Task Components Research Articles

The Effect of Anonymity on Quality of Resident Feedback

Quality feedback is critical to facilitate better performance and quicker learning. However, faculty may be hesitant to provide quality constructive feedback, especially in written form, due to fear of retaliation. We evaluated the impact of faculty anonymity on the quality of faculty-to-resident feedback. A retrospective review was undertaken of faculty evaluation of resident performance from 2017 to 2018, when evaluations were identifiable, compared to 2018-2019, when evaluations were anonymous. Evaluations included 27 individual items with Likert type scoring and 2 open-ended questions. Open-ended responses and overall performance were de-identified and scored by 2 reviewers independently using the task, performance gap, action scoring model. Comparisons between groups were performed with the Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney test. Tertiary Care Institution, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI PARTICIPANTS: 415 resident performance evaluations were available for analysis with 251 in the identifiable group and 164 in the anonymous group. The average composite score for the identifiable group was 105.2 and 103.4 in the anonymous group (p = 0.22). The effect size of the impact on composite score was small (Cohen's d 0.084, 95% CI -0.11-0.28). There was excellent inter-rater reliability. There were no differences between feedback groups for any of the 3 components of task, performance gap, and action model. While average scores for all 3 components were low, action scores were lowest. Anonymity did not significantly impact faculty evaluations of resident performance. The quality of open-ended feedback on written evaluations was generally poor, especially in identifying actions for continued performance improvement. Additional mechanisms to improve feedback quality should be sought.

Motor Training After Stroke: A Novel Approach for Driving Rehabilitation.

BackgroundA key component of safe driving is a well-timed braking performance. Stroke-related decline in motor and cognitive processes slows braking response and puts individuals with stroke at a higher risk for car crashes. Although the impact of cognitive training on driving has been extensively investigated, the influence of motor interventions and their effectiveness in enhancing specific driving-related skills after stroke remains less understood. We compare the effectiveness of two motor interventions (force-control vs. strength training) to facilitate braking, an essential skill for safe driving.MethodsTwenty-two stroke survivors were randomized to force-control training or strength training. Before and after training, participants performed a braking task during car-following in a driving simulator. We quantified the cognitive and motor components of the braking task with cognitive processing time and movement execution time.ResultsThe cognitive processing time did not change for either training group. In contrast, the movement execution became significantly faster (14%) following force-control training but not strength training. In addition, task-specific effects of training were found in each group. The force-control group showed improved accuracy and steadiness of ankle movements, whereas the strength training group showed increased dorsiflexion strength following training.ConclusionMotor intervention that trains ankle force control in stroke survivors improves the speed of movement execution during braking. Driving rehabilitation after stroke might benefit from incorporating force-control training to enhance the movement speed for a well-timed braking response.

Work system factors affecting COVID-19 PPE use: A human factors approach to analysis of video recordings of emergency department clinical work

Background: The effectiveness of PPE in preventing self-contamination of healthcare workers (HCWs) and transmission of pathogens (airborne and contact) in the emergency department (ED) is highly dependent on consistent, appropriate use of and other interactions (eg, storing, cleaning, etc) with the PPE. Pre–COVID-19 studies focused primarily on individual HCW contributions to incorrect or suboptimal PPE use. We conducted an analysis of ED video recordings using a human-factors engineering framework (ie, The Systems Engineering Initiative for Patient Safety, SEIPS), to identify work-system–level contributions to inappropriate PPE usage by HCWs while they provide care in their actual clinical care environment. Methods: In total, 47 video sessions (each ~15 minute) were recorded between June 2020 and May 2021 using a GoPro camera in an 8-bed pod area, designated for persons under investigation (PUI) and confirmed COVID-19–positive patients, in an ED of a large, tertiary-care, academic medical center. These recordings captured a ‘landscape view’: 2 video cameras were set up to capture the entire ED pod area and HCWs as they provided care. A team with hemorrhagic fever expertise, infection prevention and control expertise, and ED expertise reviewed each video together and extracted data using a semistructured form. Results: Guided by the 5 components of the SEIPS work system model, (ie, task, physical environment, person, organization, tools and technology), multiple work system failure points influencing HCWs appropriate use of PPE were identified. For example, under the task component, HCWs were observed not doffing and donning in recommended sequence. Also, inconsistencies with COVID-19 status signage on a patient’s door and ambiguous labelling of work areas designated as clean (donning) and dirty (doffing) sites acted as a barrier to appropriate PPE use under the physical environment section. Conclusions: Human factors–based analysis of video recordings of actual ED work identified a variety of work system factors that impede appropriate or correct use of PPE by HCWs. Future efforts to improve appropriate PPE use should focus on eliminating or mitigating the effects of these work system factors.Funding: US CDCDisclosures: The authors gratefully acknowledge the CDC for funding this work. This material is based upon work supported by the Naval Sea Systems Command (under contract No. N00024-13-D-6400, Task Order NH076). Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) or the US CDC.

Sleep dependent consolidation of gross motor sequence learning with motor imagery

Acquisition of gross motor sequence learning with physical and mental training elicits gains in performance. However, the effects of sleep or daytime consolidation after both types of practice remain unclear, especially the effects upon the goal- and movement-based components of a gross motor sequential task. The main purpose of this study was to test the effect of physical practice (PP) and motor imagery practice (MIP) on the acquisition and consolidation processes of gross motor sequence learning.Seventy-six participants were tested before and after PP or MIP on a whole-body sequential paradigm, following either a night of sleep (PPsleep and MIPsleep groups) or an equivalent daytime period (PPday and MIPday groups). Control groups without training were tested following similar timespans (CTRLsleep and CTRLday groups). The number of sequential movements and the centre of mass displacement – corresponding to goal and movement-based components, respectively – were assessed.Results showed that relative to the CTRL groups, the PP and MIP groups improved performance during acquisition. Importantly, only the MIPsleep group further improved performance after a night of sleep; participants of other groups stabilised their performance after consolidation. Additionally, the number of sequential movements and the centre of mass displacement evolved conjointly without being influenced by the type of training or the nature of the consolidation.To conclude, these results confirm that sleep contributes to the consolidation of gross motor sequence learning acquired with MIP but not PP. The relationship between the goal- and movement-based components of a gross motor sequential task is discussed.

Reinforcement Learning in Manufacturing Control: Baselines, challenges and ways forward

The field of Neural Combinatorial Optimization (NCO) offers multiple learning-based approaches to solve well-known combinatorial optimization tasks such as Traveling Salesman or Knapsack problem capable of competing with classical optimization approaches in terms of both solution quality and speed. This brought the attention of the research community to the tasks of Manufacturing Control (MC) with combinatorial nature. In this paper we outline the main components of MC tasks, select the most promising application fields and analyze dedicated learning-based solutions available in the literature. We draw multiple parallels to the current state of the art in the NCO field and allocate the main research gaps and directions on the perception, cognition and interaction levels. Using a set of practical examples we implement and benchmark common design patterns for single-agent Reinforcement Learning (RL) solutions. Along with testing existing solutions, we build on the ranked reward idea (Laterre et al., 2018) and offer a novel Multi-Instance Ranked Reward (m-R2) approach tailored to MC optimization tasks. It minimizes the reward shaping effort and defines a suitable training curriculum for more stable learning by separately tracking the agent’s performance on every scheduling task and rewarding only policies contributing towards better scheduling solutions. We implement all solution design patterns as a set of interchangeable modules with a shared API, unified in a benchmarking framework with the focus on standardization of training and evaluation processes, reproducibility and simplified experiment lifecycle management. In addition to the framework, we make available our discrete-event simulation of a job shop production.

Verbal fluency difficulties in aphasia: A combination of lexical and executive control deficits.

BackgroundVerbal fluency tasks are routinely used in clinical assessment and research studies of aphasia. People with aphasia produce fewer items in verbal fluency tasks. It remains unclear if their output is limited solely by their lexical difficulties and/or has a basis in their executive control abilities. Recent research has illustrated that detailed characterization of verbal fluency performance using temporal characteristics of words retrieved, clustering and switching, and pause durations, along with separate measures of executive control stands to inform our understanding of the lexical and cognitive underpinnings of verbal fluency in aphasia.AimsTo determine the locus of the verbal fluency difficulties in aphasia, we compared semantic and letter fluency trials between people with aphasia and healthy control participants using a wide range of variables to capture the performance between the two groups. The groups were also tested on separate measures of executive control to determine the relationship amongst these tasks and fluency performance.Methods & ProceduresSemantic (animal) and letter (F, A, S) fluency data for 60s trials were collected from 14 people with aphasia (PWA) and 24 healthy adult controls (HC). Variables, such as number of correct responses, clustering and switching analyses, were performed along with temporal measures of the retrieved words (response latencies) and pause durations. Participants performed executive control tasks to measure inhibitory control, mental‐set shifting and memory span.Outcomes & ResultsCompared with HC, PWA produced fewer correct responses, showed greater difficulty with the letter fluency condition, were slower in getting started with the trials, showed slower retrieval times as noted in within‐ and between‐cluster pause durations, and switched less often. Despite these retrieval difficulties, PWA showed a similar decline in the rate of recall to HC, and had similar cluster size. Executive control measures correlated primarily with the letter fluency variables: mostly for PWA and in one instance for HC.Conclusions & ImplicationsPoorer performance for PWA is a combination of difficulties in both the lexical and executive components of the verbal fluency task. Our findings highlight the importance of detailed characterization of fluency performance in deciphering the underlying mechanism of retrieval difficulties in aphasia, and illustrate the importance of using letter fluency trials to tap into executive control processes.WHAT THIS PAPER ADDSWhat is already known on the subject PWA typically show impaired performance in verbal fluency tasks. It is debated whether this impaired performance is a result of their lexical difficulties or executive control difficulties, or a combination of both. This debate continues because previous studies have mostly used semantic fluency condition without including letter fluency condition; used a limited range of variables (e.g., number of correct responses); and not included separate executive control measures to explain the performance pattern in aphasia. This research addresses these outstanding issues to determine the specific contribution of lexical and executive control processes in verbal fluency in aphasia by including: both semantic and letter fluency conditions; a wide range of variables to identify the relative contribution of lexical and executive control mechanisms; and independent measures of executive control. What this paper adds to existing knowledge Using the multidimensional analysis approach for verbal fluency performance from both semantic and letter fluency conditions, this is the first study to systematically demonstrate that PWA had difficulties in both lexical and executive control components of the task. At the individual level, PWA had greater difficulty on the letter fluency condition compared with semantic fluency. We observed significant correlations between the executive control measures and verbal fluency measures primarily for the letter fluency condition. This research makes a significant contribution to our understanding of lexical and executive control aspects in word production in aphasia. What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work? From a clinical perspective, this research highlights the importance of using a full range of verbal fluency and executive control measures to tap into the lexical as well as executive control abilities of PWA, and also the utility of using letter fluency to tap into the executive control processes in PWA.

Learning Adaptive Spatial-Temporal Context-Aware Correlation Filters for UAV Tracking

Tracking in the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) scenarios is one of the main components of target-tracking tasks. Different from the target-tracking task in the general scenarios, the target-tracking task in the UAV scenarios is very challenging because of factors such as small scale and aerial view. Although the discriminative correlation filter (DCF)-based tracker has achieved good results in tracking tasks in general scenarios, the boundary effect caused by the dense sampling method will reduce the tracking accuracy, especially in UAV-tracking scenarios. In this work, we propose learning an adaptive spatial-temporal context-aware (ASTCA) model in the DCF-based tracking framework to improve the tracking accuracy and reduce the influence of boundary effect, thereby enabling our tracker to more appropriately handle UAV-tracking tasks. Specifically, our ASTCA model can learn a spatial-temporal context weight, which can precisely distinguish the target and background in the UAV-tracking scenarios. Besides, considering the small target scale and the aerial view in UAV-tracking scenarios, our ASTCA model incorporates spatial context information within the DCF-based tracker, which could effectively alleviate background interference. Extensive experiments demonstrate that our ASTCA method performs favorably against state-of-the-art tracking methods on some standard UAV datasets.

CAREER RECOGNITION OF ISLAMIC ELEMENTARY SCHOOL STUDENTS DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Now, the world is being tested by the COVID-19 pandemic. Many aspects of life are affected, one of which is the aspect of education especially in guidance and counseling services. One of the services that was also affected was career guidance services for elementary school students. This study aims to determine the level of career recognition for Islamic elementary school students during the covid-19 pandemic. This study uses a quantitative research design with a survey approach. The research population was all third-grade Islamic elementary school students in Kebumen. The sample consisted of 116 students. The results of this study indicate that the level of career recognition for Islamic elementary school students during the COVID-19 pandemic is in the low category (52%). The latest finding in this study is that the components of job names and work uniforms are the highest career recognition components, while the components of tasks and responsibilities as well as components of requirements and skills are the lowest career recognition components. This low level of student career recognition can actually be improved by providing guidance and counseling services in the career field, especially regarding the introduction of varieties of jobs using various informative techniques and media.

Інструменти та методи розробки стартапів в інженерних кластерах

The article is aimed at reviewing the most effective methods and tools for the making of startups. Relevance of familiarization of students of engineering specialties with these methods lies in the need to acquire knowledge, skills and skills in innovative project activities. As the labors market is constantly changing, employers are interested in graduates who have project skills and practical experience. The article considers soft skills that will be in demand in the coming years for successful professional growth and ability to work in a team. The advantages and disadvantages of teamwork, as well as recommendations for improving the effectiveness of teamwork, are presented. The main obstacles preventing control of the process to develop the startup are mentioned. Methods of planning and control of time, determination of priorities of tasks are considered. To formulate the project name and to form the goals, the main instruments that allow to determine the influence of strong and weak sides (SWOT-analysis) are given. Also the tools of the composition structure of works and the hierarchical structure of works which allow to divide the project into components of tasks and subgoals are considered. Thus, the study of engineering and technical specialities of the methods and tools of making start-ups, presented in the article, will help students to form skills to survive failures, to treat their own mistakes with tolerance, to learn to work in a team in a multidisciplinary environment. As a result, students can take a risk-free trial during their studies at the university, and once they have completed their studies they will be ready to engage in professional activities at once.

Regulatory and Institutional Support of Public Administration in the Field of Physical culture and Sport in Ukraine

The author notes the importance of planning, policy measures and development strategies for the development of physical culture and sports. A large number of current regulatory documents, which reflect the attentive attitude of public authorities to the development and improvement of this area, is indicated. The structural components of the legal administration system in the field of physical culture and sports are characterized. The interpretation of sports legal relations is presented. Specific features of sports legal relations are noted. The main forms of state support for physical culture and sports are also identified. The contribution of local authorities of Ukraine in the implementation of state policy in the field of physical culture and sports is considered. The ambiguity of the legal regulation of the development of physical culture and sports is noted. The need to understand and distinguish between the field of physical culture and professional sports is emphasized. The state regulation of standardization in the researched sphere is considered. The absence of the term “standard” in relation to service quality management in organizations is indicated. The normative-legal acts, which partially determine the evaluation criteria in the field of physical culture and sports, are distinguished. The advantages of implementing a quality management system are indicated. The adopted Standards, the effect of which extends to the field of physical culture and sports, are considered. The principles of quality management system activity are presented and characterized: customer orientation, leadership, employee involvement, process approach, system approach to management, continuous improvement, decision-making based on facts, mutually beneficial relations with suppliers. The main problems and risks in the process of system implementation are noted. Emphasis is placed on the peculiarities of the implementation of the quality management system at the level of local self-government. The requirements for the preparation of mandatory documentation are listed and described. The content of the implementation plan is noted. Emphasis is placed on the expediency of determining senior management and officials on specific examples. The need for local government administration to systematically confirm its compliance with the quality management system has been identified. Requirements to representatives of higher governing bodies are defined. The impossibility of the self-government body to satisfy the requirements of all clients within the framework of the legislation and the approved budget is emphasized. The key task of senior management is described. The components of an important triple task of senior management in the context of implementation, operation and continuous improvement of the quality management system are listed. The importance of emphasizing the consolidation at the state level of tests and standards for assessing the physical fitness of the people of Ukraine was emphasized.

Gobernanza y gobernabilidad de los recursos hídricos en México imbricaciones, matices y modelos conceptuales: ecos, implicaciones y visiones prospectivas paradigmáticas en la Cuenca del Alto Lerma

In current days, water as a vital liquid for human beings survival has been provided with an infinity of discursive tones related to economic, social, institutional, technological and environmental dimensions ranging from slightly renewable element to conflict, scarcity, war, merchandise, common good or blue gold, a substance which can be cleaned, a liquid that can boost the economy. In this article, besides these matters, discussions of governance and governability are added, both inalienable components of water tasks in Mexico. In conceptual fabrics of those terms, prototype designs originated from global institutions are built, an exemplifying typology describing its own attributes and the conceptual imbrications which act. The exposed theorical scenario is revealed between multi-faceted and multi authorial overtone that converge in the later meta-analytic unveiling of echoes and paradigms in a predefined region in our country -Alto Lerma Basin-.

The impact of accuracy on functional neural correlates of the useful field of view (UFOV) task

AbstractBackgroundRapid declines in processing speed performance occur in aging and serve as a critical marker of cognitive abilities. Studies suggest that Useful Field of View (UFOV) training may ameliorate cognitive decline. The ACTIVE trial, consisting of over 2,800 participants, found a 29% reduction in ADRD risk 10 years following intervention. Recent clinical trials aimed at slowing cognitive decline in AD have focused on UFOV‐based interventions. Despite its efficacy, little is known about its neural correlates. The current study investigated blood‐oxygen level dependent (BOLD) activation patterns of the UFOV task.Method233 older adults completed the UFOV task while undergoing task‐based fMRI. The UFOV task requires participants to identify a central target, as well as a peripheral target amongst distractors, presented for a brief period of time. First‐level contrasts modeled hemodynamic response, while second‐level analyses assessed unique BOLD activation associated with encoding and recall components of the task. Age, education, sex and scanner were included as covariates. Significant clusters were defined as >10 voxels, and all clusters were corrected at a false discovery rate (FDR) of p<0.05.ResultPrevious data have shown widespread bilateral whole‐brain activation associated with the encoding component, whereas discrete activation patterns were related to the recall component of the task. Additionally, numerous shared brain regions were critical to both the encoding and recall components of the UFOV task. We further investigated cortical activation patterns associated with age‐related differences in UFOV performance. Variability in performance was related to widespread patterns of activation during the encoding component of the UFOV task, namely the superior parietal lobule, insula, hippocampus and DLPFC. Assessing UFOV performance variability within recall, no significant clusters survived FDR correction. Furthermore, the inferior parietal lobule, cerebellum, and inferior frontal gyrus were critical in both encoding and recall in UFOV performance.ConclusionThe present study elucidates pivotal regions associated with UFOV task performance. Notably, we found that variability in UFOV performance is directly associated with neural activation during the presentation/apprehension of the stimuli, but not during recall. These findings suggest that variation in neural activation during speeded attentional processing is central to age‐related UFOV performance differences, and interventions targeting these neural processes may be of benefit.

Task-induced Involvement Load, Vocabulary learning and Reading Comprehension Among Iranian Intermediate English as a Foreign Language Learners

The importance of vocabulary in a second language is so self-axiomatic that it renders learning and teaching a must. The present study aimed to explore whether the manipulation of the task components, as proposed by Laufer and Hulstijn, affected the acquisition of English vocabularies by EFL learners. The present study followed an experimental design in that it used pre-test and post-test to collect data from the participants. The current research included 50 EFL students from two private English language institutions in Yazd, Iran. The study included two distinct reading tasks that placed varying loads on participants. The two reading texts were controlled for their difficulty level: one with the high level of involvement load and the other with lack of involvement load, thus two experimental groups. There was a reading comprehension exam for those who participated in the first experimental group (with a high involvement load). Reading comprehension was assessed using the first Vocabulary Knowledge Scale (VKS1), which measures vocabulary knowledge. The second reading comprehension assignment was simultaneously presented to the second experimental group (the one with a low involvement load). After two weeks, they were administered VKS2, and their results were recorded. Analyzing the data was done by using independent t-tests. Exposure to high levels of involvement load has been shown to impact vocabulary development in English learners. This is despite respondents being able to recall more words from high-involvement vocabulary acquisitions than from low-involvement vocabulary acquisitions. Findings from this study may be used to construct practical tasks of reading with suitable degrees of difficulty for English language learners (EFL/ESL) teachers and vocabulary instructors.

Number to me, space to you: Joint representation of spatial-numerical associations

Recent work has shown that number concepts activate both spatial and magnitude representations. According to the social co-representation literature which has shown that participants typically represent task components assigned to others together with their own, we asked whether explicit magnitude meaning and explicit spatial coding must be present in a single mind, or can be distributed across two minds, to generate a spatial-numerical congruency effect. In a shared go/no-go task that eliminated peripheral spatial codes, we assigned explicit magnitude processing to participants and spatial processing to either human or non-human co-agents. The spatial-numerical congruency effect emerged only with human co-agents. We demonstrate an inter-personal level of conceptual congruency between space and number that arises from a shared conceptual representation not contaminated by peripheral spatial codes. Theoretical implications of this finding for numerical cognition are discussed.

Time-based task expectancy: perceptual task indicator expectancy or expectancy of post-perceptual task components?

The temporal predictability of upcoming events plays a crucial role in the adjustment of anticipatory cognitive control in multitasking. Previous research has demonstrated that task switching performance improved if tasks were validly predictable by a pre-target interval. Hence, far, the underlying cognitive processes of time-based task expectancy in task switching have not been clearly defined. The present study investigated whether the effect of time-based expectancy is due to expectancy of post-perceptual task components or rather due to facilitation of perceptual visual processing of the coloured task indicator. Participants performed two numeric judgment tasks (parity vs. magnitude), which were each indicated by two different colours. Each task was either more or less frequently preceded by one of two intervals (500 ms or 1500 ms). Tasks were indicated either by colours that were each more frequently (or in Exp. 1 also less frequently) paired with the interval or by colours that were equally frequent for each interval. Participants only responded faster when colour and task were predictable by time (expected colour), not when the task alone was predictable (neutral colour). Hence, our results speak in favour of perceptual time-based task indicator expectancy being the underlying cognitive mechanism of time-based expectancy in the task switching paradigm.

Therapeutic alliance in vocational rehabilitation counseling: Assessing client factors and functioning

BACKGROUND: The therapeutic relationship is often acknowledged as one of the most significant factors in clinical process that influences client outcomes. OBJECTIVE: While considerable research has been conducted on the therapeutic relationship in psychotherapy, there is a paucity of research on the impact of the therapeutic relationship in vocational rehabilitation counseling settings. METHODS: This study explored the relationship between areas of client functioning (individual, interpersonal, social, and overall) and the therapeutic alliance among clients who receive services from the State vocational rehabilitation agency. RESULTS: In this study, younger clients (ages between 16 to 29) reported stronger therapeutic alliance. CONCLUSION: The findings of this study suggested that clients’ perceived individual, interpersonal and overall functioning have a significant positive relationship with the task and bond components of therapeutic relationship.

Task specialization and cognitive skills: evidence from PIAAC and IALS

We study how the tasks conducted on the job relate to measures of cognitive skills using data from 18 countries participating in the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competences (PIAAC) and from 13 countries that also participate in the International Adult Literacy Study (IALS). We document two main findings. Firstly, individual-fixed effect models suggest that low-educated workers specializing in a particular set of basic tasks -say, in numeric relative to reading or ICT tasks- obtain 10% of one standard deviation higher scores in the domain of the PIAAC assessment most related to those tasks than in the rest -say, numeracy relative to literacy or problem-solving scores. Secondly, a synthetic cohort analysis using repeated literacy assessments in IALS and PIAAC indicates that, among the low-educated, long-run increases in the reading task component of jobs correlate positively with increases in cohort-level literacy scores. The results are stronger among low-skilled workers with less working experience or females -i.e., the set of workers who have had less time to sort in the labor market. An interpretation of our findings is that tasks conducted on the job help in building human capital but are imperfect substitutes of formal schooling.

Unique behavioral strategies in visuomotor learning: Hope for the non-learner

The existence of individual differences in motor learning capability is well known but the behaviors or strategies that contribute to this variability have been vastly understudied. What performance characteristics distinguish an expert level performer from individuals who experience little to no success, those labeled non-learners? We designed a rule-based visuomotor task which requires identification (discovery) and then exploitation of specific explicit and implicit task components that requires a specific movement pattern, the task rule, for goal achievement. When participants first attempt the task, they are informed about the goal, but are naïve to the task rule. Therefore, the purpose of this experiment is to determine how acquisition of both implicit and explicit task components, the inherent elements of the task rule, reveals differing strategies associated with performance and task success. We test the hypothesis that an examination of performance will reveal sub-groups with varying levels of success. Further, for each subgroup, we expect to find a unique relationship between visual Time-in-Target feedback (a measure of success) and subsequent updating of each task component. Out of 32 non-disabled adults, we identified three distinct sub-groups: (Low Performer/Non-Learner (LP, N=9), Moderate Performer (MP, N=12) and High Performer (HP, N=11)). A quantitative analysis of behavioral patterns reveals three findings: First, the LP sub-group demonstrated significantly lower task success which was associated with difficulty identifying the explicit component of the task. Second, the HP sub-group acquired the two task components in parallel over practice. Third, when both explicit and implicit component performance is plotted across sub-groups, a task component continuum emerges that seamlessly progresses from low to moderate to high performer groups. An exploratory analysis reveals that self-reported level of prior lifetime accumulation of video game and physical activity experience is a significant predictor of individual task performance (R2=0.50). In summary, what appears to be a key distinction between varying levels of human rule-based motor learning is the process by which feedback is used to update performance of inherent elements of the task rule. Evidence of a performance continuum and limited prior experience suggests that Low Performer/Non-Learners are generally inexperienced with these kinds of tasks, although the role of genetics and other innate learning capabilities in visuomotor learning is still largely unknown. These findings provoke new research directions toward probing the differential performance strategies associated with expertise and the development of interventions aimed to convert non-learners into learners.

Now you see me, now you don't: Adapting practice through target exclusion negatively impacts motor learning.

How to optimize practice through scheduling of different task components or skills is a question that has received a lot of attention in motor learning research. Consistently, schedules with high variability in the order that skills are practiced elicit better learning outcomes than schedules with low variability. Another idea is that learners should seek to reduce the uncertainty of practice outcomes, by avoiding well-learned, low error components in acquisition. To test this idea, we used a target exclusion method to prevent learners from returning to task components with low error and studied how individuals given choice over practice choose to allocate time to components of varying difficulty. In a multi-target adaptation paradigm, we compared exclusion with no exclusion methods in random-schedule, self-control and yoked, matched-schedule groups (6 groups total). To manipulate uncertainty, we excluded targets from practice once participants attained a criterion error score (mean<5o) from the last 5 trials to the same target. Contrary to our predictions, groups that practiced without target exclusion were more accurate in retention compared to exclusion groups; irrespective of practice schedule. Self-control groups adopted uncertainty-based practice, spending more time at difficult targets and less time at easier targets. However, there were no group differences in error, based on schedule-type (random, self-control and yoked). In conclusion, target exclusion was not an effective method for learning and did not support the efficacy of uncertainty-based practice for learning novel skills. There were benefits from keeping easier/low error skills in practice for later retention. These benefits did not appear to be related to the increased switching between skills, but could be related to increased task engagement and more optimal challenge associated with practice on a range of target difficulties, rather than the most difficult.

Developmental changes in external and internal performance monitoring across middle childhood: An ERP study

Performance monitoring is critical for learning and behavioral adaption and is supported by both externally and internally sourced information. Cross-sectional studies indicate an increase in internal error processing across childhood, suggesting a potential developmental transition from reliance on external information to reliance on internally developed models. However, little research has examined the association between these constructs longitudinally. Data from 339 children assessed annually from kindergarten to 2nd grade were examined to determine the developmental trajectory of ERP indices of performance monitoring, and whether the association between these indices changes across time. EEG data were recorded during an incentivized Go/No-Go task and ERP component amplitudes were extracted as peak measures at Fz. Despite small increases in magnitude, no significant changes were observed in any of the ERPs. Multi-level regression analyses indicated that in kindergarten a more negative feedback-related negativity (FRN) was associated with a more negative error-related negativity (ERN) and a more negative error positivity (Pe). Further, the association between the FRN and Pe changed over time, such that in 2nd grade the FRN and Pe decoupled from one another and were no longer associated. These results suggest that the development of performance monitoring through middle childhood may be a phasic process. More specifically, matured external feedback monitoring processes may first facilitate the development of conscious error recognition, and then the development of internal error monitoring processes. Once internal models of error monitoring are well-established, children may then reduce their utilization of external feedback.