Verhaar, E. (Erik) (2017) Long range correlations of movement times in a repetitive precision aiming task. thesis, Sport Sciences.
Full text available on request.Abstract
Repetitive human motor performance has been known to show long range correlations in output measures over a large number of successive trials. Those long range correlations often disappear or reduce in strength in pathological or novice behaviour. In the current study, we hypothesized that such decorrelation is due to perturbations of the motor system. To test this hypothesis, we set up an experiment using a repetitive precision aiming (Fitts') task, in which participants had to move an inkless stylus between two rectangular targets on a at surface. In such a task, it has already been shown that decreasing target width has the effect of reducing long range correlations in movement kinematics. We predicted that in an asymmetric precision aiming task, containing one big and one small target, correlations in movement times would be reduced as much as in a symmetric task with two small targets. Twelve participants performed three sets of repetitive precision aiming task under different task conditions: an easy condition with two big targets; a difficult condition with two small targets and an asymmetric condition. We performed Detrended Fluctuation Analysis (DFA) to measure the strength of long range correlations in movement time intervals. Unfortunately, we did not and a difference in the DFA exponent between the different task conditions. Therefore, we could neither refute nor conform our prediction. However, we did and some interesting features in the autocorrelation and spectral structure of movement times. In particular, we found a decoupling between the two halfs of a movement cycle (i.e. exion and extension), suggesting that the timing of the movement cycle as a whole, rather than its individual parts, expresses long rang correlations.
| Item Type: | Thesis (UNSPECIFIED) |
|---|---|
| Supervisor name: | Poel, dr. H.J. de |
| Faculty: | Medical Sciences |
| Date Deposited: | 11 May 2022 09:47 |
| Last Modified: | 11 May 2022 09:48 |
| URI: | https://umcg.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/3275 |
Actions (login required)
 |
View Item |