Effects of field-articulation and feedback on perception of intermediate visual-kinesthetic position.

High and low field-articulators were compared on the accuracy with which they could adjust a rod to intermediate visual-kinesthetic positions while blindfolded, under four sensory-feedback conditions. Independent groups of 10 Ss were given auditory, visual, kinesthetic, or no sensory feedback for 16 trials and then tested on 8 trials without sensory feedback. High field-articulators were significantly more accurate on the feedback trials for all sensory-feedback conditions but not in terms of mean absolute error. The mean constant error on the test trials was significantly lower for the high field-articulators on all feedback conditions except for visual feedback where the low field-articulator had a lower constant error. Both the high and low field-articulators became more accurate and learned more in judging visual-kinesthetic position when auditory feedback was given. Low field-articulators showed significant improvement in accuracy with kinesthetic feedback. The results supported the hypothesis that intermediate directions can be learned and supported previous perceptual research.     

Effectiveness of visual vs kinesthetic instruction for learning a gross motor skill

The purpose of this study was to compare visual with kinesthetic instruction for learning a motor skill that is not visually monitorable. Previous studies comparing visual and kinesthetic information have all used arm tasks for which the nonvisual condition was artificial. 20 subjects were randomly assigned to either a kinesthetic or a visual instruction group. The task was to draw a horizontal line with the right foot while in a quadruped position. All subjects received visual knowledge of results. While performance improved over the course of the 10 instructional sessions and trials, no difference in performance was found between the two instructional groups. A follow-up study is required to determine whether this result was based on visual dominance. Understanding the effectiveness of the different modalities for teaching gross motor skills would be valuable to physical therapists, physical educators, and psychologists.     

Imagery ability and the acquisition and retention of movements

In this study, we examined the relationship between imagery ability, as measured by the Movement Imagery Questionnaire (MIQ), and the acquisition, retention, and reacquisition of movements. Based on their MIQ scores, 10 subjects were selected for the following imagery groups: high visual/high kinesthetic (HH), high visual/low kinesthetic (HL), and low visual/low kinesthetic (LL). The subjects learned four movements to a criterion level. Before each trial, subjects kinesthetically imaged the movement about to be produced. Following each acquisition trial, subjects were provided visual feedback. The acquisition phase was followed by a 2-day retention interval, a retention test consisting of three trials on each movement (no feedback provided), and a reacquisition phase. The HH group acquired the movements in the least number of trials, the LL group required the greatest number of trials, and the HL group required an intermediate number of trials. The data for the reacquisition phase showed the same trend. There was only weak evidence for a relationship between imagery ability and the retention of the movements. These findings support the position that high imagery ability facilitates the acquisition, but probably not the short term retention, of movements.     

Training 90° bimanual coordination at high frequency yields dependence on kinesthetic information and poor performance of dyadic unimanual coordination

Two groups of participants were trained to be proficient at performing bimanual 90° coordination either at a high (2.5 Hz) or low (0.5 Hz) frequency with both kinesthetic and visual information available. At high frequency, participants trained for twice as long to achieve performance comparable to participants training at low frequency. Participants were then paired within (low-low or high-high) or between (low-high) frequency groups to perform a visually coupled dyadic unimanual 90° coordination task, during which they were free to settle at any jointly determined frequency to synchronize their rhythmic movements. The results showed that the coordination skill was frequency-specific. For dyads with one or both members who had learned the 90° bimanual coordination at low frequency, the performance settled at a low frequency (≈0.5 Hz) with more successfully synchronized trials. For dyads with both members who had learned the 90° bimanual coordination at high frequency, they struggled with the task and performed poorly. The dyadic coordination settled at a higher frequency (≈1.5 Hz) on average, but with twice the variability in settling frequency and significantly fewer synchronized trials. The difference between the dyadic coordination and bimanual tasks was that only visual information was available to couple the movements in the former while both kinesthetic and visual information were available in the latter. Therefore, the high frequency group must have relied on kinesthetic information to perform both coordination tasks while the low frequency group was well able to use visual information for both. In the mixed training pairs, the low frequency trained member of the pair was likely responsible for the better performance. These conclusions were consistent with results of previous studies.     

Oral kinesthetic deficit in adults who stutter: a target-accuracy study

The current study was based on the hypothesis that chronic developmental stuttering in adults involves a deficiency in oral kinesthesia. The authors used a target-accuracy task to compare oral kinesthesia in adults who stutter (n = 17) and in normal speakers (n = 17). During the task, participants were instructed to make accurate jaw-opening movements in visual and nonvisual feedback conditions. The authors further contrasted oral movement control in a normal response time condition with that in a reaction time condition. Overall, the adults who stutter consistently made significantly less accurate and more variable movements than the control participants in the nonvisual condition, but particularly in the reaction time condition. In general, the present findings suggest that chronic developmental stuttering involves an oral kinesthetic deficiency, although without direct measures of somatosensory function, one cannot exclude a motor deficit interpretation.     

When kinesthetic information is neglected in learning a Novel bimanual rhythmic coordination

Many studies have shown that rhythmic interlimb coordination involves perception of the coupled limb movements, and different sensory modalities can be used. Using visual displays to inform the coupled bimanual movement, novel bimanual coordination patterns can be learned with practice. A recent study showed that similar learning occurred without vision when a coach provided manual guidance during practice. The information provided via the two different modalities may be same (amodal) or different (modality specific). If it is different, then learning with both is a dual task, and one source of information might be used in preference to the other in performing the task when both are available. In the current study, participants learned a novel 90° bimanual coordination pattern without or with visual information in addition to kinesthesis. In posttest, all participants were tested without and with visual information in addition to kinesthesis. When tested with visual information, all participants exhibited performance that was significantly improved by practice. When tested without visual information, participants who practiced using only kinesthetic information showed improvement, but those who practiced with visual information in addition showed remarkably less improvement. The results indicate that (1) the information is not amodal, (2) use of a single type of information was preferred, and (3) the preferred information was visual. We also hypothesized that older participants might be more likely to acquire dual task performance given their greater experience of the two sensory modes in combination, but results were replicated with both 20- and 50-year-olds.     

Time-dependent effects of kinesthetic input

Sensory input can be used by the nervous system to control the spatial parameters of motor responses (e.g., distance, velocity, and direction) by initializing these parameters before movement onset and then by adjusting these parameters during movement. Sensory input can also be used to trigger movements. In the experiments reported in this paper, we compared the effects of kinesthetic input on a triggered motor response when the kinesthetic input was generated at different times relative to the onset of the motor response. Human subjects responded to a visual stimulus by intentionally increasing elbow torque to a target level. Kinesthetic input was generated by unexpectedly rotating each subject's elbow 100 ms before the onset of the intentional torque response (early) or coincident with the onset of the intentional torque response (late). The effect of early kinesthetic input on the intentional torque response markedly differed from the effect of late kinesthetic input. The effect of early kinesthetic input was relatively independent of the direction of elbow rotation, had a different dependence on the amplitude of rotation, and required a shorter duration of rotation compared to the effect of late kinesthetic input. These differences in the effects of early and late kinesthetic input might be related to the initialization, triggering, and adjustment of motor responses.     

Orientation-specificity in kinesthetic spatial learning: The role of multiple orientations

In the current study we tested whether multiple orientations in kinesthetic learning affected how flexibly spatial information is stored and later used in making location judgments. Three groups learned simple routes by walking them while blindfolded, with (1) multiple orientations achieved through normal walking, (2) multiple orientations achieved through backward walking, or (3) a single orientation achieved through walking without turning (which required forward, backward, and sideways walking). When subjects had experienced multiple orientations while learning the routes, later directional judgments were equally accurate (and equally rapid) regardless of whether the judgments were aligned or were contra-aligned with the orientation of the routes as originally learned. In contrast, when routes were learned in a single orientation (without turning), subsequent judgments on contra-aligned trials were both less accurate and slower than judgments on aligned trials. Thus, multiple orientations are important to establish orientation-free, flexible use of spatial information in a kinesthetic learning environment. This contrasts with the pattern of results typically found in visual spatial learning and suggests that the factors that affect orientation specificity of spatial use may differ across spatial modality.     

Age differences in visual and kinesthetic short-term memory

30 elderly subjects were matched with 30 young subjects and tested on a kinesthetic short-term memory task which required the replication of criterion moves after a variable retention interval under conditions of either rest, differing interpolated movement tasks, or mental activity. A visual control condition was used. Differing interference and temporal decrements were observed. Both old and young subjects differed significantly between sighted and blindfold conditions; however, there was no difference between the performance of the old and the young in the blindfold (kinesthetic) condition. These findings were discussed with respect to practical implications for the retraining of old subjects on certain motor tasks.     

Visual and Kinesthetic Components of Pursuit-Tracking Performance

Ss (N=75) were trained on a pursuit rotor for 10 trials with ambient illumination from a strobe light flashing at frequencies of either 2, 5, 10, 15, or 20/sec. A transfer trial followed, with a strobe flashing frequency of 10/sec for all Ss. Results supported hypotheses derived from Adams’ (1971) closed-loop theory of motor learning that (a) performance would improve during training as a function of amount of visual feedback available, and that (b) if after training visual feedback was reduced, performance would be maintained to the extent that reliance upon kinesthetic feedback had been learned as an alternate compensatory feedback loop.     

Alternative theories of concept identification among older adults

The purpose of the present experiment was to investigate some predictions of hypothesis testing and S-R association (frequency) theories regarding memory for intratrial events on a conjunctive concept-identification task. They have received extensive study with young adults but not with older subjects. The individual events under investigation were feedback, responses, hypotheses, and stimuli. Hypothesis-testing theory requires subjects to retain information concerning the correct hypothesis from one trial to the next whereas frequency does not. 75 subjects (60-70 yr. old) participated in the study. Subjects had difficulty in recalling the correct hypothesis stated on previous trials. These errors occurred on problems with negative response trials, not with incorrect feedback. The results contradict predictions based on hypothesis-testing models but are consistent with frequency theory. Unlike in the studies based on younger adults, present subjects did not recall the hypothesis very well under the conditions in which hypothesis testing was made part of the primary task.     

Overcoming unlearned response biases: delayed escape following errors facilitates acquisition of win-stay and win-shift working memory water-escape tasks in rats

Previous research has demonstrated that perseveration in escape situations is an unlearned response bias of rats and mice which is difficult to overcome. In Experiment I, Sprague-Dawley rats were trained to a criterion of nine correct choices in 10 consecutive trials in a win-stay working memory water-escape task wherein an escape platform was hidden in one of two compartments. Subjects were given a forced choice on an Information Trial followed by a free choice on a Test Trial 5 min later. Subjects who were given a 30-s forced swim in the incorrect section following errors on the Test Trial showed faster acquisition and less use of response perseveration than control subjects. In Experiment II, the delayed escape procedure was used to compare acquisition of win-stay and win-shift strategies. Contrary to previous research both groups learned the tasks, although the win-stay group showed better performance. It is concluded that unlearned response biases of perseverating and returning to previous escape sites can be overcome if experimental conditions are appropriately arranged.     

Influence of feedback modality on sensorimotor adaptation: contribution of visual, kinesthetic, and verbal cues

In 4 studies, the authors tested the contributions of visual, kinesthetic, and verbal knowledge of results to the adaptive control of reaching movements toward visual targets. The same apparatus was used in all experiments, but the procedures differed in the sensory modality of the feedback that participants (N s = 5, 5, 6, and 6, respectively, in Experiments 1, 2, 3, and 4) received about their performances. Using biased visual, proprioceptive, or verbal feedback, the authors introduced a 5 degrees shift in the visuomanual relationship. Results showed no significant difference in the final amount of adaptation to the mismatch: On average, participants adapted to 79% of the perturbation. That finding is consistent with the view that adaptation is a multisensory, highly flexible process whose efficiency does not depend on the sensory channel conveying the error signal.     

The utilization of visual feedback information during rapid pointing movements

Three experiments were conducted to determine how variables other than movement time influence the speed of visual feedback utilization in a target-pointing task. In Experiment 1, subjects moved a stylus to a target 20 cm away with movement times of approximately 225 msec. Visual feedback was manipulated by leaving the room lights on over the whole course of the movement or extinguishing the lights upon movement initiation, while prior knowledge about feedback availability was manipulated by blocking or randomizing feedback. Subjects exhibited less radial error in the lights-on/blocked condition than in the other three conditions. In Experiment 2, when subjects were forced to use vision by a laterally displacing prism, it was found that they benefited from the presence of visual feedback regardless of feedback uncertainty even when moving very rapidly (e.g. less than 190 msec). In Experiment 3, subjects pointed with and without a prism over a wide variety of movement times. Subjects benefited from vision much earlier in the prism condition. Subjects seem able to use vision rapidly to modify aiming movements but may do so only when the visual information is predictably available and/or yields an error large enough to detect early enough to correct.     

Differentiating visual and kinesthetic imagery in mental practice.

Through two experiments, the study sought to emphasize the usefulness of the visual and kinesthetic imagery in mental practice. In Experiment 1, it was hypothesized that when the task to be learned through mental practice necessitates the reproduction of a form by drawing, the visual image, which provides a wide span of apprehension, is more suitable than the kinesthetic image. On the other hand, the kinesthetic image that supplies inputs from the muscles' positions and movements should be more appropriate for the acquisition of the duration of the drawing. In Experiment 2, it was hypothesized that the task, transformed into a motor task necessitating minute coordination of the two hands, would benefit more from kinesthetic imagery. To have optimal control over what was actually experienced during mental practice, the participants' imagery skills were measured. The participants also benefited from prior imagery training. The results demonstrate that when using mental practice to initially acquire a task, visual imagery is better for tasks that emphasize form while kinesthetic imagery is better for those tasks that emphasize timing or minute coordination of the two hands.     

Optimizing the Use of Vision in Manual Aiming: The Role of Practice

The purpose of this study was to determine how subjects learn to adjust the characteristics of their manual aiming movements in order to make optimal use of the visual information and reduce movement error. Subjects practised aiming (120 trials) with visual information available for either 400 msec or 600 msec. Following acquisition, they were transferred to conditions in which visual information was available for either more or less time. Over acquisition, subjects appeared to reduce target-aiming error by moving to the target area more quickly in order to make greater use of vision when in the vicinity of the target. With practice, there was also a reduction in the number of modifications in the movement. After transfer, both performance and kinematic data indicated that the time for which visual information was available was a more important predictor of aiming error than the similarity between training and transfer conditions. These findings are not consistent with a strong “specificity of learning” position. They also suggest that, if some sort of general representation or motor programme develops with practice, that representation includes rules or procedures for the utilization of visual feedback to allow for the on-line adjustment of the goal-directed movement.     

Seeing what you hear: Visual feedback improves pitch recognition

The present study examined the effect of visual feedback on the ability to recognise and consolidate pitch information. We trained two groups of nonmusicians to play a piano piece by ear, having one group receiving uninterrupted audiovisual feedback, while allowing the other only to hear, but not see their hand on the keyboard. Results indicate that subjects for whom visual information was deprived showed significantly poorer ability to recognise pitches from the musical piece they had learned. These results are interesting since pitch recognition ability would not intuitively seem to rely on visual feedback. In addition, we show that subjects with previous experience in computer touch-typing made fewer errors during training when trained with no visual feedback, but did not show improved pitch recognition ability posttraining. Our results demonstrate how sensory redundancy increases robustness of learning, and further encourage the use of audiovisual training procedures for facilitating the learning of new skills.     

Testing the validity of the paddle method for the kinesthetic and visual-kinesthetic perception of inclination

We tested the validity of the paddle method for measuring both the kinesthetic and visual-kinesthetic perception of inclination. In three conditions, subjects performed three different tasks: (1) rotating a manual paddle to a set of verbally given inclinations (blindfolded subjects), (2) rotating a manual paddle to the same set of verbally given inclinations after specific kinesthetic training (blindfolded subjects), and (3) rotating the paddle to a set of fixed visual inclinations after the kinesthetic training. The results showed a high degree of accuracy and precision in the second and third task but not in the first one. When subjects were asked to rotate a manual paddle to a set of verbally given inclinations, they used three main anchors (0°, 45°, 90°). Furthermore, the paddle method is biased by a kinesthetic deficiency, namely a rotational problem of the wrist that can be corrected by means of specific training.     

Visual Feedback and Positioning Movements

Subjects (n = 60) performed both the reproduction and learning of a linear positioning movement under one of five visual feedback conditions. Results from two experiments indicated that visual cues from the task display augmented information available from visual feedback of the movement per se. Extraneous cues from the task display have clearly confounded the manipulation of visual feedback in previous positioning studies. When these cues are eliminated, visual distance information seems more useful than visual location information.     

Effects of training in visual discrimination after one year: visual analysis of volleyball skills.

Although the effects of specialized training in visual analysis of skills are well documented, whether the effects are lasting is not. The purpose of the present study was to analyze the effect a visual skills training program in volleyball had on participants one year after the completion of a training intervention. Subjects received either traditional performance instruction supplemented with visual training or traditional performance instruction in volleyball only. All subjects remaining in the teacher education program from a previous study were given a visual test on diagnosing errors in three different volleyball skills (the forearm pass, the overhead pass, and the overhead serve). Subjects exposed to visual training remained significantly better at diagnosing errors for the three volleyball skills one year later as compared to those subjects who had not received visual training.