Communication Productivity in AAC

This paper summarizes selected findings on approaches to increasing the rate of communicatively appropriate responses in augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). Six approaches—efficient keyboard layouts, reduced keys keyboards, Minspeak with Words Strategy, enlarged keys keyboards, abbreviation expansion, and lexical prediction—are reviewed and rated, using seven criteria—learning needs, cognitive-linguistic processing requirements, perceptual-motor processing requirements, vocabulary size covered, rate increase potential, effort reduction potential, and availability. For literate AAC users, the alternative keyboard layouts described in this paper offer a simple and cost-effective technique that rate highly on all seven criteria. The other approaches to productivity enhancement in AAC have both significant advantages and drawbacks that must be weighed for each individual AAC consumer.

Implications of Hemispheric Function for the Effective Teaching of Motor Skills

To optimize the skill learning environment, a clear understanding of the brain's processing abilities and inabilities would seem critical. Present pedagogical literature that examines how to optimize brain functioning is scarce. However, neuropsychological research has examined hemispheric function for many years and has recently revealed important perceptual-motor processing advantages in the left and right hemispheres of the brain. This research has also consistently highlighted motor performance problems that may be predictable given an understanding of hemispheric specialization. This review therefore examines both the hemispheric specialization and motor performance literature in search of methodology to optimize hemispheric functioning in motor skill performance and learning. Applied research examining hemispheric function has so far focused on a simple verbal–nonverbal notion of hemispheric function. The limitations of this notion and the potential problems of biased teaching methodologies associat...

Spatial and temporal characteristics of rapid cursor-positioning movements with electromechanical mice in human-computer interaction.

This research examines how people make movements with pointing devices during human-computer interaction. It specifically concerns the perceptual-motor processes that mediate the speed and accuracy of cursor positioning with electromechanical mice. In three experiments we investigated the spatial and temporal characteristics of positioning movements made with a mouse, analyzing subjects' speed and accuracy as a function of the types of targets that the movements had to reach. Experiment 1 required rapid and accurate horizontal movements to targets that were vertical ribbons located at various distances from the mouse's starting location. The targets for Experiments 2 and 3, respectively, were vertical lines having various heights and rectangular boxes having various heights and widths. Constraints on movement distance along the primary (that is, horizontal) line of motion had the greatest effects on total positioning times. However, constraints on movement distance along a secondary (vertical) line of motion also affected total positioning times significantly. These effects may be localized in different phases of movements (e.g., movement execution and verification). The duration of movement execution (i.e., physical motion) depends primarily on the target distance, whereas the duration of movement verification (i.e., check for endpoint accuracy) depends primarily on target height and width. A useful account of movement execution is provided by stochastic optimized-submovement models, which have significant implications for designing mice and menu-driven displays.

Timing Responses of Children with Spina Bifida Having Varying Ambulatory Abilities

The authors investigated the timing responses of upper extremities to light and sound stimuli of 24 ambulatory, household-only ambulatory, and nonambulatory children with spina bifida. Using a Lafayette reaction and movement timer, each subject performed four timing tasks: (a) simple reaction time, (b) choice reaction time, (c) simple movement time, and (d) choice movement time. A 2 x 3 x 4 analysis of variance with repeated measures indicated that the ambulatory spina bifida children performed all timing tasks faster and more accurately than the household-only ambulatory and nonambulatory children. In addition, the household-only ambulatory group performed the timing tasks faster and more accurately than the nonambulatory group. Therefore, different perceptual-motor processing abilities are inferred for children with spina bifida who ambulate with different ability. For maximum benefit, an individualized educational approach should be used to improve psychomotor abilities of spina bifida children who have differing levels of ambulation.

Bender-Gestalt Developmental Scores: Predicting Reading and Mathematics Achievement

This study examined the relative importance of perceptual-motor processes and intelligence in predicting reading and mathematics achievement of children of low birthweight. Subjects were two groups of 153 children, ages 6 to 12 years, of either low (3 lb. or below, n = 72) or normal birthweight (n = 81) who participated in a comparative study on sequelae of children of low birthweight. To examine the utility of the Bender-Gestalt test in predicting academic achievement, Bender developmental scores, WRAT reading and mathematics scores, and WISC-R Full Scale IQs from both groups were compared and then intercorrelated separately. The mean comparisons indicated that children of low birthweight scored significantly lower on both Bender scores and reading achievement and had lower IQs than those of normal birthweight. Bender scores also appeared to have more utility for predicting reading and mathematics achievement for children of low birthweight than for those of normal birthweight.

Comparative Effects of 19 Stressors on Task Performance: Major Results of the Operator Survey

A survey was conducted to determine the opinions of sonar operators concerning the prevalence and judged impact of 19 stressors on various aspects of task performance: vigilance, visual information processing, auditory information processing, reasoning/decision making, perceptual-motor processes, general motivation to perform well, and overall performance effectiveness. The average rank ordering of the stressors by 212 Royal Navy operators with respect to adverse impact on overall effectiveness was as follows (worst listed first) boredom, fatigue, poor display/controls, command pressure, operator overload, poor work station, night watchstanding, heat, noise, lighting problems, minor illness, cold, motion, vibration, motion sickness, air contamination, risky peacetime operations, air pressure, wartime danger. There were differential responses among various subgroups of the operators. Some of the more important details are discussed in this paper.

Perceptual-motor processing of phonetic features in speech.

Some reaction time experiments are reported on the relation between the perception and production of phonetic features in speech. Subjects had to produce spoken consonant-vowel syllables rapidly in response to other consonant-vowel stimulus syllables. The stimulus syllables were presented auditorily in one condition and visually in another. Reaction time was measured as a function of the phonetic features shared by the consonants of the stimulus and response syllables. Responses to auditory stimulus syllables were faster when the response syllables started with consonants that had the same voicing feature as those of the stimulus syllables. A shared place-of-articulation feature did not affect the speed of responses to auditory stimulus syllables, even though the place feature was highly salient. For visual stimulus syllables, performance was independent of whether the consonants of the response syllables had the same voicing, same place of articulation, or no shared features. This pattern of results occurred in cases where the syllables contained stop consonants and where they contained fricatives. It held for natural auditory stimuli as well as artificially synthesized ones. The overall data reveal a close relation between the perception and production of voicing features in speech. It does not appear that such a relation exists between perceiving and producing places of articulation. The experiments are relevant to the motor theory of speech perception and to other models of perceptual-motor interactions.

Perceptual-motor processing of phonetic features in speech.

Some reaction time experiments are reported on the relation between the perception and production of phonetic features in speech. Subjects had to produce spoken consonant-vowel syllables rapidly in response to other consonant-vowel stimulus syllables. The stimulus syllables were presented auditorily in one condition and visually in another. Reaction time was measured as a function of the phonetic features shared by the consonants of the stimulus and response syllables. Responses to auditory stimulus syllables were faster when the response syllables started with consonants that had the same voicing feature as those of the stimulus syllables. A shared place-of-articulation feature did not affect the speed of responses to auditory stimulus syllables, even though the place feature was highly salient. For visual stimulus syllables, performance was independent of whether the consonants of the response syllables had the same voicing, same place of articulation, or no shared features. This pattern of results occurred in cases where the syllables contained stop consonants and where they contained fricatives. It held for natural auditory stimuli as well as artificially synthesized ones. The overall data reveal a close relation between the perception and production of voicing features in speech. It does not appear that such a relation exists between perceiving and producing places of articulation. The experiments are relevant to the motor theory of speech perception and to other models of perceptual-motor interactions.

Perception and Perceptual-Motor Processes in Children with Down's Syndrome

Some controversy exists regarding visual discrimination of form and its execution. The hypothesis that an inability to reproduce a display is not necessarily an indication that the display has been...

The process of habituation to treadmill walking: a kinematic analysis.

Initial work toward a more definitive kinematic analysis of perceptual-motor processes involved initially in accommodation of naive subjects to treadmill walking is described. The kinematic cyclograph technique holds promise of achieving this.

Ayres, Sensory Integration and Learning Disorders: A Question of Theory and Practice

SynopsisBefore new remedial education techniques are widely tried with learning disabled children, the theories on which they are based should be verified by careful research. Many recently developed theories in Special Education have not yet been confirmed by research, but techniques derived from them are being used in teaching children with learning problems. To date, research has not confirmed theories concerned with perceptual-motor processes and there is no clear evidence that their training methods work. Doubts are expressed about the increasing use of sensory integration training for treatment of children with learning problems, in Australia, when alternate, proven methods are available to help these children.

PROCESSING OF PHONOLOGICAL SEQUENCES BY YOUNG CHILDREN AND ADULTS

MOREHEAD, DONALD M. Processing of Phonological Sequences by Young Children and Adults. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1971, 42, 279-289. Inputoutput correspondences were observed in 3 groups of young children and adults while imitating phoneme sequences that systematically violate the sequencing rules of English. The 3 younger groups produced more phonetic and semantic interpretations of the phoneme sequences than did the adults. All 4 age groups consistently followed the rules of English when changes were made in the original phoneme sequence. As a result, few inadmissible changes occurred. The basic findings indicated that children were guided by the similar linguistic constraints as adults but were more flexible in processing new or odd phoneme sequences. Also, the children tended to filter linguistic input through their own internalized linguistic systems, while the adults relied more on perceptual-motor processing. It was concluded that children seek form and meaning within the constraints imposed by the language more actively than do adults when imitating phoneme sequences that violate the sequencing rules of English.

Relationships Between Perceptual and Conceptual Cognitive Processes

Many theorists, psychologists and specialists in education currently assume that mastery of perceptual-motor processes is necessary prior to acquisition of higher cognitive processes and, hence, to scholastic achievement. An experimental design allowing variation in perceptual-motor functioning and scholastic ability tested this assumption. Contrary to the tested assumption some subjects perform well in school despite perceptual-motor deficiencies. In addition, it is scholastic achievement rather than perceptual-motor achievement (assumed to be crucial to learning) which discriminated between our groups in terms of their reliance on perceptual-motor or conceptual means on specially designed learning tasks.

Rate and force of guidance in perceptual-motor tasks with reversed or random spatial correspondence.

Using a serial tracking task with reversed relationship, between stimulus lights and control lever, comparison was made of the effects of four combinations of guided training. These consisted of complete response-forcing, or of partial response-forcing (hinting), both of which were administered at faster and slower tracking rates. The speed of movements made during training had a marked effect on transfer to normal practice, although only the first trial was affected by the degree of forcing. In a second experiment, with zero correlation between the lever and light positions, the hinting technique appeared more effective than complete response-forcing. Both guidance methods produced more learning than an equivalent amount of normal practice. These and earlier results lead to the generalization that guidance becomes more effective as the complexity of perceptual-motor translation processes is increased.