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The Death of Handwriting: Secondary Effects of Frequent Computer Use on Basic Motor Skills
Abstract
The benefits of modern technologies such as personal computers, in-vehicle navigation systems, and electronic organizers are evident in everyday life. However, only recently has it been proposed that the increasing use of personal computers in producing written texts may significantly contribute to the loss of handwriting skills. Such a fundamental change of human habits is likely to have generalized consequences for other basic fine motor skills as well. In this article, the authors provide evidence that the skill to produce precisely controlled arm-hand movements is related to the usage of computer keyboards in producing written text in everyday life. This result supports the notion that specific cultural skills such as handwriting and typing shape more general perceptual and motor skills. More generally, changing technologies are associated with generalized changes of the profile of basic human skills.
... Most of the samples of the last two conditions were more than double or triple the size, and had altered spacing and forms from the first three conditions. Sülzenbrück, Hegele, Rinkenauer and Heuer (2011) hypothesized that people who spend more time using a computer, therefore practicing their handwriting less, have less precision in their handwriting. Evaluation of participants in the current study who completed 50% or more of their writing using a computer did not confirm this conclusion. ...
... Suddath (2009) suggested that using keyboards may cause a general loss of handwriting skills. Sülzenbrück et al. (2011) further reinforced the idea that mature adults performed better at a fine motor task with a pen than younger individuals, although on most skills, mature adults do not perform as well as young ones. Researchers have found that learning to write with novel effectors can be accomplished in a relatively short period of time (Schmidt, 1991;. ...
The purpose of the study was to determine if a generalized motor program (GMP) exists for writing, as has been previously reported. Beginning with a 1942 experiment by Lashley, and continuing with a 1976 (Raibert) example, writers of some motor learning texts have asserted that one can write with different effectors (nonpreferred hand, mouth, foot, etc.) and the results are quite similar, thus demonstrating that writing is a generalized motor program. The task has not been reported in recent literature. In order to determine if the results reported were generalizable, the researchers recruited 31 individuals who volunteered to write a short sentence under five conditions: 1) preferred hand, 2) preferred hand with wrist stabilized, 3) non-preferred hand, 4) mouth, and 5) foot. Participants ranged in age from 19 to 75 and were grouped as follows: < 25 yrs, n = 15; 25–44 yrs, n = 6; > 44, n = 10. Although all of the samples were legible in Conditions 1 and 2, legibility deteriorated significantly in Conditions 4 and 5. Contrary to expectations, there were no significant differences between the samples produced by based on age groupings. The authors concluded that most adults cannot write legibly with their mouths or feet, contrary to what has been previously reported.
... Compared to typing or visual input, using a pen contributes to improvements in visual cognitive processing abilities [7], memory [8], learning effects through note-taking [25], and symbolic processing and literacy, including writing and reading ability [9] [10]. Furthermore, it has been suggested that keyboard use is associated with a decrease in the ability to control arm and hand movements accurately [26]. From these related studies, it is evident that handwriting movements have advantages from multiple perspectives and are beneficial compared to other input methods. ...
The utilization of the non-dominant hand contributes to improving the efficiency of hand movements; however, traditional training methods require substantial time to master. How can we improve drawing ability more efficiently within a limited time? This study aimed to improve the efficiency of training by developing a device that improves the accuracy of the non-dominant hand drawing on shape drawing tasks. The device is worn on the user’s finger and provides vibration feedback to guide flexion and extension of the finger, encouraging the user to adopt the optimal fingertip posture for their individual needs. The optimal posture of the fingertip is determined based on the movements of the dominant hand. To evaluate the effectiveness of the device, an experimental shape-tracing task was performed with 44 participants. The participants were tasked with tracing 30 shapes accurately and quickly, and the shifts of the traced lines from the reference lines were quantified. The results of the experiment showed that, while the group without the device experienced a 4.243% increase in Total Shifts, the group that used the device successfully reduced Total Shifts by 4.689%, demonstrating an improvement in drawing accuracy. These results indicate that the proposed device effectively enhances drawing ability within a fixed period and is effective in shortening the training time for the non-dominant hand.
... In view of research suggesting extensive computer use can impair fine motor skills including handwriting (Sülzenbrück, Hegele, Rinkenauer & Heuer, 2011), the argument in favour of a move to e-exams would appear strong. It is further reinforced by the expectation that much coursework is typed; as a result, students may have little or no practice writing essays by hand (Mogey et al., 2008), except in subjects in which students are required to handwrite formulae or hand-draw diagrams (such as mathematics and the sciences). ...
In moving from handwritten to typed essay-based examinations (e-exams), the salient issue from an academic perspective is equivalence: can exams in the two modes be considered the same? This paper reports the findings of a literature survey addressing this question, conducted prior to a trial of e-exams at a leading university. The survey sought to establish whether the move results in changes in students’ strategies when composing an exam answer, and the resulting product, and changes in academics’ perception of typed exam scripts and their strategies in marking on screen. The research team concluded that the two modes of exam are not equivalent, even though differences in the marks achieved by students may be statistically insignificant. Recommendations arising from the analysis include moving to e-exams as the sole mode; supporting students and academics to develop IT proficiency for assessment; and capitalizing on the analytics available in e-exam tools to minimize the inequities that arise when exams are conducted in a single mode.
... In daily life, traditional pen-and-paper writing has gradually been replaced by typing, even in primary education (Longcamp et al., 2005). Although some studies have found that excessive use of typing may lead to a decline in handwriting speed and fluency and deterioration of handwriting motor skills (Sülzenbrück et al., 2011), typing does have tremendous advantages in other aspects. For example, typing is much Frontiers in Neuroscience 03 frontiersin.org ...
Many studies have explored the role of consonant, vowel, and tone in Chinese word identification or sentence comprehension. However, few studies have explored their roles and neural basis during Chinese word production, especially when involving neural basis. The present fNIRS study investigated the neural mechanisms of consonant, vowel, and tone processing during Chinese typing. Participants were asked to name the Chinese characters displayed on a computer screen by typing on a keyboard while hearing a simultaneously presented auditory stimulus. The auditory stimulus was either consistent with the characters’ pronunciation (consistent condition) or mismatched in the consonant, vowel, or tone of the character pronunciation. The fNIRS results showed that compared with the consistent condition (as baseline), the consonant mismatch condition evoked lower levels of oxygenated hemoglobin (HbO) activation in the left inferior frontal gyrus Broca’s triangle and left superior temporal gyrus. Vowel mismatch condition evoked a higher level of HbO activation in the top of the left inferior frontal gyrus and left middle frontal gyrus. The regions and patterns of brain activation evoked by tone mismatch were the same as those of vowel mismatch. The study indicated that consonant, vowel and tone all play a role in Chinese character production. The sensitive brain areas were all in the left hemisphere. However, the neural mechanism of consonant processing differed from vowel processing in both brain regions and patterns, while tone and vowel processing shared the same regions.
... As a consequence, the prevailing writing mode (handwriting vs. typewriting) might have an impact on basic motor skills beyond handwriting per se (Heuer, 2016). In adults, frequency of keyboard use in producing written text in everyday life has been shown to be related to a decrement of the skill to produce precisely controlled arm-hand movements compared with a high frequency of handwriting (Sulzenbrück, Hegele, Heuer, & Rinkenauer, 2010;Sulzenbrück, Hegele, Rinkenauer, & Heuer, 2011). This indicates that typing or handwriting practice shapes the quality of hand-arm motor control. ...
... In a study conducted by Sülzenbrück, et al. (2011) which was cited in Carstens et al., (2021) asserted the effect computer use has on motor skills, they discovered that using modern technology could effect changes in basic psychomotor and cognitive skills.The personal experiences of the respondents were also developed in terms of intellectual development through the use of technological devices. [29] Technogical devices in terms of emotional development. Having the overall mean value of 3.13, personal development indicates that emotional aspect was developed by utilizing the technological device. ...
The study aimed to determine the perception of the respondents in the Utilization of Technological Devices towards Personal Development of the Senior High School Students Percentage and mean were used in the statistical analysis of data. Th e study revealed that most of the respondents were female and 17 of Age, Smart phone was available gadgets and used WIFI connection; spent time 5 to 6 hours in using technological devices: The perceived utilization of the respondents in terms of Work Simulation, Class Collaboration, Information Searching, Game- Based Learning, Creativity and Innovation were found utilized. Likewise, personal development in terms of Physical, Intellectual, Social, and Emotional was revealed developed.
... Second, visuomotor and graphomotor measures (e.g., symbol or design copying) usually involve using a writing tool (e.g., a pencil) during task performance, which likely confounds reading performance because those that are better at operating a pencil are likely better at writing/reading (Abbott et al., 2010). A speed-based FMS measure that has little variety in required motor movements (i.e., rapid tapping) seems not to represent the kinds of FMS that educators believe might be important in child development (Ratzon et al., 2007: Sulzenbruck et al., 2011van der Fels et al., 2015). ...
Discussions on the contribution of motor skills and processes to learning to read has a long history. Previous work is essentially divided into two separate strands, namely the contributions of fine motor skills (FMS) to reading and the influence of writing versus typing. In the current 2 Â 2 Â 3 mixed, single-blind, and randomly assigned experiment, we tested both strands together. A total of 87 children learned to decode pseudowords in either typing or writing conditions in which their FMS were either impaired or not. Decoding gains were measured at pretest, posttest, and follow-up, with FMS and working memory included as participant variable predictors. Findings indicated that FMS and working memory predicted decoding gains. Importantly, children performed best when typing if in the impaired FMS condition. Results have implications for motor representation theories of writing and for instruction of children with FMS impairments.
... While a person is writing or thinking about something, he / she is decontextualized, abstracted; regardless of the situation, defines, describes and classifies (Sanders, 1994). Comparative studies of handwriting and keyboarding (typing) also imply that computer use does not only affect specific handwriting skills, but also similarly affects fine motor skills and thus general characteristics of human behavior (Medwell & Wray, 2008;Sülzenbrück, Hegele, Rinkenauer & Heuer, 2011). Handwriting is a complex perceptual-motor skill encompassing a blend of visual-motor coordination abilities, motor planning, cognitive, and perceptual skills, as well as tactile and kinesthetic sensitivities. ...
This study aims to determine the metaphor perceptions of Generation Z teacher candidates
towards handwriting and typing. Based on the metaphors obtained, elective courses related to
handwriting may be included in undergraduate programs according to their point of view on
handwriting. Much research are carried out on the area created by the change that comes with the
use of new technology. However, it is still necessary to ask new questions and seek answers.
Therefore, in this study, according to the medium in which it is presented, whether in print or digital,
how the nature of the content of the article changes according to the medium; what are the
consequences of the superficialization of the content in terms of mental processes and what are the
pre-service teachers' perspectives on handwriting. Study group of this research consists of 70 students
among the Teacher Candidates in Istanbul in the fall semester of the 2020-2021 school year. For the
data collection, a form with incomplete sentences such as “Handwriting is like... Because…” and
“Keyboarding (typing) is like… Because…” was used to allow students to write down metaphors they
attribute to “writing”. Generation Z Teacher Candidates produced metaphors in the category of
handwriting respectively the life (27.1 %), thought and feelings (20%) attention, and production
(15.7 %), skill (15.7 % ), functional ( 12.9 % ), and share/transfer (8.6 %). Teacher Candidates
produced metaphors in the category of keyboarding (typing) high-level attention/ production (24.3%),
superficiality/forgery (21.4%), easy/effortless (17.1%), thought and feelings (12.9%), sound (10%),
skill (8.6%) and future (5.7%). Teacher Candidates should provide content and environments that will
increase the longing for handwriting in their students to create awareness of writing and make them
feel the need for writing. The determination of the meanings attributed by the Generation Z Teacher
Candidates to traditional writing and typing with keys and the perspective of Teacher Candidates on
this subject were discussed.
... This adversely affects handwriting skill and legibility. However, the reduction in handwriting tuition or penmanship practice is not restricted to handwriting; it has been found to affect children's basic fine motor skills as well (Sülzenbrück et al., 2011; see also Seo, 2018). In fact, there is much controversy among researchers whether the acquisition of handwriting skills may even influence children's further or broader development (Wollscheid et al., 2016). ...
A corollary of the increased use of computers at primary school is a decrease in handwriting time, which may adversely affect the ability to recognise and discriminate letters. Our purpose was to examine if in-classroom handwriting and touch typewriting tuition make a difference in the recognition and discrimination of letters in novel readers. 81 Dutch primary school children (4.0 till 6.1 years), participated in this study. They were assigned to either a handwriting, a touch typewriting or an alphabet tuition control group. During three weeks they received two 20-minutes classroom-based tuition sessions weekly. All children were assessed on a recognition and discrimination letter test before and after the tuition sessions. Children recognised and discriminated more letters after tuition, irrespective of the type of training they had received. The novice readers among primary school children did not learn to recognise and discriminate letters better after classroom-based handwriting than after touch typewriting, or alphabet tuition.
... Age-related changes in a coordination pattern were observed between the arms during bimanual movements [17][18] as well as among the individual fingers during a multiple-finger force production [19][20], resulting in slowness of aiming movements for the elderly, especially when the complexities of tasks are increased [21]. Moreover, the elderly has an increased reliance on vision as source of sensory information, which may result in their diminished position sense [22][23], both in the ability to detect movement and active repositioning of limbs [24]. ...
The aim of the present study was to show the effects of drawing direction (top-down vs. bottom-up) and angle of trace participant drew (0 vs. 60 vs. 300) on stability varying length of drawing (5.7 cm vs. 11.4 cm vs. 17.1 cm) for the elderly. These three independent variables were within-subject factors. Thirty-eight older adults (18 females, 20 males; mean age = 71.7, SD = 5.5) participated in the study. The drawing task was performed on a computer with touch screen, using an electronic pen. Drawing performance was analyzed using a 3-way repeated measures ANOVA model. Results indicated that the error for top-down was significantly larger than that for bottom-up condition; the error for the length of drawing at 5.7 cm was larger than those at 11.4 cm and 17.1 cm. Data analysis also revealed that the effect of drawing direction on drawing velocity, indicating that drawing velocity for bottom-up was significantly greater than that for top-down condition. Additionally, the drawing velocity of length of drawing was significantly greater for 17.1 and 11.4 cm than it was for 5.7 cm. The angle of trace participant drew also significantly affected drawing velocity: 60 yielded significantly greater velocity than did 0 and 300 conditions. These results have implications for product and interface design for the elderly.
... Across languages, the word writing originated in verbs like scratch, incise, and paint (Senner, 1989). Today handwriting is understood to improve fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, recall of written material, recognition of signs, and tolerance for character ambiguity (i.e., sloppy handwriting) (James & Engelhardt, 2012;Longcamp, Zerbato-Poudou, & Velay, 2005;Mueller & Oppenheimer, 2014;Sülzenbrück, Hegele, Rinkenauer, & Heuer, 2011). It forms associations between visual signs and the meanings and sounds of language through the coordination between the Visual Word Form Area and Exner's/Broca's/Wernicke's Areas. ...
Human cognition is extended and enacted. Drawing the boundaries of cognition to include the resources and attributes of the body and materiality allows an examination of how these components interact with the brain as a system, especially over cultural and evolutionary spans of time. Literacy and numeracy provide examples of multigenerational, incremental change in both psychological functioning and material forms. Though we think materiality, its central role in human cognition is often unappreciated, for reasons that include conceptual distribution over multiple material forms, the unconscious transparency of cognitive activity in general, and the different temporalities of metaplastic change in neurons and cultural forms.
... As the interface between the psychological and material dimensions of writing, handwriting was critical to the development of literacy. Today it is known to improve things like fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, recognition and recall functions, and tolerance for ambiguity in how characters are formed (James & Engelhardt, 2012;Longcamp, Zerbato-Poudou, & Velay, 2005;Mueller & Oppenheimer, 2014;Sülzenbrück, Hegele, Rinkenauer, & Heuer, 2011). In original contexts, handwriting would have provided a critical mechanism for adjusting and refining the material form of writing. ...
Using a model of cognition as extended and enactive, we examine the role of materiality in making minds as exemplified by lithics and writing, forms associated with conceptual thought and meta-awareness of conceptual domains. We address ways in which brain functions may change in response to interactions with material forms, the attributes of material forms that may cause such change, and the spans of time required for neurofunctional reorganization. We also offer three hypotheses for investigating co-influence and change in cognition and material culture.
... Also write these letters to one keyboard does not change anything from the motor point of view; since every graphic sign, for example take the "s", has a particular movement of the body, different from the act of typing on a keyboard. 1,2 From the neurophysiological point of view, using fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) it ispossible to visualize the graphs of brain activity. Still in the experiment, each participant who had tried to write graphic signs by hand, had memorized certain movements associated with each graph-motor sign. ...
The penisone of the many channels for transforming thoughts into written words. Hand writing acts as a "memorypropeller". For example, when you are at the supermarket, the simpleact of writing keeps the products you really need in your mind; or when someone at school was a shrewd knows that very often there was no need to use the sheets prepared before a classassignment to copy because they remembered everything that was written. This memory would have failed if the ticket to copy had been written or better typed on the keyboard. The latter characterizes the work of many people and yet, even today, children make their first experiences of writing with a pen or pencil. But is it really out of fashion? Today we have the opportunity to write our thoughts in other ways, "keyboard, tablet, touch screen", and even the signature, once the test par excellence of ouridentity, is faced with the competition of our " Fingerprints". Indeed, in some American schools the writing, replaced by the PC, is no longer included in the didacticplans; according to some scientists and promoters of this event, this method would facilitate children'slearning and improve creativity.
... Indirect effects refer to displacement of sensorimotor activities typical to childhood (Suggate, Stoeger, & Pufke, 2016) through screenmedia (Gingold et al., 2014), which may be related to observed low levels of FMS in children (Gaul & Issartel, 2016). An additional source of altered sensorimotor development, although less relevant for preschool children, arises through the decreasing use of handwriting (Sülzenbrück, Hegele, Rinkenauer, & Heuer, 2011). ...
During typical childhood interactions with screen-media, input is dominated by visual signals, with a likely reduction in haptic, proprioceptive, and fine motor domains. We present the first study to investigate sensori-motor skills in a detailed manner, using a two-year longitudinal design on a sample of 117 preschool children. We measured screen-time and sensorimotor development in a differentiated manner, including measures of fine motor skills (FMS), haptic, proprioceptive, visual-haptic integration, and visual-shape discrimination. Further, we accounted for vocabulary, working memory and the purpose of media use (learning vs. entertainment; active vs. passive) via a parent-report questionnaire and a novel child-administered Media-Titles Test. Results indicated that, generally, media usage was associated with worse haptic and FMS, but better visual-shape discrimination. Visual-haptic integration and proprioception were not predicted by screen-media. Findings are discussed in terms of the differential effects of screen-media on sensorimotor skill.
... Indirect effects refer to displacement of sensorimotor activities typical to childhood (Suggate, Stoeger, & Pufke, 2016) through screenmedia (Gingold et al., 2014), which may be related to observed low levels of FMS in children (Gaul & Issartel, 2016). An additional source of altered sensorimotor development, although less relevant for preschool children, arises through the decreasing use of handwriting (Sülzenbrück, Hegele, Rinkenauer, & Heuer, 2011). ...
During typical childhood interactions with screen-media, two features are prominent. First, input is dominated by audio-visual signals and second, these predominately provide children with ready-made images, potentially negating effortful mental imagery construction. We present a two-year longitudinal study on a sample of 109 preschool children. We endeavoured to measure media usage and mental imagery development in a differentiated manner, also taking account of control variables and purpose of media use (learning vs. entertainment). Results indicated that children who viewed more media had worse mental imagery skill. Active media usage (e.g., gaming, tablets) and total screen time linked to lower mental imagery performance. Further, both mental images in the visual and haptic modalities appeared equally affected. Findings are discussed in terms of shaping early educational experiences with respect to virtual and three dimensional reality.
... Its activity is particular to handwriting, not just any fine work involving the hand, so while it is possible to produce characters by, say, carving them in stone, carving differs in both the movements used and the character repetition involved. Writing by hand improves fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, recognition and recall functions, lexical retrieval and tolerance for ambiguity in how characters are formed (Giovanni 1994;James and Engelhardt 2012;Longcamp, Zerbato-Poudou and Velay 2005;Sülzenbrück et al. 2011). In the emergence of literacy, handwriting was critical. ...
Complex systems like literacy and numeracy emerge through multigenerational interactions of brains, behaviors, and material forms. In such systems, material forms – writing for language and notations for numbers – become increasingly refined to elicit specific behavioral and psychological responses in newly indoctrinated individuals. These material forms, however, differ fundamentally in things like semiotic function: language signifies, while numbers instantiate. This makes writing for language able to represent the meanings and sounds of particular languages, while notations for numbers are semantically meaningful without phonetic specification. This representational distinction is associated with neurofunctional and behavioral differences in what neural activity and behaviors like handwriting contribute to literacy and numeracy. In turn, neurofunctional and behavioral differences place written representations for language and numbers under different pressures that influence the forms they take and how those forms change over time as they are transmitted across languages and cultures. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No. 785793.
... This adds a new turning point to sole online instruction, which could be contributing to the lowering of the acquisition of new FL words regarding spelling. In addition, the expansion of typing is also related to a decrease in the precision of arm-hand movements and fine motor skills (Sülzenbrück, Hegele, Rinkenauer, Heuer, 2011), not being a good idea using it in the first stages of writing instruction. ...
The use of the internet as a medium of instruction has changed the way students write showing careless texts when correctness is not part of the assessment criteria. This paper aims at the need of providing students with suitable guidance to avoid poor English in online productions. The starting point is an analysis of the productions of 620 university students using Antcont 3.2. The corpus is composed by online forums which are part of their final mark and where they use English as a vehicular language. In some cases, they seem to forget proofreading before sending their posts and the solution is writing another post apologizing for their mistakes, either about a specific fault or about their poor command of the language in general. There is a third type of student who does not even realize about having made a mistake and does not correct anything, proving the lack of interest when grammar and spelling are not part of the final mark. The lack of proofreading appears as a consequence of the influence of social networks (Crystal, 2004) and typing (Velay & Longcamp, 2012; Magen & Velay, 2014). It is also necessary adding the variable of foreign language anxiety (Horwitz, Horwitz & Cope, 1986) to understand the students’ apology posts in this type of tasks. After revising these findings, two options arise: on one hand, it seems necessary to advise them to revise their online productions to maintain a certain standard in written language and, on the other, ask them to write free from pressures. New studies are proposed with two control groups.
... This adds a new turning point to sole online instruction, which could be contributing to the lowering of the acquisition of new FL words regarding spelling. In addition, the expansion of typing is also related to a decrease in the precision of arm-hand movements and fine motor skills (Sülzenbrück, Hegele, Rinkenauer, Heuer, 2011), not being a good idea using it in the first stages of writing instruction. Nowadays, typing is closely related to the use of Internet. ...
This collection sheds light on the ways in which corpus linguistics and the use of learner corpora might be applied to the study of academic discourse, revealing linguistic and rhetorical patterns and insights into variation across a range of disciplinary genres. Organized into three sections, the book highlights key tools and methodologies in corpus analysis to study such features as discourse markers, lexical bundles, linguistic complexity, lexico-grammatical conventions, and modality in case studies in studies of academic discourse, both in a second language and in English for specific purposes. The volume features examples from disciplinary genres not often covered in the existing literature, including MA theses, academic book reviews, and online student forums. Taken together with the study of learner corpora, the book demonstrates the impact of corpus linguistic tools in better understanding linguistic patterns of specific languages and language use and in turn, their role in helping to identify the needs of language learners. The book will be of interest to students and scholars in corpus linguistics, applied linguistics, and English for Specific Purposes.
... have been found with deteriorated fine motor skills (Sülzenbrück et al. 2011), whereas "digital immigrants" schooled in manuscript retained their ability to make fine motor movements. Equally importantly on a cultural scale, the deterioration of handwriting skills may bring on a "blindness" to our long textual past; children schooled in keyboarding will not be able to recognize handwritten notes (Burns-Florey 2009: 128, Ingold 2007. ...
In an age of transitory writing modes, a writer who identifies as a "before and after" person has a choice of writing tools and surfaces never offered before quite this way: the analogue and the digital, the pen(cil), the keyboard, the paper and the screen. This presentation is a Media Theory approach to creative writing seen from an Embodied Cognition perspective. Arguing that creativity is as much an ability as it is an urge, I will focus on how relevant literature has explored the creative writing process in relation with the materials of writing and their affordances. Prewriting. writing and editing stages in connection with writing profiles, namely Planners and Discoverers, are likely to be differently affected by various writing tools. By locating the gaps in the scholarly work, I will question how instrument-enforced habits interact during the writing process of creative people who were schooled in handwriting and later adopted keyboarding (via typing machine). Given that dominant writing modes historically have been driven by political and economic choices, contemporary writing modules may serve a widely diverse group of writers better than unimodal writing choices. Implications for pedagogical options will be discussed.
... During the last years, however, digital writing devices associated with the use of computers, tablet computers or mobile phones are increasingly replacing handwriting (for overviews, see Mangen and Velay, 2010;Radesky et al., 2015;Kiefer and Velay, 2016). The use of digital devices for writing has impact on basic sensory-motor skills: In adults, a high frequency of keyboard use in written text production in everyday life was related to a decrement of the skill to produce precisely controlled armhand movements compared with a high frequency of handwriting (Sulzenbrück et al., 2010;Sulzenbrück et al., 2011;Heuer, 2016). In a recent survey among German teachers, poor sensorymotor skills, which are essential for handwriting, were reported to be deficient in young children entering elementary schools, possibly due to lack of prior training and the use of digital media (Marquardt et al., 2016). ...
During the last years, digital writing devices are increasingly replacing handwriting with pencil and paper. As reading and writing skills are central for education, it is important to know, which writing tool is optimal for initial literacy education. The present training study was therefore set up to test the influence of the writing tool on the acquisition of literacy skills at the letter and word level with various tests in a large sample of kindergarten children (n = 147). Using closely matched letter learning games, children were trained with 16 letters by handwriting with a pencil on a sheet of paper, by writing with a stylus on a tablet computer, or by typing letters using a virtual keyboard on a tablet across 7 weeks. Training using a stylus on a touchscreen is an interesting comparison condition for traditional handwriting, because the slippery surface of a touchscreen has lower friction than paper and thus increases difficulty of motor control. Before training, immediately after training and four to five weeks after training, we assessed reading and writing performance using standardized tests. We also assessed visuo-spatial skills before and after training, in order to test, whether the different training regimens affected cognitive domains other than written language. Children of the pencil group showed superior performance in letter recognition and improved visuo-spatial skills compared with keyboard training. The performance of the stylus group did not differ significantly neither from the keyboard nor from the pencil group. Keyboard training, however, resulted in superior performance in word writing and reading compared with handwriting training with a stylus on the tablet, but not compared with the pencil group. Our results suggest that handwriting with pencil fosters acquisition of letter knowledge and improves visuo-spatial skills compared with keyboarding. At least given the current technological state, writing with a stylus on a touchscreen seems to be the least favorable writing tool, possibly because of increased demands on motor control. Future training studies covering a more extended observation period over years are needed to allow conclusions about long-term effects of writing tools on literacy acquisition as well as on general cognitive development.
... They also found that "students in the test group wrote longer texts with better structure, clearer content, and a more elaborate language". Sulzenbruck et al. (2011) showed that the skill to produce precisely controlled arm-hand movements is related to the usage of computer keyboards in producing written text in everyday life. As stated by the authors, "this result supports the notion that specific cultural skills such as handwriting and typing shape more general perceptual and motor skills. ...
A system to support the teaching and learning of handwriting skills is proposed. It is composed of two components: the hardware component (e.g., Android Tablet); and the software component. The software component as two modules: the server and the client. A teacher chooses what exercises/games a child should do directly in the Android table or using the server, from the existing ones in the system. A child does the exercises/games by logging into the system in the Android Tablet. Automatic feedback about the correctness of the answers is provided by the system. Data (number of tries, time spent, etc.) are automatically grabbed and processed to be presented to the teachers and parents. Registered parents can see the results and follow their children' s “academic life”, by logging into the server side of the system. We found a significant improvement in the development of handwriting skills in the children throughout the academic year, and improvements were also more present when comparing children who had have contact with the system with children who did not have this contact. Educators, children, School Boards, City Town Hall and the Educational Community are unanimous in stating that the implementation of this system was a real success. : Education; Improving classroom teaching; Interactive learning environments; Evaluation methodologies; Architectures for educational technology systems; Elementary education Keywords: Education, Improving classroom teaching, Interactive learning environments, Evaluation methodologies, Architectures for educational technology systems, Elementary education
... Which one we perceive to dominate in any specific example will depend upon our frame of reference and interpretive goals. 1 To offer a simple example, the widespread use of digital technologies, and therefore keyboards, to generate text has led to a reduction in the amount of time young people spend writing by hand, both in school and on their own. Recent research has uncovered evidence that this comes at a cost, not just to handwriting ability, but to basic fine motor skills as well (Sülzenbrück et al. 2011). In this sense, digital technology is in the process of displacing scaffolding processes--formal handwriting instruction and the informal practice that accompanies it--that promote basic fine motor skills. ...
Technology helps us to do new things, or to do old things in new ways. This, at least, is our common understanding and continual hope. Technologies, however, only become useful when guided by human means to human ends and they therefore do not add to our arsenal of abilities in an unproblematic, straightforward manner. Rather they must confront a complex and preexisting set of biological traits and cultural practices before their potentialities and consequences are clear. My goal here is to sketch an account of how technologies interact with the innate and socially supported human capacities to learn and develop, using cultural scaffolding as an interpretive tool.
... During the last years, however, digital writing devices associated with the use of computers, tablet computers or mobile phones are increasingly replacing handwriting (for overviews, see Mangen and Velay, 2010;Radesky et al., 2015;Kiefer and Velay, 2016). The use of digital devices for writing has impact on basic sensory-motor skills: In adults, a high frequency of keyboard use in written text production in everyday life was related to a decrement of the skill to produce precisely controlled armhand movements compared with a high frequency of handwriting (Sulzenbrück et al., 2010;Sulzenbrück et al., 2011;Heuer, 2016). In a recent survey among German teachers, poor sensorymotor skills, which are essential for handwriting, were reported to be deficient in young children entering elementary schools, possibly due to lack of prior training and the use of digital media (Marquardt et al., 2016). ...
During the last years, digital writing devices are increasingly replacing handwriting with pencil and paper. As reading and writing skills are central for education, it is important to know, which writing tool is optimal for initial literacy education in children. The present training study was therefore set up to test the influence of the writing tool on the acquisition of literacy skills at the letter and word level with various tests in a large sample of kindergarten children (n=147). Using closely matched letter learning games, children were trained across seven weeks with 16 letters by handwriting with a pencil on a sheet of paper, by writing with a stylus on a tablet computer, or by typing letters using a virtual keyboard on a tablet. Training using a stylus on a touchscreen is an interesting comparison condition for traditional handwriting, because the slippery glass surface of a touchscreen has lower friction than paper and thus increases difficulty of motor control. Before training, immediately after training and in a follow-up four to five weeks after training, we assessed reading and writing performance using standardized tests. We also assessed visuo-spatial skills before and after training, in order to test, whether the different training regimens affected cognitive domains other than written language. Children of the pencil group showed superior performance in letter recognition and had improved visuo-spatial skills compared with keyboard training. These beneficial effects of handwriting were not observed, when children wrote with a stylus on the tablet. Keyboard training, however, resulted in superior performance in word writing and reading compared with handwriting training with a stylus on the tablet. Our results show that handwriting with pencil fosters acquisition of letter knowledge and improves visuo-spatial skills compared with keyboarding. At least given the current technological state, writing with a stylus on a touchscreen seems to be the least favorable writing tool, possibly because of increased demands on motor control. Future controlled training studies covering a more extended observation period over years are needed to allow conclusions about long-term effects of the writing tool on literacy acquisition as well as on general cognitive development.
Ancient Egypt was the civilization that formed around the Nile River. The Egyptians developed a distinctive system of writing, along with a system of decimal numbers. Egyptian counting on the fingers is mentioned in the Book of the Dead, which was written around 1600 BCE but was based on texts perhaps a thousand years older. The Greek historian Herodotus described the Egyptians as using pebbles to calculate, a form of abacus whose results were written in one of three scripts: small pictures and conventions known as hieroglyphs; a cursive form of hieroglyphs called hieratic; and a more abstract form named demotic. In numbers, the transition from hieroglyphs to hieratic to demotic forms shows how conventional forms for numbers (that is, signs for numbers whose meaning cannot be ascertained by counting the number of elements in the way a collection of vertical strokes can be counted) can emerge from handwriting and perceptual effects. One such perceptual effect influences the form of small numbers (one through three, consisting of one, two, or three vertical strokes) to be conserved, while higher numbers (four and above) change away from countable elements.
Handwriting is an important skill for children during their academic years. It is the coordination of perceptual-motor and cognitive abilities. Some children have difficulties in handwriting, which is an indication of issues in their fine motor skills. Nowadays, technology-based instructions are available to develop fine motor skills in children with handwriting disabilities. This paper describes the details of a newly developed software application namely ‘HanDex’ for children with handwriting difficulties and the experiments conducted to test its effectiveness. The application comprises six hand therapeutic activities which were designed based on the oscillation theory of handwriting. Initially, in the first phase, the experiments were conducted in nine primary school children from various schools, aged 8–12 years. Then, in the second phase, the software training was given to six upper primary school children (10–12 years) with handwriting issues. The results of using this application were promising. So one more study was conducted in another set of nine children (8–11 years) with handwriting difficulties. The participants were assessed by their special educators, class teachers and parents. After the pretest, they received a total of 18 handwriting practice sessions using this new application. At the end of the training sessions, a post test was conducted, to measure the progress in handwriting. The handwriting rubrics with eight handwriting parameters such as letter formation, placement, letter sizing, spacing of letters, legibility, speed, neatness, and spacing of words were used for handwriting assessment. The findings from the study suggested that touch-based hand therapeutic activities were beneficial for children with writing difficulties to improve their handwriting performance and tripod grip.
This paper presents writing as an extended cognitive system comprised of brain, body, and the material form that is writing. Part I introduces the theoretical framework used for the analysis, Material Engagement Theory (MET), and the initial insights into writing systems gained by applying MET to Mesopotamian artifacts for numbers and writing. Part II discusses how writing as a material form has changed over time and why this material change reflects, accumulates, and distributes change in the behaviors and brains of generations of writers. Part III explains why forms of writing used today are a visible form of language in being comprised of contrastive graphic features. Part IV argues against the idea that writing should be excluded from being considered as an extended cognitive system. On the contrary, considering writing from this perspective can provide new insights into the ways we use material forms-not just in writing but more broadly-to change our behaviors and brains, and their roles in intensifying and perpetuating those changes.
Handwriting is a perceptual-motor skill, acquired through repetitive practice. Handwriting production is most often characterized by performance speed (also termed ‘production fluency’, often assessed using text-copying tasks and legibility. Studies have found that handwriting legibility develops quickly during first grade (ages 6–7 years), reaching a plateau by second grade. In some cultures, depending on practice level, by third grade, handwriting becomes automatic, organized, and available as a tool to facilitate the development of ideas. However, handwriting is not a straightforward motor skill and has been linked with reading development. Measures of motor proficiency that correlate with handwriting production in school-aged children show an indirect effect on handwriting via reading-related skills, such as orthography, underscoring reading as a mediator of the association between motor proficiency and handwriting production. Many processes are common to reading and writing. In particular, both are related to the acquisition of a common writing system, comprised of symbols, and share common motor procedures, such as those related to directionality. In this chapter, we focus on the practice required for the acquisition of a written symbol, that is, a letter, and to the association between the ability to acquire single letter writing, handwriting, and reading.
Background:
Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has been demonstrated to facilitate motor performance in healthy individuals; however, results are variable. The neuromodulatory effects of tDCS during visuomotor tasks may be influenced by extrinsic visual feedback. However, this interaction between tDCS and visual feedback has not been explored for the lower limb. Hence, our objective was to explore if tDCS over the primary lower limb motor cortex differentially facilitates motor performance based on the availability of visual feedback.
Methods:
Twenty-two neurotypical adults performed ankle plantarflexion and dorsiflexion movements while tracking a sinusoidal target. Spatiotemporal, spatial, and temporal error were calculated between the ankle position and target. Participants attended two sessions, a week apart, with (Stim) and without (No-Stim) anodal tDCS. Sessions were divided into two blocks containing randomized visual feedback conditions: full, no, and blindfold. During Stim sessions, the first block included the application of tDCS to the lower limb M1.
Results:
Spatiotemporal and spatial error increased as feedback faded (p < .001). A two-way repeated-measures analysis of variance showed a significant interaction between tDCS and visual feedback (p < .05) on spatiotemporal error. Post hoc analyses revealed a significant improvement in spatiotemporal error when visual feedback was absent (p < .01). Spatial and temporal errors were not significantly affected by stimulation or visual feedback.
Discussion:
Our results suggest that tDCS enhances spatiotemporal ankle motor performance only when visual feedback is not available. These findings indicate that visual feedback may play an important role in demonstrating the effectiveness of tDCS.
Sport has become a globally popular activity for all target groups, and thanks to modern
technologies and media, today it influences public opinion, consumer behaviour, lifestyles, human health,
making more and more allocations in the family budget on sports-related topics. With the growing popularity
of sports in modern society, sports brands are gaining importance, especially those that have been present on
the market for decades. However, their path of development is usually not linear, and sometimes it is very
uncertain. Company Nike has gone through various stages of public perception since its inception. The
consequences of certain management decisions, which included poor treatment of employees in their factories
in the Asian market, were marketing disastrous for this company. The brand image and reputation of the
company were negative, and to the public, and it seemed impossible to correct the perception of the public.
However, with continuous efforts, Nike is improving its image and becoming an even stronger brand in the
global market. Today, it directly faces the strongest competitors in the sports industry, it is a frequent sponsor
of sports events and athletes, a participant in many socially responsible activities, as well as a respected creator
of innovations in the sports products market. In addition, Nike uses modern sustainable production methods
that correlate with environmental requirements, and as such is perceived as an innovator in the sports
industry. The basic perception that prevails in the public today about Nike is that they are an innovative and
socially responsible company that takescare of the communication with target groups, as well as building good
relations. The aim of this paper is to point out the importance of marketing instruments in the process of
improving the company's image. The basic starting point is that without the participation of marketing instruments it is not possible to create a good image. The key marketing instruments that are mentioned in
this paper include public relations, publicity, internal marketing, brand, promotion, and image. Based on the
presented analysis of key procedures and insights into applied marketing instruments, the basic hypothesis
that the application of marketing instruments in Nike's business has positively affected their image is
confirmed.
Public relations in sports have multiple roles depending on which audience they target. They
can be part of the promotional mix as the most transparent area of marketing in sports, but they can also be
viewed completely independently, which is the most common case. The reason lies in the scope of their
application and their potential, especially in situations where a business entity in the sports industry is facing
a crisis. The crisis is an increasingly common feature of the modern sports market, due to its rapid growth and
the emergence of numerous external challenges that are part of the environment of the sports entity. In
addition to business entities that produce and sell sports products and services, we can also view sports
organizations, sports events, as well as athletes themselves as entities that can find themselves in crisis. They
all make up the sports industry. Therefore, the role of public relations implies relations with many types of
public, while the mechanisms of application of this tool in crisis certainly use the potential of social media
more and more. The sports industry is increasingly demanding the integration of modern information and
communication technologies, due to the improvement of the image of individual entities in the perception of
the global public, and in crises to resolve. Although one of the possible strategies of public relations is the lack
of reaction of entities that are in crisis, in today's business environment, this strategy is not recommended,
because of the very great potential of social media. They are the ones who can create a better image and
reputation for the sports subject, but they are also able to cause great damage due to the virality of information
dissemination. If the business entity does not react immediately, it leaves room for the unhindered
dissemination of harmful information and fewer and fewer opportunities to improve the image. In addition,
the dissemination of information in such an environment quickly leads to rumours, even spinning to the
detriment of an already endangered entity. The solution lies in applying the potential of public relations,
especially in crises, regardless of whether it is an athlete, sports organization, or any other participant in the
sports industry.
This paper aims to point out the importance of the potential of public relations in the sports industry in
a broader sense. The basic hypothesis is H0: In the absence of the application of the public relations tool, the
image of a sports entity in a crisis is endangered
The study looked at the impact of library technology on the academic performance of Nigerian university distance education undergraduates. A descriptive survey design was used in this investigation. The study was based on two research topics. The survey included 698 participants from Nigeria's recognized universities. Because the study's population size can be controlled, there was no need for sampling. The data collection instrument was a 39-item structured questionnaire produced by the researchers titled: Library technology on Academic Performance of Distance Education Questionnaire (TAPDEQ). Three specialists from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka's Faculty of Education verified the instrument. The instrument's internal consistency was determined using Cronbach Alpha for reliability analysis, yielding a coefficient of 0.84. To address the study questions, the data was analyzed using mean and standard deviation. The study's findings revealed that poor or slow internet connectivity, low ICT penetration, a lack of knowledge and skills in designing and delivering courses in electronic format, and a lack of training opportunities for undergraduates on each library technology tool used in teaching and learning are among the factors that hinder contemporary library technology's impact on academic performance of distance education undergraduates in universities. The study's findings also revealed the advantages of modern library technology on academic performance of distance education undergraduates in universities, such as the ability to monitor and support undergraduate activity, provide communication for facilitators and adult learners, protect data and allow for data recovery, improve communication with learning content, and promote active learning and authentic assessment, among other things. Based on the findings of the study, it was suggested, among other things, that a university environment be built in order to provide the benefits of distant education to all regions of the country, particularly to the most remote portions of the population.
The pen is one of the many channels for transforming thoughts into written words. Handwriting acts as a "memory propeller". For example, when you are at the supermarket, the simple act of writing keeps the products you really need in your mind; or when someone at school was a shrewd knows that very often there was no need to use the sheets prepared before a class assignment to copy because they remembered everything that was written.
The proliferation of smartphones has required the advent of an entirely new system of input, distinct from both handwriting and computer-based typing. This input method, tapping, has largely been ignored by researchers to date, perhaps due to the misconception that tapping is mechanically and cognitively equivalent to typing. Therefore, while the typing-writing contrast has been well researched, very little is known about the dynamics of using a smartphone for composition. The current study investigated how the medium used affected writing fluency, as operationalized by transcription speed. A transcription task was carried out by 150 Saudi university students, both on paper and by smartphone, in either their first language (Arabic) or their second language (English). Composing by smartphone was slower for both groups, but only reached statistical significance under the second language condition. While these findings suggest that smartphones may not be ideal for classwork, follow-up surveys revealed that students remained positively disposed towards their use in spite of their experience. Implications such as the students’ willingness to compromise speed for accuracy (e.g., spellcheck) indicate that teachers should try to find ways to incorporate smartphone use while being cognizant of the potential pitfalls.
In kaum einem anderen Land sind Soziale Medien so präsent wie in China. WeChat, TikTok (Douyin), QQ, QZone und Weibo beeinflussen dort das Leben in weiten Teilen. Ob zum Bezahlen von Rechnungen, Bestellen von Lebensmitteln, Buchen von Hotels, Zügen und Taxis – wer den Alltag in China meistern will, kommt um Soziale Medien nicht mehr herum. Dieses Kapitel befasst sich mit der Fragestellung, welche Funktionalitäten chinesische Social-Media-Anwendungen so innovativ machen und welche Auswirkungen auf das Leben in China damit verbunden sind. So weisen verschiedene Studien durch die Nutzung von Sozialen Medien nicht nur Veränderungen in der Kultur Chinas nach, sondern auch Einflüsse auf die Kommunikation, soziale Beziehungen, das psychische Wohlbefinden und die politische Meinungsbildung in China.
Towards the larger goal of understanding factors relevant for improving visuo-motor control, we investigated the role of visual feedback for modulating the effectiveness of a simple hand-eye training protocol. The regimen comprised a series of curve tracing tasks undertaken over a period of one week by neurologically healthy individuals with their non-dominant hands. Our three subject groups differed in the training they experienced: those who received ‘Persistent’ visual-feedback by seeing their hand and trace evolve in real-time superimposed upon the reference patterns, those who received ‘Non-Persistent’ visual-feedback seeing their hand movement but not the emerging trace, and a ‘Control’ group that underwent no training. Improvements in performance were evaluated along two dimensions—accuracy and steadiness, to assess visuo-motor and motor skills, respectively. We found that persistent feedback leads to a significantly greater improvement in accuracy than non-persistent feedback. Steadiness, on the other hand, benefits from training irrespective of the persistence of feedback. Our results not only demonstrate the feasibility of rapid visuo-motor learning in adulthood, but more specifically, the influence of visual veridicality and a critical role for dynamically emergent visual information.
Adequately quantifying fine motor control is imperative for understanding individual motor behavior development and mastery. We recently showed that using different tasks to evaluate fine motor control may produce different results, suggesting that multiple measures for fine motor control may be evaluating different skills and/or underlying processes. Specifically, drawing behavior may depend on internal cueing, whereas tracing depends more on external cueing. To better understand how an individual develops a certain preference for cueing, we evaluated fine motor control in 265 typically developing children (aged 6–11) by measuring their accuracy for both drawing and tracing a circle. Our results first confirmed that there was no significant correlation between tracing and drawing task performances during this phase of development and, secondly, showed a significant developmental improvement in tracing, especially between 2nd and 3rd graders, whereas drawing ability improved only moderately. We discuss the potential roles of attentional focus and cognitive development as possible influencing factors for these developmental patterns. We conclude that using both a drawing and tracing task to evaluate fine motor control is rapid, economic and valuable for monitoring motor development among elementary school children.
Background: Chronic subdural hematoma is a frequently encountered clinical entity in neurosurgical practice. A small subgroup of chronic subdural hematomas present with calcification or ossification. This entity can pose different operative challenges and distinct clinical features. Case Description: We describe a 39-year-old male with adult-onset epilepsy presenting with gradual development of headaches and dizziness with right-sided weakness and hyperreflexia. He was found to have a large, right-sided calcified chronic subdural hematoma and underwent craniotomy for evacuation. Postoperatively, the patient had full-strength on the right side but was plegic on the left side, which gradually improved back to normal strength. Conclusion: We present the case of an adult patient with false-localizing sign and distinct motor recovery pattern attributable to a large calcified chronic subdural hematoma which required delicate resection due to cortical adherence.
Aim/Purpose: Teachers are being asked to integrate mobile technologies into their content creation and distribution tasks. This research aims to provide an understanding of teachers taking on this process and whether the use of technology has influenced their content creation and distribution in the classroom. Background: Many claim that the use of technology for content creation and distribution can only enhance and improve the educational experience. However, for teachers it is not simply the integration of technology that is of prime concern. As teachers are ultimately responsible for the success of technology integration, it is essential to understand teachers’ viewpoints and lived technology experiences. Methodology: The Task-Technology Fit (TTF) model was used to guide interpretive case study research. Six teachers were purposively sampled and interviewed from a private school where a digital strategy is already in place. Data was then analysed using directed content analysis in relation to TTF. Contribution: This paper provides an understanding of teachers’ mobile technology choices in relation to content creation and distribution tasks. Findings: Findings indicate that teachers fit technology into their tasks if they perceive the technology has a high level of benefit to the teaching task. In addition, the age of learners and the subject being taught are major influencers. Recommendations for Practitioners: Provides a more nuanced and in-depth understanding of teachers’ technology choices, which is necessary for the technology augmented educational experience of the future. Recommendations for Researchers: Provides an unbiased and theoretically guided view of mobile technology use with content creation and distribution tasks. Impact on Society: Teachers do not appear to use technology as a de facto standard, but specifically select technology which will save them time, reduce costs, and improve the educational experiences of their learners. Future Research: A mixed-method approach, including several diverse schools as well as learners would enrich the findings. Furthermore, consideration of hardware limitations and lack of software features are needed.
The aim of this paper is to understand the functional role of mental representations and intentionality in skilled actions from a systems related perspective. Therefore, we will evaluate the function of representation and then discuss the cognitive architecture of skilled actions in more depth. We are going to describe the building blocks and levels of the action system that enable us to control movements such as striking the tennis ball at the right time, or grasping tools in manual action. Based on this theoretical understanding the measurement of mental representations and related research results concerning mental representation in skilled action are presented in an overview. This leads to the question how mental representations develop and change during learning. Finally, to consolidate the functional understanding of mental representation in skilled action and interaction, we provide examples how to use the measurement of mental representation in humans to inform technical systems.
Humans leverage material forms for unique cognitive purposes: We recruit and incorporate them into our cognitive system, exploit them to accumulate and distribute cognitive effort, and use them to recreate phenotypic change in new individuals and generations. These purposes are exemplified by writing, a relatively recent tool that has become highly adept at eliciting specific psychological and behavioral responses in its users, capability it achieved by changing in ways that facilitated, accumulated, and distributed incremental behavioral and psychological change between individuals and generations. Writing is described here as a self-organizing system whose design features reflect points of maximal usefulness that emerged under sustained collective use of the tool. Such self-organization may hold insights applicable to human cognitive evolution and tool use more generally. Accordingly, this article examines the emergence of the ability to leverage material forms for cognitive purposes, using the tool-using behaviors and lithic technologies of ancestral species and contemporary non-human primates as proxies for matters like collective use, generational sustainment, and the non-teleological emergence of design features. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No. 785793.
The present study investigated the effects of drawing direction (top‐down or bottom‐up) and orientation angle (0°, 60°, or 300°) on the stability of straight‐line drawing with varied line length (5.7, 11.4, or 17.1 cm) of elderly Taiwanese adults. These three independent variables were within‐subject factors. In total, 38 elderly adults participated. The straight‐line drawing task was performed on an iPad using an electronic pen. Straight‐line drawing performance was analyzed using three‐way repeated analysis of variance measures. The results indicated that the error rate was significantly higher in the top‐down condition than in the bottom‐up condition and was higher for the 5.7‐cm line length than for the 11.4 or 17.1 cm lengths. In addition, the average drawing speed in the top‐down condition was significantly greater than that in the bottom‐up condition and was significantly greater at 17.1 and 11.4 cm than at 5.7 cm. The orientation angle also significantly affected the average drawing speed, which demonstrated that the 60° condition yielded a significantly greater speed than the 0° or 300° conditions. Our findings have implications for product design and computer–human interface design for seniors. Further studies are needed to determine whether these findings can be generalized to more complex motor movements and cognitive abilities.
This study examined students’ expressed strategies, habits and preferences with respect to responding to supervised text-based assessments. Two trials of a computerised examination system took place in an Australian pre-university college in 2016 and 2017. Students in several classes studying geography and globalisation completed a sequence of practice and assessed work. Data were collected using pre- and post-surveys about their preferred writing styles, habits and strategies in light of their choice to type or handwrite essay and short answer examinations. Comparisons were made between those that elected to handwrite and those who chose to type the examination, with several areas being significant. The performance (grades), production (word count) of the typists and hand-writers were also correlated and compared.
In an experiment that combined the task-shifting methodology with a serial reaction-time task, three groups of participants had to shift among a set of four tasks that were arranged in regular sequences of length eight. Two groups of participants were given explicit knowledge about the sequence of tasks. To ensure that the knowledge of the sequence was referred to in each trial, one group was asked to verbalise the forthcoming task (verbalisation group), whereas the other group had to detect trials that deviated from the learned sequence (detection group). Participants of a control group were given no information about the sequence of tasks. In addition, for all experimental groups in half of the blocks of trials external precues were presented which indicated the forthcoming task. The control group exhibited substantial task-shifting costs that were greatly reduced by the presentation of precues. Participants of the explicit-knowledge groups showed no indication that explicit knowledge resulted in advance preparation of the forthcoming task. In addition, the effect of the precues depended on the secondary task that had to be performed on the basis of explicit knowledge. Whereas for the detection group precues reduced shift costs to the same degree as for the control group, the verbalisation group showed no precueing benefits at all.
In recent years, electronic games, home computers, and the Internet have assumed an important place in our lives. This paper presents a review of the research on the impact of home computer use on the development of children and adolescents. Time use data are presented along with a discussion of factors such as age, gender, and ethnicity, which impact the time spent on computers as well as the activities engaged in. Research on the impact of computer use on cognitive skill and academic development, social development and relationships, and perceptions of reality and violent behavior is reviewed. The special role of the Internet in the lives of adolescents is brought out using data from the HomeNet study. The paper concludes with recommendations for future study in order to better understand the growing impact of computers on our youth.
Visuomotor rotation tasks have proven to be a powerful tool to study adaptation of the motor system. While adaptation in such tasks is seemingly automatic and incremental, participants may gain knowledge of the perturbation and invoke a compensatory strategy. When provided with an explicit strategy to counteract a rotation, participants are initially very accurate, even without on-line feedback. Surprisingly, with further testing, the angle of their reaching movements drifts in the direction of the strategy, producing an increase in endpoint errors. This drift is attributed to the gradual adaptation of an internal model that operates independently from the strategy, even at the cost of task accuracy. Here we identify constraints that influence this process, allowing us to explore models of the interaction between strategic and implicit changes during visuomotor adaptation. When the adaptation phase was extended, participants eventually modified their strategy to offset the rise in endpoint errors. Moreover, when we removed visual markers that provided external landmarks to support a strategy, the degree of drift was sharply attenuated. These effects are accounted for by a setpoint state-space model in which a strategy is flexibly adjusted to offset performance errors arising from the implicit adaptation of an internal model. More generally, these results suggest that strategic processes may operate in many studies of visuomotor adaptation, with participants arriving at a synergy between a strategic plan and the effects of sensorimotor adaptation.
Background:
Adjustment to a visuo-motor rotation is known to be affected by ageing. According to previous studies, the age-related differences primarily pertain to the use of strategic corrections and the generation of explicit knowledge on which strategic corrections are based, whereas the acquisition of an (implicit) internal model of the novel visuo-motor transformation is unaffected. The present study aimed to assess the impact of augmented information on the age-related variation of visuo-motor adjustments.
Methodology/principal findings:
Participants performed aiming movements controlling a cursor on a computer screen. Visual feedback of direction of cursor motion was rotated 75 degrees relative to the direction of hand motion. Participants had to adjust to this rotation in the presence and absence of an additional hand-movement target that explicitly depicted the input-output relations of the visuo-motor transformation. An extensive set of tests was employed in order to disentangle the contributions of different processes to visuo-motor adjustment. Results show that the augmented information failed to affect the age-related variations of explicit knowledge, adaptive shifts, and aftereffects in a substantial way, whereas it clearly affected initial direction errors during practice and proprioceptive realignment.
Conclusions:
Contrary to expectations, older participants apparently made no use of the augmented information, whereas younger participants used the additional movement target to reduce initial direction errors early during practice. However, after a first block of trials errors increased, indicating a neglect of the augmented information, and only slowly declined thereafter. A hypothetical dual-task account of these findings is discussed. The use of the augmented information also led to a selective impairment of proprioceptive realignment in the younger group. The mere finding of proprioceptive realignment in adaptation to a visuo-motor rotation in a computer-controlled setup is noteworthy since visual and proprioceptive information pertain to different objects.
In many everyday situations, speed is of the essence. However, fast decisions typically mean more mistakes. To this day, it remains unknown whether reaction times can be reduced with appropriate training, within one individual, across a range of tasks, and without compromising accuracy. Here we review evidence that the very act of playing action video games significantly reduces reaction times without sacrificing accuracy. Critically, this increase in speed is observed across various tasks beyond game situations. Video gaming may therefore provide an efficient training regimen to induce a general speeding of perceptual reaction times without decreases in accuracy of performance.
Transformed spatial mappings were used to perturb normal visual-motor processes and reveal the structure of internal spatial representations used by the motor control system. In a 2-D discrete aiming task performed under rotated visual-motor mappings, the pattern of spatial movement error was the same for all Ss: peak error between 90 degrees and 135 degrees of rotation and low error for 180 degrees rotation. A two-component spatial representation, based on oriented bidirectional movement axes plus direction of travel along such axes, is hypothesized. Observed reversals of movement direction under rotations greater than 90 degrees are consistent with the hypothesized structure. Aiming error under reflections, unlike rotations, depended on direction of movement relative to the axis of reflection (see Cunningham & Pavel, in press). Reaction time and movement time effects were observed, but a speed-accuracy tradeoff was found only for rotations for which the direction-reversal strategy could be used. Finally, adaptation to rotation operates at all target locations equally but does not alter the relative difficulty of different rotations. Structural properties of the representation are invariant under learning.
Within an information processing framework, age-related declines in speeded responding are attributed to one or more stages of processing. It was the purpose of this experiment to demonstrate the potential reversibility of this decline in at least one processing stage, response selection. Two groups of elderly participants (57 to 83 years) were pretested on a two-choice reaction time (RT) task under two levels of spatial stimulus-response (S-R) compatibility, a task demand shown to affect response selection. Following the pretest, one group participated in 7 weeks of videogame play, whereas a second group did not. All participants were posttested on the same two-choice RT task. The results of the analysis of covariance revealed that those elderly individuals who played videogames were faster than the control participants under both levels of S-R compatibility. The effect of videogame play, however, was greater for low compatibility. These results are taken as support for a potential to improve response selection through videogame play.
The recent proliferation of electronic video games has caused an outcry from those who question the merits of the games, while others maintain the games improve eye-hand coordination. At present, no empirical data are available to indicate whether there are differences in eye-hand coordination between video game users and non-users. Comparing 31 video game users and 31 non-users showed users have significantly better eye-hand motor coordination on a pursuit rotor. However, no relationship was found between an individual's eye-hand motor coordination and the amount of time spent weekly playing video games or the length of experience with video games.
Using a cross-sectional design, this study determined the time course of aging effects on rapid discrete and reciprocal aiming movements in men and women. A total of 80 men and 61 women in good health were classified into six age groups (25, 35, 45, 55, 65, and 75 years). The discrete task required participants to make one discrete aiming movement, whereas the reciprocal task required a series of back-and-forth movements. Results indicated for both aiming tasks that greater age was strongly associated with slower movement times. The significant interaction between age and task indicated that the discrete task showed much larger aging effects (54%) than the reciprocal task (25%). This finding is tentatively interpreted in terms of a reduced efficiency of "on-line" control processes.
The purpose of this review is to extend the existing application of the frontal lobe hypothesis of cognitive aging beyond the limited work on inhibitory control (F. N. Dempster, 1992) to include memory processes supported by the prefrontal cortex. To establish a background for this analysis, I review existing models of prefrontal cortex function and present a synthesized model that includes a general function of temporal integration, supported by 4 specific processes: prospective memory, retrospective memory, interference control, and inhibition of prepotent responses. I found the frontal lobe hypothesis to perform well, with the exception of an inability to account for age-related declines in item recall and recognition memory, possibly a result of age-related declines in medial temporal function.
When starting limb and target locations were simultaneously visible in a visuomotor task, performance during prism exposure was nearly perfect, but aftereffects were absent. When starting limb location was not visible, accurate exposure performance was slow to develop, but aftereffects were substantial. Adaptive spatial alignment of sensorimotor spaces and strategic perceptual-motor control to coordinate sensorimotor systems are distinct processes. However, realignment is dependent on whether the exposure task evokes control strategies that enable detection of misalignment. If the task can be performed solely by coding the visible difference between limb and target locations, misalignment detection is disabled. If movement is initiated by target location and then the limb is controlled by the visible difference between target and limb, the discordance between initialized and terminal locations enables misalignment detection and realignment.
A meta-analysis was conducted on 91 studies to derive a correlation matrix for adult age, speed of processing, primary-working memory, episodic memory, reasoning, and spatial ability. Structural equation modeling with a single latent common cognitive factor showed that all cognitive measures shared substantial portions of age-related variance. A mediational model revealed that speed of processing and primary-working memory appear to be important mediators of age-related differences in the other measures. However, not all of the age-related influences were mediated. An examination of quadratic age effects and correlational patterns for subsamples under and over 50 years of age revealed that (a) negative age-cognition relations were significant for the 18- to 50-year-old sample and (b) the age-related decline accelerated significantly over the adult life span for variables assessing speed, reasoning, and episodic memory.
To examine putative brain substrates of cognitive functions differentially affected by age the authors measured the volume of cortical regions and performance on tests of executive functions, working memory, explicit memory, and priming in healthy adults (18-77 years old). The results indicate that shrinkage of the prefrontal cortex mediates age-related increases in perseveration. The volume of visual processing areas predicted performance on nonverbal working memory tasks. Contrary to the hypotheses, in the examined age range, the volume of limbic structures was unrelated to any of the cognitive functions; verbal working memory, verbal explicit memory, and verbal priming were independent of cortical volumes. Nevertheless, among the participants aged above 60, reduction in the volume of limbic structures predicted declines in explicit memory. Chronological age adversely influenced all cognitive indices, although its effects on priming were only indirect, mediated by declines in verbal working memory.
The authors explored the motor control of target-oriented arm movements across 3 age groups: 20 20- to 30-year-olds, 2 groups (n = 38) of older adults (54 to 64, and 65 to 80). Each individual completed 2 arm movement tasks that had the same movement difficulty but different movement directions. A mixed design was used to examine the differences among age groups and movement directions in reaction time (RT), variability in RT, movement time (MT), timing variability, and inter-segment-interval (ISI). Comparing to the young participants, the senior adults initiated movement tasks slower (RT) and with more RT variability, and executed the arm movements slower and less consistently. The two older groups had greater timing variability in their movements, showed more delays (longer ISI) when reversing arm movement direction, and had lower correlations among segments of the movements than the younger group. The quality of the elderly's control of rapid aiming arm movements showed a regression, which suggests a lack of movement planning, resulting in greater use of visual feedback during movement execution.
Exposure to laterally displacing prisms is characterized by systematic misreaching in the opposite direction after prisms are removed. Other learning tasks involving altered visuomotor mappings can often be mastered by the subject with minimal resulting aftereffects. One variable that may account for this difference is the nature of the feedback provided to the subject: during studies of prism exposure, subjects usually view the hand itself, whereas in many studies of visuomotor learning, subjects view a computer-generated representation of the hand position or movement. We compared the use of actual feedback of the hand with computer-generated representational feedback of its position during exposure to laterally displacing prisms. In the actual feedback condition (ACT), a light on the fingertip was illuminated immediately at the end of each reach. In the representational feedback condition (REP), a computer-generated spot of light was displayed to indicate the exact position of the fingertip at the end of each reach. Whereas the rate and magnitude of error correction were the same in both conditions, only the ACT condition produced the large adaptive aftereffect typically observed after prism exposure. These results suggest that the perception of a physical coincidence between the feedback source and the hand may be a key factor in determining whether adaptation is accomplished through perceptual recalibration or visuomotor skill acquisition.
Canadian university students either of Chinese origin (CC) or non-Asian origin (NAC) and Chinese university students educated in Asia (AC) solved simple-arithmetic problems in the 4 basic operations (e.g., 3 + 4, 7 - 3, 3 x 4, 12 divided by 3) and reported their solution strategies. They also completed a standardized test of more complex multistep arithmetic. For complex arithmetic, ACs outperformed both CCs and NACs. For simple arithmetic, however, ACs and CCs were equal and both performed better than NACs. The superior simple-arithmetic skills of CCs relative to NACs implies that extracurricular culture-specific factors rather than differences in formal education explain the simple-arithmetic advantage for Chinese relative to non-Asian North American adults. NAC's relatively poor simple-arithmetic performance resulted both from less efficient retrieval skills and greater use of procedural strategies. Nonetheless, all 3 groups reported using procedures for the larger simple subtraction and division problems, confirming the importance of procedural knowledge in skilled adults' performance of elementary mathematics.
Visuomotor adaptation to a gradual or sudden screen cursor rotation was investigated in healthy young and elderly subjects. Both age groups were equally divided into two subgroups; one subgroup was exposed to 11.25 degrees step increments of visual feedback rotation, every 45 trials (up to a total of 90 degrees), whereas a second subgroup was subjected to 90 degrees rotation from the onset of exposure. Participants performed discrete, horizontal hand movements to virtual targets in four randomized directions. Targets appeared on a computer screen in front of them, and a board prevented vision of the hand at all times. Differential effects of aging on visuomotor adaptation were found, depending on the time course of the visual distortion. In both age groups, early exposure to the sudden visual feedback distortion resulted in typical spiral-like trajectories, which became straighter by late exposure. However, the final adaptation level was reduced in the aged group, although the aftereffects were similar. When subjects were exposed to the gradual distortion, no statistically significant differences in measures of adaptation with advancing age were found. In this case, both age groups appeared to adapt equally. However, after removal of the distortion, elderly subjects showed reduced aftereffects as compared with the young group. These findings suggest differential effects of aging on adaptation to gradual versus sudden visual feedback distortions, and may help to explain the conflicting results obtained in previous visuomotor adaptation studies.
In the present study we address the hypothesis that the basal ganglia are specifically involved in the planning of movement amplitude (or related covariates). This prediction has often been put forward based on the observation that Parkinson's disease (PD) patients exhibit hypokinesia. A close examination of the literature shows, however, that this commonly reported clinical symptom is not consistently echoed by experimental observations. When required to point to visual targets in the absence of vision of the moving limb, PD subjects exhibit various patterns of inaccuracy, including hypometria, hypermetria, systematic direction bias, or direction-dependent errors. They have even been shown to be as accurate as healthy, age-matched subjects. The main aim of the current study is to address the origin of these inconsistencies. To this end, we required nine patients presenting with advanced PD and 15 age-matched control subjects to perform planar reaching movements to visual targets. Eight targets were presented in equally spaced directions around a circle centered on the hand's starting location. Based on a previously validated parsing procedure, end-point errors were segmented into localization and planning errors. Localization errors refer to the existence of systematic biases in the estimation of the initial hand location. These biases can potentially transform a simple pattern of pure amplitude errors into a complex pattern involving both amplitude and direction errors. Results indicated that localization errors were different in the PD patients and the control subjects. This is not surprising knowing both that proprioception is altered in PD patients and that the ability to locate the hand at rest relies mainly on the proprioceptive sense, even when vision is available. Unlike normal subjects, localization errors in PD were idiosyncratic, lacking a consistent pattern across subjects. When the confounding effect of initial hand localization errors was canceled, we found that end-point errors were only due to the implementation of an underscaled movement gain (15%), without direction bias. Interestingly, the level of undershoot was found to increase with the severity of the disease (inferred from the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale, UPDRS, motor score). We also observed that movement variability was amplified (32%), but only along the main movement axis (extent variability). Direction variability was not significantly different in the patient population and the control group. When considered together, these results support the idea that the basal ganglia are specifically involved in the control of movement amplitude (or of some covariates). We propose that this structure participates in extent planning by modulating cortical activity and/or the tuning of the spinal interneuronal circuits.
Previous studies suggest that horizontal reaching movements are planned vectorially with independent specification of direction and extent. The transformation from visual to hand-centered coordinates requires the learning of a task-specific reference frame and scaling factor. We studied learning of a novel reference frame by imposing a screen-cursor rotation and learning of a scaling factor by imposing a novel gain. Previous work demonstrates that rotation and gain learning have different time courses and patterns of generalization. Here we used PET to identify and compare brain areas activated during rotation and gain learning, with a baseline motor-execution task as the subtracted control. Previous work has shown that the time courses of rotation and gain adaptation have a short rapid phase followed by a longer slow phase. We therefore also sought to compare activations associated with the rapid and slower phases of adaptation. We isolated the rapid phase by alternating opposite values of the rotation or gain every 16 movements. The rapid phase of rotation adaptation activated the preSMA. More complete adaptation to the rotation activated right ventral premotor cortex, right posterior parietal cortex, and the left lateral cerebellum. The rapid phase of gain learning only activated subcortical structures: bilateral putamen and left cerebellum. More complete gain learning failed to show any significant activation. We conclude that the time course of rotation adaptation is paralleled by a frontoparietal shift in activated cortical regions. In contrast, early gain adaptation involves only subcortical structures, which we suggest reflects a more automatic process of contextual recalibration of a scaling factor.
Data and theory from prism adaptation are reviewed for the purpose of identifying control methods in applications of the procedure. Prism exposure evokes three kinds of adaptive or compensatory processes: postural adjustments (visual capture and muscle potentiation), strategic control (including recalibration of target position), and spatial realignment of various sensory-motor reference frames. Muscle potentiation, recalibration, and realignment can all produce prism exposure aftereffects and can all contribute to adaptive performance during prism exposure. Control over these adaptive responses can be achieved by manipulating the locus of asymmetric exercise during exposure (muscle potentiation), the similarity between exposure and post-exposure tasks (calibration), and the timing of visual feedback availability during exposure (realignment).
Video games have become extensively integrated into popular culture. Anecdotal observations of young surgeons suggest that video game play contributes to performance excellence in laparoscopic surgery. Training benefits for surgeons who play video games should be quantifiable.
There is a potential link between video game play and laparoscopic surgical skill and suturing.
Cross-sectional analysis of the performance of surgical residents and attending physicians participating in the Rosser Top Gun Laparoscopic Skills and Suturing Program (Top Gun). Three different video game exercises were performed, and surveys were completed to assess past experience with video games and current level of play, and each subject's level of surgical training, number of laparoscopic cases performed, and number of years in medical practice.
Academic medical center and surgical training program.
Thirty-three residents and attending physicians participating in Top Gun from May 10 to August 24, 2002.
The primary outcome measures were compared between participants' laparoscopic skills and suturing capability, video game scores, and video game experience.
Past video game play in excess of 3 h/wk correlated with 37% fewer errors (P<.02) and 27% faster completion (P<.03). Overall Top Gun score (time and errors) was 33% better (P<.005) for video game players and 42% better (P<.01) if they played more than 3 h/wk. Current video game players made 32% fewer errors (P=.04), performed 24% faster (P<.04), and scored 26% better overall (time and errors) (P<.005) than their nonplaying colleagues. When comparing demonstrated video gaming skills, those in the top tertile made 47% fewer errors, performed 39% faster, and scored 41% better (P<.001 for all) on the overall Top Gun score. Regression analysis also indicated that video game skill and past video game experience are significant predictors of demonstrated laparoscopic skills.
Video game skill correlates with laparoscopic surgical skills. Training curricula that include video games may help thin the technical interface between surgeons and screen-mediated applications, such as laparoscopic surgery. Video games may be a practical teaching tool to help train surgeons.
It has been shown before that sensorimotor adaptation to rotated vision is more generalized when subjects point at eight, rather than at four or less targets. Here we evaluate whether an even more variable practice has additional benefits. One group of subjects pointed at eight targets, and another group executed unconstrained arm movements throughout the workspace. We found no advantage of the latter group with respect to adaptive progress, persistence of adaptation without visual feedback, or transfer of adaptation to a new motor task. We therefore concluded that eight targets are sufficient to yield generalized adaptation. To determine the role of declarative knowledge for sensorimotor adaptation, subjects from both above groups were questioned regarding the nature of the distortion after they completed the experiment. We found that correct responders showed better adaptive progress, more persistence, but the same transfer as incorrect responders. We therefore concluded that the benefit of declarative knowledge is task-specific and short-lived, and is therefore probably related to strategic control rather than to an adaptive recalibration of the sensorimotor system.
Adaptation to a visuomotor rotation is known to be impaired at older adult age. The authors examined whether the impairment is present already at preretirement age and whether it depends on the difficulty of the adaptation task. Moreover, the authors tested predictions of the hypothesis that the age-related impairment pertains primarily to strategic corrections and the explicit knowledge on which they are based but not to the acquisition of an (implicit) internal model of the novel visuomotor transformation. The authors found an age-related impairment of adaptation and explicit knowledge already at preretirement age but no age-related change of aftereffects. With an incremental simplification of the adaptation task, age-related changes were able to be eliminated. Individual differences of the quality of explicit knowledge were associated with differences of adaptation, but not of aftereffects. When age groups were matched by explicit knowledge, age-related impairments of adaptation largely disappeared. However, a reliable difference remained in one of the experiments, suggesting that other processes of adjustment to a visuomotor rotation might be affected by aging as well.
This experimental study investigated whether fifth, seventh, and ninth grade students participating in selected computer games utilizing spatial skills would improve their scores on a spatial ability measure. A significant treatment effect in favor of the experimental conditions was found in the analyses of covariance. No significant interaction or main effects were found for grade level or sex, indicating that males and females at all three grade levels seemed to benefit from this experience. These results suggest that certain computer games may enhance the development of spatial ability as measured by the Mental Rotation Test. Identified spatial components of the two games included visual perception and discrimination, differentiation of opposite obliques, visualization of transformations in series, the use of referent systems, and the development and updating of cognitive maps.
Forty industrial workers between 20 and 60 years of age took part in the experiment. Each sat facing a display in an enclosure. His task was to locate targets with a pointer, under two conditons: when he was able to make whatever use he chose of direct vision, and wearing a pair of red goggles through which only the diplay could be seen.
On the average, those over 40 years of age took more time than younger subjects over those portions of the task which were concerned with the initiation of a fresh action. When unable to make use of vision the older had far greater difficulty in locating the targets and attempted to supplement tactile and kinesthetic cues by making postural adjustments, turning their heads and often their bodies in the direction of the target at which they were aiming. These findings are discussed in relation to an earlier observation of the greater tendency for older people to look at what they are doing.
A large number of apparatus and printed psychomotor tests was selected or specifically designed to measure certain ability categories hypothesized to exist from the results of previous research in this area. After extensive pretesting, the tests were assembled into a battery and administered to 400 Ss. The correlations among scores on these tests were then subjected to a Thurstone centroid factor analysis The results were discussed with respect to the factor composition of individual tests, the utility of certain printed tests designed to reproduce apparatus test variances, and the contribution of these factors to certain kinds of more complex psychomotor performance." 19 references.
One of the fundamental concomitants of aging is generalized slowing of almost all motor and mental functions. The present study aimed to elucidate the generality of slowing across different sensorimotor tasks. Results show that although slowing can be found in many tasks, older adults perform faster in a tracing task compared to their younger counterparts. Potential explanations of these findings are discussed with respect to biological changes in the course of aging and with respect to cultural and technological developments during the last decades.
Human subjects pointed, without sight of their arm, at visual targets presented on a mirror-viewed monitor screen. During the adaptation period of each experiment, the position of the pointing fingertip was continuously recorded and displayed on the screen along with the targets. This visual feedback was not always veridical; rather, it was manipulated to require a gradual modification of the pointing response gain throughout the adaptation period. No visual feedback at all was available during the pre- and postadaptation periods of each experiment. The adaptive effect was determined as difference between pre- and postadaptation gains. In Expt. A, visual feedback during the adaptation period prescribed a gradual reduction of the horizontal response gain without specifying the gain for other directions; the adaptive effect was found to generalize uniformly to all movement directions. Expt. B1 prescribed a reduction of the horizontal, and an unchanged vertical gain component: in spite of this differential requirement, the adaptive effect was again uniform for all directions. Expt. B2 prescribed a reduction of the horizontal, and an increase of the vertical gain component: we found a reduced gain for all directions, with a mild direction-dependence in the magnitude of the adaptive effect. In a modified version of Expt. B2, no intermanual transfer of the adaptive effect was found. Expt. C1-3 prescribed gain reduction for target directions within 15, 30, or 45 degrees around the horizontal, and gain increase for all other directions: we found little or no adaptive effects under such conditions. From the above findings, we concluded that the adapted system controls movement gain largely independent of movement direction. This mechanism responds readily to requirements for gain reduction, but not gain increase. No evidence for an organization of the arm motor system in direction-selective channels was found, in contrast to findings on the saccadic control system in a paradigm similar to our Expt. A8. This discrepancy supports the view that arm and eye movements are controlled by distinct mechanisms.
The article addresses two questions about perceptual learning: What are the circumstances which produce learning? What is the content of learning? For each question, a critical principle is suggested: (1) Objects are constrained to behave in certain ways. If a violation is detected, an internal malfunction is assumed and subsequently corrected. (2) Learning involves mappings between entire perceptual dimensions rather than associations between individual stimuli. The principles are applied to two phenomena: the classic adaptation to prism distorted vision and the more recent, but equally elusive, McCollough effect. The view suggests a new interpretation of the McCollough effect and accounts for findings difficult to account for in other interpretations including which stimuli can successfully lead to contingent after-effects, the outcome of correlation manipulations, and why the effect exists at all. In addition, the phenomenon is linked to prism adaptation, usually regarded as a distinct type of plasticity. In general, the view advanced is that the two principles help distinguish perceptual learning from other types of learning processes.
We investigated the constraints for visuo-motor adaptation in human pointing movements. Subjects pointed at sequentially presented visual targets while visual feedback about their finger position was either absent (pre- and post-period), or was manipulated such as to require a gradual reduction of response amplitude (per-period). We found that response amplitudes were smaller during the post- than during the pre-period, which documents the existence of adaptation to distorted visual feedback. We further found that adaptation can transfer fully to untrained amplitudes (Exp. 1), although the amount of transfer may be reduced if trained and untrained amplitudes are substantially different (Exp. 2). However, selective adaptation of one amplitude but not another can also be yielded if the paradigm explicitly asks for it (Exp. 3), and if the two amplitudes differ by more than about 10 cm (Exp. 4). We conclude from these findings that the adapted mechanism consists of amplitude-specific elements, tuned to amplitude spans of some 10 cm.
We investigated the effect of aging on different aspects of motor skill learning using two computer-presented perceptuomotor tasks. The relationship between visual and proprioceptive feedback was transformed in the first task, which was open to the formation and use of strategies. This task was designed to lead to perceptuomotor adaptation that was then measured by performance on a very similar second task that was not open to the use of strategy task. Older participants showed impaired learning of the strategic task but not of the nonstrategic task. This is in line with the suggestion that the effect of aging on learning and memory may be to reduce working memory resources.
The representation of the peripersonal space in humans and its modification with aging were studied by analyzing three-dimensional arm movements in healthy young and elderly adults. Participants drew ellipses in three reference planes (sagittal, frontal and horizontal), and errors in the orientation of ellipses with regard to the planes were measured. All subjects showed large disparities in the errors in different planes, errors were maximal in the horizontal plane. These findings imply that different planes are centrally represented with different errors and suggest that the mental representation of peripersonal space is anisotropic. Moreover, the elderly made larger errors than young subjects, regardless of the reference plane. Thus, the space representation is altered with aging. Compared with young adults, the elderly underestimate volume in space, a phenomenon that can be called the compression of space representation.
The effect of mental practice on performance in a dot-location RT task was investigated. Participants (N = 40) were required either to mentally practice, physically practice, or do no practice on an RT task in which the signals appeared in a repeating sequence. Correct mental practice, as opposed to incorrect mental practice and no practice, was predicted to have a positive (enhancing) effect on performance of the RT task. Despite previous evidence that mental rehearsal does enhance performance in many perceptual-motor tasks, neither correct nor incorrect mental rehearsal affected subsequent sequence learning; that is, no mental practice effect was observed. That surprising result is discussed in terms of motivational, psychoneuromuscular, separate memory systems, and transfer-appropriate processing explanations of mental practice.
We investigated how sensorimotor adaptation acquired during one experimental session influenced the adaptation in a subsequent session. The subjects' task was to track a visual target using a joystick-controlled cursor, while the relationship between joystick and cursor position was manipulated to introduce a sensorimotor discordance. Each subject participated in two sessions, separated by a pause of 2 min to 1 month duration. We found that adaptation was achieved within minutes, and persisted in the memory for at least a month, with only a small decay (experiment A). When the discordances administered in the two sessions were in mutual conflict, we found evidence for task interference (experiment B). However, when the discordances were independent, we found facilitation rather than interference (experiment C); the latter finding could not be explained by the use of an "easier" discordance in the second session (experiment D). We conclude that interference is due to an incompatibility between task requirements, and not to a competition of tasks for short-term memory. We further conclude that the ability to adapt to a sensorimotor discordance can be improved by practicing with an unrelated discordance.
Using the multiple-exposure approach, we investigated sensorimotor adaptation by exposing human subjects to different angles of visual rotation in a tracking task. Generally, the tracking error was high at the onset of the visual rotation and gradually declined towards the baseline level during the exposure period. In experiment A, we confirmed that the initial tracking error increases more than proportionally with the angle of rotation. In experiment C, we were unable to confirm intermanual transfer, and attribute this discrepancy with previous literature to details of the experimental tasks. In our main experiment, B, we found that pre-exposure to 45 degrees or 60 degrees of visual rotation facilitated the subsequent adaptation to a 90 degrees rotation, with the facilitatory effect being more pronounced following the 60 degrees rotation. We interpret this finding as evidence that adaptation is achieved by a gradual process, which progresses from small angles of output transformation through intermediate values up to the prescribed angle of rotation.
The present study investigates if sensorimotor adaptation to large visual rotations is achieved by a continuous angular change of the internal representation of space. Human subjects performed manual tracking movements under rotated visual feedback in two sessions; the magnitude of rotation in the second session was 45 degrees larger or smaller than in the first. We found mostly a facilitatory effect of the first adaptation on the second, which supports the view that the internal representation can gradually shift from one angular transformation to another. However, no facilitation was found for visual rotations in the 80-120 degrees range, suggesting that the internal model changes gradually only up to a limiting angle. A subsidiary experiment, employing small stepwise changes of visual rotation throughout a testing session, confirmed this view and placed the limiting angle near 120 degrees for an increasing, and near 70 degrees for a decreasing visual rotation. We conclude that adaptation to large-magnitude rotations may be achieved in two stages: a polarity inversion of both axes (=180 degrees rotation), followed by a "backward" shift toward somewhat smaller angles.
It is well known that sensorimotor adaptation will transfer from the practiced to the unpracticed arm, which has been taken as evidence that adaptation is located in the brain before the divergence point for left and right arm control. We now explore whether adaptation will transfer between different movement categories as well. Subjects were exposed to a 60-deg visual rotation first in a tracking and then in a pointing task, or vice versa. We found a substantial transfer of adaptation between tasks, but its magnitude was larger from pointing to tracking than from tracking to pointing. This benefit of pointing persisted when the use of cognitive strategies was minimized by a concurrent, attention-demanding task, but it was lost when pointing amplitudes were very small. We conclude that adaptation is located in the brain before the divergence point for different movement categories, and that movements with a large ballistic component facilitate adaptation transfer.
Humans demonstrate a remarkable ability to generate accurate and appropriate motor behavior under many different and often uncertain environmental conditions. In this paper, we propose a modular approach to such motor learning and control. We review the behavioral evidence and benefits of modularity, and propose a new architecture based on multiple pairs of inverse (controller) and forward (predictor) models. Within each pair, the inverse and forward models are tightly coupled both during their acquisition, through motor learning, and use, during which the forward models determine the contribution of each inverse model's output to the final motor command. This architecture can simultaneously learn the multiple inverse models necessary for control as well as how to select the inverse models appropriate for a given environment. Finally, we describe specific predictions of the model, which can be tested experimentally.
As video-game playing has become a ubiquitous activity in today's society, it is worth considering its potential consequences on perceptual and motor skills. It is well known that exposing an organism to an altered visual environment often results in modification of the visual system of the organism. The field of perceptual learning provides many examples of training-induced increases in performance. But perceptual learning, when it occurs, tends to be specific to the trained task; that is, generalization to new tasks is rarely found. Here we show, by contrast, that action-video-game playing is capable of altering a range of visual skills. Four experiments establish changes in different aspects of visual attention in habitual video-game players as compared with non-video-game players. In a fifth experiment, non-players trained on an action video game show marked improvement from their pre-training abilities, thereby establishing the role of playing in this effect.
Previous studies have found that sensorimotor adaptation to visual distortions is degraded in seniors compared with younger subjects, whereas after-effects on removal of the distortion are age-independent. The latter finding was interpreted as evidence that adaptive recalibration is not affected by old age, and that the observed degradation is therefore due to impairment of strategic control. However, after-effects are not a reliable measure of recalibration, because they can be artificially inflated by perseveration, a characteristic symptom in old age. The present work therefore introduces a test of recalibration which is insensitive to perseveration. Twelve young and twelve old subjects executed center-out pointing movements while visual feedback about their fingertip was either veridical (baseline), 60-deg rotated (adaptation), or absent (after-effect). They also executed tracking movements toward an unpredictably moving object before and after the pointing task. Seniors adapted less than younger subjects but their after-effects were not degraded. More importantly, transfer of adaptation from a pointing to a tracking task was not degraded in seniors. The latter outcome documents, in a more compelling fashion than previous work, that recalibration in the elderly is not impaired, and that the observed deficit of adaptation is therefore most probably because of impaired strategic control. This conclusion is supported by two additional findings: compared with young subjects our seniors performed less well on a cognitive screening test and acquired no explicit knowledge about the nature of the imposed visual distortion.
We investigated whether deficits of adaptive improvement in seniors are related to an age-dependent decay of the brain's executive functions. Younger and older subjects completed a battery of cognitive tests, and preformed aimed arm movements before and during exposure to rotated visual feedback. In accordance with previous work, we found that adaptive improvement during exposure was degraded in seniors, while the transfer of adaptation to a new motor task was not. This pattern of findings confirms that strategic control but not sensorimotor recalibration is affected by old age. Using multiple linear regression (MLR) to extract separate executive components from our test battery, we found that basic response speed and decision-making, but not the inhibition of prepotent responses or mental flexibility, were degraded in our older subjects. Again using MLR, we found that degraded adaptive improvement in our seniors was partly related to the decay of basic response speed and decision-making, and partly to age-dependent phenomena not addressed by our cognitive-test battery. Finally, we observed that interindividual variability of cognition and adaptive improvement was larger in old than in young subjects, which could explain why some previous studies found degraded adaptation in seniors while others did not.
Although many studies have documented declines in the ability of the elderly to learn new manual motor skills, studies have not directly compared the capacity of older adults to learn sequences versus adapt to sensorimotor perturbations within the context of the same task paradigm, despite differences in the underlying neural mechanisms and strategic processes supporting the two types of learning. The purpose of the current study was to exploit these task differences in an effort to determine whether aging results in a generalized or more specific skill learning deficit. Groups of young and older adult subjects learned to make a sequence of actions, adapted to one of two visuomotor rotations, or adapted to an altered gain of display, all while performing the same basic manual joystick aiming task. While the older adults exhibited normal sequence learning in comparison to the young adults, they exhibited impairments in all three of the adaptation tasks. These deficits in adaptation for the older adults were associated with hypometric movements and reduced velocity modulation in comparison to that seen in the younger adults. These data suggest that older adults may have greater difficulty with learning cerebellar-mediated motor skills.
Modern workplaces often require adaptation to novel visuo-motor transformations. Findings on age-related variations of such adaptation are rather inconsistent, suggesting that whether or not age-related impairments do occur depends on boundary conditions. This paper examined the hypotheses that age-related variations affect primarily strategic adjustments to novel transformations and can be found for complex (non-linear) transformations, but not for simple (linear) ones. After a practice period with linear and non-linear visuo-motor transformations, open-loop performance, after-effects and explicit knowledge were examined. Consistent with previous findings, older participants had longer movement times and shorter open-loop amplitudes, more so for long than for short target amplitudes. However, the study did not find any age-related variation of adaptation to a novel visuo-motor gain. Regarding adaptation to a non-linear transformation, the findings suggest slightly superior explicit knowledge of younger adults and the development of slightly more efficient closed-loop processes in the course of practice.
In a sample of German students (125 women, 128 men) only 26.3% answered 10 mathematics problems in the D'Amore Test, fewer than Standing, et al. reported. Significant correlations were found for test and self-predicted scores but predictors were not the same in the two studies. Although there were no sex differences, women were more accurate in the mental calculations, especially if they rarely used calculators.