Perceptual-motor Skills Research Articles

Assessment of lexical semantic judgment abilities in alcohol-dependent subjects: An fMRI study

Neuropsychological studies have shown that alcohol dependence is associated with neurocognitive deficits in tasks requiring memory, perceptual motor skills, abstraction and problem solving, whereas language skills are relatively spared in alcoholics despite structural abnormalities in the language-related brain regions. To investigate the preserved mechanisms of language processing in alcohol-dependents, functional brain imaging was undertaken in healthy controls (n=18) and alcohol-dependents (n=16) while completing a lexical semantic judgment task in a 3 T MR scanner. Behavioural data indicated that alcohol-dependents took more time than controls for performing the task but there was no significant difference in their response accuracy. fMRI data analysis revealed that while performing the task, the alcoholics showed enhanced activations in left supramarginal gyrus, precuneus bilaterally, left angular gyrus, and left middle temporal gyrus as compared to control subjects. The extensive activations observed in alcoholics as compared to controls suggest that alcoholics recruit additional brain areas to meet the behavioural demands for equivalent task performance. The results are consistent with previous fMRI studies suggesting compensatory mechanisms for the execution of task for showing an equivalent performance or decreased neural efficiency of relevant brain networks. However, on direct comparison of the two groups, the results did not survive correction for multiple comparisons; therefore, the present findings need further exploration.

Writing to dictation and handwriting performance among Chinese children with dyslexia: Relationships with orthographic knowledge and perceptual-motor skills

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships between writing to dictation, handwriting, orthographic, and perceptual-motor skills among Chinese children with dyslexia. A cross-sectional design was used. A total of 45 third graders with dyslexia were assessed. Results of stepwise multiple regression models showed that Chinese character naming was the only predictor associated with word dictation (β=.32); handwriting speed was related to deficits in rapid automatic naming (β=-.36) and saccadic efficiency (β=-.29), and visual-motor integration predicted both of the number of characters exceeded grid (β=-.41) and variability of character size (β=-.38). The findings provided support to a multi-stage working memory model of writing for explaining the possible underlying mechanism of writing to dictation and handwriting difficulties.

Development of a Weighted Heuristic for Website Evaluation for Older Adults

Older adults are the fastest growing population of Internet users. As websites acquire a greater number of older visitors, it is vital that they are designed with this demographic in mind. Older users typically have different user characteristics than younger users; they may have changes in perceptual abilities, motor skills, cognitive abilities, mental models, and confidence in the use of technology. This research documents the development of a new weighted heuristic measure for evaluating the usability of websites for older adults and its validation with performance testing. Results from a repeated measures analysis of variance indicated that websites with different heuristic classifications were significantly different with respect to performance metrics and System Usability Scale ratings. Conclusions point to the need for web design that takes into account preferences and abilities of older web users.

A Practical Testing Battery to Measure Neurobehavioral Ability among Children with FASD.

To determine a brief, practical battery of tests that discriminate between children with a fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) and unexposed controls. Children received dysmorphology exams, a targeted battery of cognitive and behavioral tests, and their mothers were interviewed about maternal risk factors. Children diagnosed with an FASD and children unexposed to alcohol prenatally were compared on cognitive/behavioral test results. A community in The Western Cape Province of South Africa. Sixty-one, first grade children with FASD and 52 matched normal controls. Statistical analyses of maternal drinking behavior and their child's test performance. Self-reported maternal drinking patterns before during and after pregnancy were used to confirm prenatal exposures to alcohol in the group of children diagnosed with FASD. With this sample of children diagnosed with FASD and completely unexposed controls, the adverse effects of maternal drinking on children's performance are reported. Results of the battery of standardized cognitive and behavioral tests indicate highly significant differences (p ≤ .001) between groups on: intelligence, perceptual motor, planning, and logical, spatial, short term, long term, and working memory abilities. Furthermore, a binary logistical regression model of only 3 specific cognitive and behavioral tests, including Digit Span A+B (Wald = 4.10), Absurd Situation (Wald = 3.57), and Word Association (Wald = 4.30) correctly classified 79.1% of the child participants as FASD or controls. A brief, practical set of tests can discriminate children with and without FASD and provide useful information for interventions for affected children.

Relationships between academic performance, SES school type and perceptual‐motor skills in first grade South African learners: NW‐CHILD study

Perceptual-motor skills contribute to a variety of basic learning skills associated with normal academic success. This study aimed to determine the relationship between academic performance and perceptual-motor skills in first grade South African learners and whether low SES (socio-economic status) school type plays a role in such a relationship. This cross-sectional study of the baseline measurements of the NW-CHILD longitudinal study included a stratified random sample of first grade learners (n = 812; 418 boys and 394 boys), with a mean age of 6.78 years ± 0.49 living in the North West Province (NW) of South Africa. The Beery-Buktenica Developmental Test of Visual-Motor Integration-4 (VMI) was used to assess visual-motor integration, visual perception and hand control while the Bruininks Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency, short form (BOT2-SF) assessed overall motor proficiency. Academic performance in math, reading and writing was assessed with the Mastery of Basic Learning Areas Questionnaire. Linear mixed models analysis was performed with spss to determine possible differences between the different VMI and BOT2-SF standard scores in different math, reading and writing mastery categories ranging from no mastery to outstanding mastery. A multinomial multilevel logistic regression analysis was performed to assess the relationship between a clustered score of academic performance and the different determinants. A strong relationship was established between academic performance and VMI, visual perception, hand control and motor proficiency with a significant relationship between a clustered academic performance score, visual-motor integration and visual perception. A negative association was established between low SES school types on academic performance, with a common perceptual motor foundation shared by all basic learning areas. Visual-motor integration, visual perception, hand control and motor proficiency are closely related to basic academic skills required in the first formal school year, especially among learners in low SES type schools.

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.

Cross-cultural comparison of driving skills among students in four different countries

The first aim of the present study was to increase our knowledge of cultural differences in self-reported perceptual-motor skills and safety skills. The second aim was to examine the relationship between self-reported perceptual-motor skills, safety skills and accident involvement in four different countries. A sample of Finnish (N=200), Swedish (N=200), Greek (N=200) and Turkish (N=200) drivers completed a questionnaire based on the driver skill inventory (DSI) and reported their accident involvement during the previous 3years. The results showed that Greek and Turkish drivers reported higher yearly accident involvement than did Swedish and Finnish drivers. Greek, Turkish and Swedish drivers reported stronger perceptual-motor skills than did Finnish drivers; while Greek, Turkish and Finnish drivers reported stronger safety skills than did Swedish drivers. This suggests that the country differences in self-reported perceptual-motor skills and safety skills do not reflect the differences in accident statistics on a country level. Moreover, self-reported safety skills were negatively related to self-reported yearly accident involvement in all four countries taken together as well as in Greece and Turkey taken separately. This suggests that differences in drivers’ accident involvement are associated with their self-reported safety skills.

An investigation of professional drivers: Organizational safety climate, driver behaviours and performance

The aim of this study was to investigate the relationships among organizational safety climate, driver behaviours and performance for a total of 223 male Turkish professional drivers. The participants were asked to fill out the extended Driver Behaviour Questionnaire (i.e. errors, violations and positive behaviours), Driver Skills Inventory (i.e. safety skills and perceptual-motor skills), Transportation Companies' Climate Scale, which is newly and specially designed for the professional drivers for the first time, and a background information form. Results of the factor analyses conducted for Transportation Companies' Climate Scale yielded three factors, which were named as general safety management, specific practices and precautions and work and time pressure. After controlling for the effects of age and annual mileage, the results of hierarchical regression analyses revealed significant relationships between work and time pressure and frequencies of violations and errors. Hierarchical regression analyses also showed that general safety management was related to safety skills of professional drivers. Transportation companies' safety climate was not found to be related to positive driver behaviours or perceptual-motor skills. The results have both theoretical and practical implications by providing additional and new data to the related literature to be used for the future research and providing directions to the organizations in arrangement of safer work settings, respectively.

Relationships between perceptual-motor skills and postural balance in nine years old boys

The aim of this study is to investigate relationship between static-dynamic balance performance and two-hand coordination, reaction time, anthropometric measurements and leg strength. Fifty voluntary male children (age: 9.29 ± 1.11 years, height: 138.86 ± 7.86 cm, weight: 35.20 ± 9.2 kg) who did not exercise regularly were included into the study. The correlation Static Balance (SB) and dynamic balance (DB), with leg strength (LG), vertical jump (VJ), reaction time (RT), two-arm coordination and anthropometric measurements were investigated. As a result, although, no correlation was found between balance parameters and reaction time (p>0.05), higher correlation was found between balance parameters and two-hand coordination, strength and some anthropometric parameters (p<0.05) in nine-year old male children. Furthermore, it is suggested that in order to develop static and dynamic balance in children, sport education programs should not only include the gross-motor coordination skills, but also include manipulative and fine motor coordination skills. These findings may be useful for trainer and physical education teachers while preparing sport education programs. Key words: Postural control, children, muscle strength, coordination, anthropometry

Grounding early intervention: physical therapy cannot just be about motor skills anymore.

This perspective article provides support for 4 interrelated tenets: grounded perceptual-motor experience within cultural and social contexts forms cognition; exploration through early behaviors, such as object interaction, sitting, and locomotion, broadly facilitates development; infants and children with limited exploration are at risk for global developmental impairments; and early interventions targeting exploratory behaviors may be feasible and effective at advancing a range of abilities across developmental domains and time. These tenets emphasize that through the promotion of early perceptual-motor behaviors, broader, more global developmental advancements can be facilitated and future delays can be minimized across domains for infants and children with special needs. Researchers, educators, and clinicians should build on these tenets to further demonstrate the effectiveness of targeted early interventions. The goals of these interventions should be not only to advance targeted perceptual-motor skills in the moment but also to more broadly advance future abilities and meet the early intervention goal of maximizing children's learning potential.

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.

Links between Motor Skills and Indicators of School Readiness at Kindergarten Entry in Urban Disadvantaged Children

School readiness represents a kindergarten characteristic which ultimately contributes to academic and personal success. This literature has traditionally focused on cognitive and behavioral characteristics. However, clinicians underscore the critical importance of motor skills to kindergarten preparedness. This study, using data from the Montreal Longitudinal Preschool Study, examines concurrent links between motor skills and other indicators of school readiness in typically developing children attending regular kindergarten classrooms in disadvantaged environments. Participants include a sample of 522 children from the Montreal Longitudinal Preschool Study with individual assessments of receptive vocabulary and number knowledge and teacher ratings of gross, fine, and perceptual-motor skills and classroom behaviors. The link between motor skills and early math skills completely explained any influence attributed to verbal skills. Developing a better understanding of how the distinct key elements of school readiness relate to each other will help teachers devise more comprehensive strategies in helping children become prepared for the first grade transition, especially in urban, disadvantaged settings.

The experience of force: The role of haptic experience of forces in visual perception of object motion and interactions, mental simulation, and motion-related judgments.

Forces are experienced in actions on objects. The mechanoreceptor system is stimulated by proximal forces in interactions with objects, and experiences of force occur in a context of information yielded by other sensory modalities, principally vision. These experiences are registered and stored as episodic traces in the brain. These stored representations are involved in generating visual impressions of forces and causality in object motion and interactions. Kinematic information provided by vision is matched to kinematic features of stored representations, and the information about forces and causality in those representations then forms part of the perceptual interpretation. I apply this account to the perception of interactions between objects and to motions of objects that do not have perceived external causes, in which motion tends to be perceptually interpreted as biological or internally caused. I also apply it to internal simulations of events involving mental imagery, such as mental rotation, trajectory extrapolation and judgment, visual memory for the location of moving objects, and the learning of perceptual judgments and motor skills. Simulations support more accurate judgments when they represent the underlying dynamics of the event simulated. Mechanoreception gives us whatever limited ability we have to perceive interactions and object motions in terms of forces and resistances; it supports our practical interventions on objects by enabling us to generate simulations that are guided by inferences about forces and resistances, and it helps us learn novel, visually based judgments about object behavior.

Computer-Simulated Display to Advance the Understanding of Perceptual Motor Skills

Purpose: To review past attempts, current innovations, and future goals of robotic eye surgery. Methods: A Medline literature search using the words “robot” and “ophthalmology” was performed to identify all relevant literature. Pertinent articles were reviewed and content summarized based on context. Results: Purported potential benefits of robotic-assisted eye surgery include improved precision, reduced tremor, amplified scale of motion, and the potential of automation and telesurgical operation. Several investigators have created devices capable of performing individual intraocular tasks, and efforts are underway to develop platforms designed to allow completion of entire ophthalmic procedures. Conclusion: Although obstacles such as cost and availability exist, prior successes and future benefits of robotic eye surgery are promising reasons for the continuation of research efforts.

Neurophysiological and Dynamical Control Principles Underlying Variable and Stereotyped Movement Patterns During Motor Skill Acquisition

While novices who are unfamiliar to a new motor skill typically show variable and unstable movements, highly skilled experts show a stable and accurate performance. These distinct differences in motor control between experts and novices have led researchers to hypothesize that neuromotor noise is reduced in the process of motor skill acquisition. On the other hand, it should be noted that novices’ movements have other characteristics; they are habituated and stereotyped. In this review, we discuss the principles governing spatiotemporal organization of movements in novices and experts while solving specific motor problems under varied conditions, by introducing experimental and theoretical studies that use neurophysiological techniques such as electromyography, functional magnetic resonance imaging, and transcranial magnetic stimulation, and mathematical models such as stochastic and dynamical models. On the basis of the findings from a variety of perceptual-motor skills (e.g., ballthrowing, badminton smash, long-distance running, piano and drum performance, street dance, a popular hand game of rock-paper-scissors, and temporal order judgement task), we argue that the novices’ characteristic movement patterns were organized under specific constraints and typical strategy, without which the variability would increase even more, while experts’ movements were organized with functional and compensatory variability that can drive out erroneous noise variability. We also showed that in a particular type of interlimb coordination, skilled and unskilled movement patterns could be seamlessly described as the time evolution of nonlinear and self-organized dynamical systems, suggesting that the dynamical systems approach is a major candidate for understanding the principle underlying organization of experts’ and novices’ movements.

Measuring and adapting behavior during product interaction to influence affect

Sometimes, the way in which we interact with products implicitly communicates how we feel. Based on previous studies on how emotions can be detected and communicated via product interaction, we discuss how an interactive product could influence affect by responding and changing behaviors expressing affect. We discuss the proposal of the affective feedback loop in product interaction by its implementation in the prototype of a pen that senses two implicit behaviors related to restlessness, rock and roll. Furthermore, the pen provides inherent feedback, focusing on the perceptual motor skills, as a means to reflect on these behaviors. The pen was evaluated in an experiment, by which we explored whether this type of feedback would influence the emotional experience. Two participant groups were compared, and participants that used the pen with feedback showed a lower heart rate throughout the whole experiment. Because these participants were not aware that the pen provided any feedback, we propose the concept of unaware interaction and discuss what its implications are for design.

The Effect of the Flotation Version of Restricted Environmental Stimulation Technique (REST) on Jazz Improvisation

The flotation version of restricted environmental stimulation technique (REST) has been shown to improve perceptual-motor skills in sports and creativity in the sciences. We examined whether these effects would extend to jazz improvisation—an activity involving perceptual-motor coordination and creativity. College students enrolled in an intermediate-level jazz improvisation class (N 1⁄4 8) floated for one hour per week for 4 consecutive weeks. The comparison group (N 1⁄4 5) consisted of student volunteers enrolled in the same class who did not engage in flotation. The dependent variables were (a) blind ratings of improvised pieces collected before and after treatment, (b) instructors’ ratings of perceived change in improvisational ability, and (c) final class grades. Both blind and perceived change measures demonstrated higher scores on technical ability in the flotation group. The flotation group also had higher final class grades. The results suggest that flotation REST can improve perceptual-motor skills in jazz improvisation.

Performance of Skilled Typists as a Function of Pacing, Response Complexity and Urgency in Numerical Hear-and-type Tasks

Performance of skilled typists in numerical hear-and-type tasks, i.e. making immediate keypresses in response to verbally presented numbers, has practical and theoretical importance because it help understand perceptual-motor skills and error mechanisms. Effects of speech rates (500ms vs. 1000ms interval), urgency (elicited by monetary rewards) and finger strategies (single vs. multi-finger typing) on typing speed and accuracy were investigated. Fast speech rate and multi-finger typing degraded both typing speed and accuracy, while urgency improved typing speed at the expense of decreasing accuracy. Errors were almost doubled under urgent condition while urgency effect on speed was similar to that of speech rate. The results implied that common beliefs of fast speech and multi-finger typing being incentive to typing performance might not be true, and internalized urgency could play a more important role in error-making than external task demands.

The Effect of the Flotation Version of Restricted Environmental Stimulation Technique (REST) on Jazz Improvisation

The flotation version of restricted environmental stimulation technique (REST) has been shown to improve perceptual-motor skills in sports and creativity in the sciences. We examined whether these effects would extend to jazz improvisation—an activity involving perceptual-motor coordination and creativity. College students enrolled in an intermediate-level jazz improvisation class (N 1⁄4 8) floated for one hour per week for 4 consecutive weeks. The comparison group (N 1⁄4 5) consisted of student volunteers enrolled in the same class who did not engage in flotation. The dependent variables were (a) blind ratings of improvised pieces collected before and after treatment, (b) instructors’ ratings of perceived change in improvisational ability, and (c) final class grades. Both blind and perceived change measures demonstrated higher scores on technical ability in the flotation group. The flotation group also had higher final class grades. The results suggest that flotation REST can improve perceptual-motor skills in jazz improvisation.

Designing training programs for perceptual-motor skills: Practical implications from the serial reaction time task

Within various contexts, such as sports and the military, training programs are being designed to effectively and efficiently guide perceptual-motor skill acquisition. Even though this notion is often underestimated, the design of such training programs may greatly benefit from findings and theories from basic cognitive psychology. One particular basic paradigm that addresses this issue is the serial reaction time task. In the current article, we take on the challenge to review this paradigm from an applied point of view. We highlight a range of themes that have been explored with this paradigm that could have a direct relevance for the process of optimizing training procedures for perceptual-motor skill acquisition.