Kines 361: Exam 3 Vocab

Visual search

Process of directing visual attention to locate relevant environmental cues

Fixation

Focusing one’s visual attention on a specific object

Video stimulation technique

An experimental technique taking a video of some skill that measures temporal occlusion (stop the video at a certain point to see if a person can tell you what happens next) or event occlusion (ask subject to make judgements about the task); used to investigate visual search

Eye movement recording

Records where the eyes look to measure central vision; however, it does not measure peripheral vision, therefore it may underestimate visual attending

Feature integration theory

Theory where we automatically group stimuli according to unique features (maps), which become the basis for identifying more specific cues

Movement filter

Allows our visual attention to be directed at moving items

Somesthesia

Bodily sensation of touch, pain, temperature, and limb position

Mechanoreceptor

Sensory receptors that become active when they are mechanically deformed (i.e. bent, squeezed, etc)

Cutaneous receptor

Mechanoreceptors located at various places in the skin that signal pain, temperature, pressure, and touch by responding skin stretch and joint movement

Proprioceptor

Mechanoreceptors that provide knowledge about the general position of the body in space prior to and during movements

Muscle spindle

Proprioceptor located in the muscle that signals muscle stretch; most important proprioceptor for providing information about location and movement

Golgi tendon organ

Proprioceptor located in the tendon that signals muscle tension (contraction); possible protective mechanism against extreme tension

Joint receptors

Proprioceptors located in the joint capsule that signal changes in angle, velocity, and direction of movement; thought to be a protective mechanism against extreme joint angles

Feedforward control

Sending some signal ahead of the movement that 1) readies the system for the upcoming motor command and/or 2) readies the system for the receipt of some particular kind of feedback information

Coordination

The patterning of head, body and/or limb motions relative to each other or environmental objects/events

Discrete coordination tasks

Coordination movements that have a definite beginning and end

(e.g. eye-head coordination, reach to grasp, bimanual coordinative movements)

Continuous coordination tasks

Coordination movements that are repetitive in nature

(e.g. finger coordination/wiggling)

Vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR)

Tight relationship between the head and eyes where the eyes rotate in the opposite direction to the head at the same velocity; motion of the eyes compensates for head motion and allows us to look for objects in the periphery

Prehension

Reach to grasp actions; identified by 3 components: transport, grasp, object manipulation

Transport component

Component of the reach-to-grasp movement which brings the arm from the start position to the location of the target

Grasp component

Component of the reach-to-grasp movement where the fingers open and then enclose the target

Object manipulation component

Component of the reach-to-grasp movement during which the object is transported, rotated, and used to achieve the functional goal of the task

Intrinsic object property

Property of the object itself such as its size, shape, and color

Extrinsic object property

Property of the object in the environment such as its location and origin

Symmetric bimanual coordination

Two hands move in the same way at the same time (e.g. rowing a boat, clapping)

Asymmetric bimanual coordination

The two hands move at the same time, but perform different actions (e.g. playing a guitar)

Temporal biasing

When performing an asymmetric bimanual task, the two hands are biased toward starting and ending the movement at the same time (e.g. bimanual Fitts’ task with different IDs; two movements start and end at the same time despite the differing distances)

Spatial biasing

When performing an asymmetric bimanual task, the two hands are biased toward being at the same location in space at the same time; or both limbs produce a novel task (e.g. drawing a line and circle at the same time causes you to draw ovals, which is the novel task)

Anti phase

Landmarks are 180 out of synchrony in a coordinated task (e.g. when walking, our right hand swings completely forward while our left swings completely backward)

In phase

Landmarks are synchronous in a coordinated task (e.g. when clapping, both hands come in and move out at the same time)

Attractors

Stable behavioral steady states of systems; energy efficient (e.g. at slower speeds of locomotion, walking is one of these while at faster speeds of locomotion, running is one of these)

Phase transition

Transitioning from one attractor to another; can occur spontaneously without conscious involvement (e.g. when making anti-phase pinching movements at faster and faster speed, you will eventually make in phase movements)

Degrees of freedom

The number of independent elements of components in a control system and the number of ways each component can act (e.g. 3 in the shoulder: flex/ext, add/abd, IR/ER versus 1 in the elbow: flex/ext)

Degrees of freedom problem

The number of independent elements of components in a control system and the number of ways each component can act; how do we pick one of many ways to move/accomplish a movement task?

Motor equivalence

Capability of the motor control system that enables a person to achieve an action goal in a variety of situations and conditions (e.g. writing our name with our dominant and non-dominant hand)

Dynamic pattern theory

Our system will self-organize, such that when certain environmental and physical conditions are met, a stable pattern of behavior will emerge; meaning that there isn’t necessarily a high control that sends commands to move into new behavior patterns, rather the switch occurs because of self organization (e.g. in the pinching example, you transition to an inphase state due to being told to speed up, and self organizing)

Non linear behavior

Abrupt change in behavior in response to systematic linear increases in the value of a specific variable (e.g. as we slowly increased speed in the anti phase pinching tasks, we abruptly changed from anti phase to in phase movements

Order parameters

Variables that define the behavior of the system (e.g. relative phase (anti phase or in phase) defines what the behavior looks like)

Control parameters

Variables that influence the stability of the order parameter (e.g. speed defines how stable the phase relationship is)

Coordinative structure

Functionally specific collectives of joints and muscles that act cooperatively to produce an action. This helps us to solve the DOF problem because instead of having to control each muscle and joint separately, we can simply control the coordinative structure (e.g. the muscles/joints in our hips, knees, and ankles are organized to produce locomotion)

Motor program (Keele’s definition)

Set of muscle commands that are structured before a movement sequence begins, and that allows the entire sequence to be carried out uninfluenced by peripheral feedback

Storage problem

If we have a specific motor program for every single movement that we make, how can we store all of these individual programs in memory?

Novelty problem

How do we produce new movements that we have never tried before if we don’t already have a motor program stored for them? Where do new motor programs come from?

Generalized motor program

A motor program that represents a class of movement patterns rather than individual movement patterns (e.g. overhand throwing, kicking)

Invariant features

Features that are structured within the generalized motor program that stay the same from movement to movement; common to each movement within a class (e.g. order of events, phasing (relative time), relative force

Superficial features

Parameters that are set within the generalized motor program that allow you to customize it for a specific movement situation (e.g. overall duration, overall force, muscle selection)

Order of events

Describes the invariant order of elements (e.g. walking = heel strike, ball of foot, lift other leg)

Phasing (relative time)

Temporal structure of the components of task (e.g. heel strike taking up approximately 15% of the time it takes you to make a walking stride, no matter how fast you are walking)

Relative force

Force produced by any two muscles remains in constant proportion from movement to movement (e.g. gastrocnemius producing the same percentage of force no matter how much total force the leg is producing)

Overall duration

How slowly or rapidly the movement occurs

Overall force

The amount of force produced in a movement

Muscle selection

Muscles involved in the completion of the movement

Encoding

Registering information from the environment and putting it into the memory system

Storage

Capacity to retain encoded information

Retrieval

Ability to locate and recall stored information

Active memory

Short term and working memory

Declarative memory

System containing our memories concerning facts and events; knowledge that we are consciously aware about

Semantic memory

Generalized knowledge about the world (e.g. what the concept of a dog is, Madison is the capital of WI)

Episodic memory

Stores information concerning specific events; telling us when and where they occurred (e.g. remembering your prom and flashing back to that experience)

Procedural memory

Stored information for skills, details “how to” perform skills rather than just knowing about them; non-conscious and automatic (e.g. riding a bike)

Choking under pressure

Results when experts attempt to harness declarative memories in the execution of a skill that has long since been encoded in procedural form

Sensory memory

Stage of memory that takes in virtually everything registered by the body’s sensory receptors and holds it for a brief period where it is filtered and registered

Short term memory

Can only hold a limited amount of information and holds it temporarily, includes working memory that couples with sensory and long term memory and usually involves 5-9 items

Long term memory

Memory responsible for learning; permanent storage system providing basis for learning and memory of past experiences

Consolidation

The process of encoding information from active, working memory (STM) to permanent LTM

Explicit memory tests

Tests declarative memory via recall (e.g. short answer questions) and recognition (e.g. multiple choice)

Implicit memory tests

Tests procedural knowledge needed to perform the skill