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I TEMPORAL ORGANIZATION IN SEQUENTIAL MOVEMENTS: TASK AND TRAINING EFFECTS By DAPENG CHEN A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 1992 <4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to take this brief opportunity to thank those who have made this dissertation possible. Sincere gratitude is extended to my committee members: Dr. L. Keith Tennant, Dr. Milledge Murphey, and Dr. Ira S. Fischler for their support and assistance in the completion of this project. Special thanks go to my cochair. Dr. James H. Cauraugh, for his patient guidance in writing and research, his constructive suggestions, and his encouragement and motivation. His help is sincerely appreciated. As for my chair and mentor. Dr. Robert N. Singer, I can never thank him enough for what he has done for my academic career and personal life. His scholarly guidance and penetrating thinking style have helped to shape the way I conduct research and perform academic duties; his friendship, understanding, and concerns have made my six- year-long graduate-school life memorable and enjoyable. It was through his supervision and suggestions that ideas for this project came into existence. Also, his supervision and hard work contributed to the timely completion of the dissertation. It is one's fortune to have a mentor like Dr. Singer. His relentlessly hard-working style will always be carved in my memory, encouraging me to pursue a successful 1• 1• career. His influence will be felt and appreciated throughout my entire career. I would like to express my deepest appreciation for my wife, Luming Wang. Her love and support have made it possible for me to concentrate on my academic pursuits. I thank my father. Prof. Xuhua Chen, my mother. Dr. Tonghua Xu, and my brother. Dr. Dayong Chen, from the bottom of my heart for their high expectations of me, their constant encouragement, and everything else that they have done for me. Finally, I sincerely thank my friends, Douglass Campbell, and his wife, Marion, for their friendship and support during my graduate school years. 1• 1•1• TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 1• 1• . LIST OF FIGURES vii LIST OF TABLES ix ABSTRACT x CHAPTERS 1. INTRODUCTION 1 Statements of the Problem 12 Hypotheses 12 Definitions of Terms 23 Assumptions 26 Significance of the Study 28 2. REVIEW OF LITERATURE 33 The Information Processing Approach 33 Motor Programs 33 The Amodality of Timing 38 Conceptual and Empirical Weaknesses 41 . . The Action Systems Approach 45 The Emergence of the Action Systems Approach 46 Non-linear, Limit-Cycle Oscillators and Timing 51 Perception, Action, and Timing 54 Conceptual and Empirical Weaknesses 56 . . A Composite Model 57 Various Procedural Approaches to Studying Timing 60 Speed 61 Equality of Intertap Intervals in a Sequence 62 Level of Skill Acquisition 64 3. METHODS 69 Experiment 1 70 IV Subjects 70 Apparatus 71 Tasks and Conditions 71 Procedure 75 Experimental Design and Data Analysis 78 Experiment 2 79 Subjects 79 Apparatus 79 Tasks and Conditions 79 Procedure 82 Experimental Design and Data Analysis 85 . 4. RESULTS 87 Experiment 1 87 Training Phase 88 RMSE 90 .... Within-Subject Variability 96 Phasing 99 Transfer Phase 105 RMSE 105 Within-Subject Variability 109 . . . Phasing Ill Experiment 2 116 Training Phase 117 Within-Subject Variability 117 . . . Phasing 121 MTs 129 Transfer Phase 137 Within-Subject Variability 137 . . . Phasing 139 MTs 142 5. DISCUSSION, SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS, AND IMPLICATIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH 146 . . Discussion 146 Experiment 1 147 Training Phase 147 Transfer Phase 152 Experiment 2 156 Training Phase 157 Transfer Phase 160 General Discussion 164 Timing Mechanisms: Effects of Training 164 Timing Mechanisms: Effects of Tasks and Effector Conditions 167 The Information Processing Approach and Timing 169 The Ecological Approach and Timing 174 . . v Is There Any Evidence for a Compromise .... Between the Two Approaches? 177 Considerations in a New Approach to Investigating Timing in Motor Skills 184 Summary 187 Conclusions 190 Implications for Further Research 190 REFERENCES 195 APPENDIX A. AN INFORMED CONSENT FOR EXTENSIVE TRAINING SUBJECTS OF EXPERIMENT 1 214 APPENDIX B. A DEMOGRAPHIC QUESTIONNAIRE FOR EXPERIMENT 1 218 APPENDIX C. A COMPLETE SET OF INSTRUCTIONS FOR SUBJECTS TRAINED WITH SINGLE-HAND CONDITION IN EXPERIMENT 1 220 APPENDIX D. A COMPLETE SET OF INSTRUCTIONS FOR SUBJECTS TRAINED WITH SINGLE-HAND CONDITION IN EXPERIMENT 1 224 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 227 VI LIST OF FIGURES 1 The Experimental Apparatus 72 2 Mean RMSE for the five segments as a function of trial blocks during extensive training 91 . 3 Mean RMSE for the two training schemes as a function of segments during training 93 . . . 4 Mean SD for the five segments as a function of trial blocks during extensive training 97 . 5 Mean SD for the training schemes as a function of segments during training 100 . . . 6 Mean proportions of time for the segments as a function of trial blocks 101 7 Mean RMSE for the two effector conditions as a function of transfer tasks during transfer 106 8 Mean RMSE for the tasks and training schemes as a function of segments during transfer 110 9 Mean SD for the two effector conditions as a function of transfer tasks during transfer 110 10 Mean SD for the training schemes and tasks as a function of segments 112 11 Mean proportions of time as a function of the training schemes and tasks during transfer 114 12 Mean SD as a function of trial blocks during extensive training 118 13 Mean SD for the five segments as a function of the training schemes and trial blocks during training 120 14 Mean proportions of time for the five segments as a function of trial blocks Vl•l• during extensive training 122 15 Mean proportions of time for the training schemes and effector conditions as a function of segments during training 124 . . 16 Mean proportions of time for the training schemes and trial blocks as a function of segments during training 126 17 Mean proportions of time for the effector conditions and trial blocks as a function of segments 128 18 Mean MTs for the effector conditions as a function of segments during extensive training 130 19 Mean MTs for the effector conditions and segments as a function of trial blocks during extensive training 132 20 Mean MTs for the training schemes and effector conditions as a function of segments during training 134 21 Mean MTs for the training schemes and trial .... blocks as a function of segments 136 22 Mean SD for the two transfer tasks and training schemes as a function of segments during transfer 138 23 Mean MTs for the training schemes as a function of transfer tasks during transfer 143 24 Mean MTs for the two effector conditions as a function of transfer tasks during transfer 144 Vl•l•l• LIST OF TABLES Table 1 The Trial Block x Segment x Training x Hand Interaction for RMSE Data During Training 95 Table 2 The Trial Block x Segment x Training x Hand Interaction for Phasing During Training 104 Table 3 The Task x Segment x Training x Hand for Phasing Data During Transfer 140 IX . Abstract of Dissertation Presented to the Graduate School of the University of Florida in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy TEMPORAL ORGANIZATION IN SEQUENTIAL MOVEMENTS: TASK AND TRAINING EFFECTS By Dapeng Chen December, 1992 Chairperson: Robert N. Singer Major Department: Exercise and Sport Sciences This study investigated the effects of two training schemes and two types of tasks on the temporal organization of sequential motor skills under two effector conditions. Two different theories about timing control mechanisms were compared and a third composite approach was proposed. During the training phase, 48 subjects were randomly assigned to four conditions determined by the factors of training schemes (extensive versus limited) and effector conditions (single-hand versus between-hand) for Experiments 1 (28 males and 20 females) and 2 (26 males and 22 females) In Experiment 1, subjects pressed six keys in a particular spatial order at a prescribed response rate so that the five time intervals of the act would match the intended goals. For Experiment 2, the six keys were pressed in the same x