©2011 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved. Chapter 2 The Measurement of Motor Performance Concept: The measurement of motor performance is critical to understanding motor learning

©2011 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved. Why Study the Measurement of Motor Performance? Performance measurement essential for: ____________________________

©2011 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved. Measuring Motor Skill Performance Two General Categories of Performance Measurements 1.Performance ____________ measures Category of motor skill performance that indicates ____________________________________ ____________________________________( e.g. How far did a person throw the ball?) Does not tell us about the behavior of the limbs or body that led to the outcome Does not provide information about the activity of various muscles involved

©2011 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved. Measuring Motor Skill Performance, cont’d 2.Performance _______________ measures Measures of motor skill performance that indicate _________________________________ _________________________________ _________________________________ _________________________________  e.g. EMG, EEG recordings See Table 2.1 for examples of measures in both categories

©2011 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved. Reaction Time Common measure indicating _____________________________ _____________________________ _____________________________ A _____________ or go signal is the indication to act

©2011 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved. Events and Time Intervals of RT and Movement Time _____ ___________ __________ _________ ________________ __________ Time

©2011 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved. Reaction Time, cont’d Types of RT situations [See Figure 2.2] ______________: One signal - One response ______________: More than one signal - Each signal has a specific response ______________: More than one signal - only one response

©2011 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved. RT Interval Components EMG enables us to fractionate RT to obtain more specific information about movement preparation Fractionated RT has two components _________________________: Quiet interval of time between the onset of stimulus and beginning of activity _________________________: Interval of time from the initial increase in muscle activity until the actual limb movement * See diagram on next slide *

©2011 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved. Fractionated RT _______________ ________ ____________ _________ EMG Recording What do you think occurs in each RT component?

©2011 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved. Error Measures Error measures allow us to evaluate performance for skills that have spatial or temporal accuracy action goals What are some examples of skills for which spatial or temporal accuracy determines performance success?

©2011 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved. Assessing Error for Skills with One-Dimension Accuracy Goals Three error measures 1. ___________________________: Absolute value of difference between the actual performance on each trial and the criterion for each trial AE = |(performance – criterion)| / no. of trials Provides a general index of performance accuracy

©2011 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved. Assessing Error for One-Dimension Accuracy Goals, cont’d 2. ___________________:Algebraic value of difference between the actual performance on each trial and the criterion for each trial CE = (performance – criterion) / no. of trials Provides an index of a tendency for the performance error to be directionally biased 3. __________________: The standard deviation of the CE scores; an index of performance consistency (i.e. variability)

©2011 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved. Assessing Error for One-Dimension Accuracy Goals, cont’d See “A Closer Look” on p. 32 for an example of calculating AE, CE, and VE to determine the accuracy characteristics of stride lengths for walking

©2011 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved. Assessing Error for Two- Dimension Accuracy Goals When the outcome of performing a skill requires accuracy in the ____________________________ directions e.g. Golf putt _____________________= General accuracy measure for two-dimensions See Figure 2.4 _____________________ and ___________are difficult to quantitatively assess, although can do qualitative assessment easily See Fig. 2.5

©2011 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved. Assessing Errors for Continuous Skills Many continuous skills require ________________________________ ________________________________ e.g. Driving a car on a highway ________________________________ Common accuracy measure for continuous skills See Fig. 2.6 for example of calculating RMSE for a pursuit tracking task

©2011 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved. Kinematic Measures _________________: description of motion without regard to force or mass Includes the following measures [ see Fig. 2.7]: _______________=Spatial position of a limb or joint over a period of time _______________ = Rate of change in an object position with respect to time (i.e. speed)  = Displacement / Time _______________= Change in velocity during movement  = Velocity / Time

©2011 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved. Kinetics __________: Force as a cause of motion Human movements involve both external and internal sources of force Importance of force as a movement measure: All three Newton’s laws of motion refer to force Force measurement: _______________

©2011 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved. EMG Measures __________________________________ Electrodes detect electrical activity Electromyography (EMG) = __________________________________ __________________________________ Common use is to determine when a muscle begins and ends activation [see Figure 2.10] Also – Recall our earlier discussion about use of EMG for fractionated RT as an index of movement preparation

©2011 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved. Brain Activity Measures Researchers have adopted brain activity measures commonly used in hospitals and clinics for diagnostic purposes Three measures commonly reported in motor learning and control research __________

©2011 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved. Brain Activity Measures, cont’d Electroencephalography (EEG): Measures electrical activity in brain ____________________________________ _____________________________________ Positron Emission Topography (PET): Neuroimaging (i.e., brain scanning) technique that measures blood flow in the brain ____________________________________ _____________________________________

©2011 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved. Brain Activity Measures, cont’d Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI): Neuroimaging (i.e., brain scanning) ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ To see examples of PET, fMRI, and other brain scanning techniques, go to and type “brain scanning” in the Search box

©2011 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved. Measuring Coordination Assessment of the relationship of movement of limb-segments and joints Quantitative measurement of angle- angle diagrams ______________________________ ______________________________[ see Figure 2.11]