Motor learning by observation: Evidence from a serial reaction time task (original) (raw)
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Cognitive Processes Underlying Observational Learning of Motor Skills
The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology A, 1999
There is evidence indicating that an individual can learn a motor skill by observing a model practising it. In the present study we wanted to determine whether observation would permit one to learn the relative timing pattern required to perform a new motor skill. Also, we wanted to determine the joint effects of observation and of physical practice on the learning of that relative timing pattern. Finally, we were interested in ®nding whether there was an optimal type of model, advanced or beginner, which would lead better to observational learning. Data from two experiments indicated that observation of either a beginner or an advanced model resulted in modest learning of a constrained relative timing pattern. Observation also resulted in signi®cant parameterization learning. However, a combination of observation followed by physical practice resulted in signi®cant learning of the constrained relative timing pattern. These results suggest that observation engages one in cognitive processes similar to those occurring during physical practice.
General motor representations are developed during action-observation
Experimental Brain Research, 2010
This study was designed to examine the generality of motor learning by action-observation. During practice, action-observation participants watched a learning model (e.g., physical practice participants) perform a motor sequence-timing task involving mouse/cursor movements on a computer screen; control participants watched a blank screen. Participants transferred to either a congruent (same mouse-cursor gain), or an incongruent (different mousecursor gain) condition. As predicted, motor sequence timing was learned through action-observation as well as physical practice. Moreover, transfer of learning to an incongruent set of task demands indicates that the motor representation developed through observation includes generalised visual-motor procedures associated with the use of feedback utilization.
Role of action observation and action in sequence learning and coding
Acta Psychologica, 2010
A complex sequence learning task was used to determine if the type of coding acquired through physical practice (PP), observation of the stimulus (Obs-S), or observation of stimulus and action (Obs-SA) differs between conditions and whether the type of observation influences subsequent learning of the task when physical practice was permitted. Participants in the Obs-S group were permitted to watch the sequentially illuminated stimuli on the screen. In the Obs-SA group participants could see both flexion-extension movements of the model's arm performing the sequence and the sequentially illuminated stimuli on the screen. Participants in the PP group actually performed the 16-element sequence with their dominant right arm. Delayed retention tests and two inter-manual transfer tests were completed following each of two acquisition sessions. First, the data indicated that learning the sequence structure, as revealed by response time per element, occurred similarly irrespective of the initial practice condition. Secondly, the movement sequence appeared to be coded in abstract visual-spatial coordinates resulting in effector-independent performance. Finally, observing the model's action and sequential stimuli allows participants to transfer the perceived aspects of the movement sequence into efficient coordination patterns when additional physical practice is permitted.
Motion trajectory information and agency influence motor learning during observational practice
Acta psychologica, 2015
Fundamental to performing actions is the acquisition of motor behaviours. We examined if motor learning, through observational practice, occurs by viewing an agent displaying naturalistic or constant velocity, and whether motion trajectory, as opposed to end-state, information is required. We also investigated if observational practice is sensitive to belief regarding the origin of an agent. Participants had to learn a novel movement sequence timing task, which required upper-limb movements to a series of targets within a pre-specified absolute and relative time goal. Experiment 1 showed learning after viewing naturalistic and constant velocity, but not end-state information. For Experiment 2, in addition to learning the movement sequence, participants observed a series of movement stimuli that were either the trained or new sequences and asked to rate their confidence on whether the observed sequence was the same or different to observational practice. The results indicated that ag...
What Observation of Motor Skills Does and Does Not Teach Us
BIO Web of Conferences, 2011
We review data from 4 experiments where we have been studying what is learnt through observation. In these experiments people learnt to reach in a distorted visual-motor, virtual environment. In all experiments observers successfully adapted to new visual-motor environments just by watching. Importantly, however, they adapted differently to actors. At no time did naïve observers show after-effects when returned to a known normal environment. However, if observers had previously practiced in this environment, after-effects were subsequently seen following an observation phase. Further, again different to actors, they showed good retention and lack of interference when performing in two opposing environments. We argue that observation does not result in the updating of an internal (motor) model, that it is primarily strategically mediated and that only after physical experience in the environment can 'motor-simulation' through observation take place.
When do learning-related changes in performance occur? Here we show that the knowledge of a sequence of movements evolves through several distinctive phases that depend on two critical factors: the amount of practice as well as the passage of time. Our results show the following. (i) Within a given session, large performance gains constituted a signature for motor novelty. Such gains occurred only for newly introduced conditions irrespective of the absolute level of performance. (ii) A single training session resulted in both immediate but also time-dependent, latent learning hours after the termination of practice. Time in sleep determined the time of expression of these delayed gains. Moreover, the delayed gains were sequence-specific, indicating a qualitative change in the representation of the task within 24 h posttraining. (iii) Prolonged training resulted in additional between-session gains that, unlike the effects of a single training session, were confined to the trained hand. Thus, the effects of multisession training were qualitatively different than the immediate and time-dependent effects of a single session. Altogether, our results indicate multiple time-dependent shifts in the representation of motor experience during the acquisition of skilled performance.
Experimental Brain Research, 2009
With a series of novel arm-reaching tasks, we have shown that visuomotor sequence learning encompasses the acquisition of the order of sequence elements, and the ability to combine them in a single, skilled behavior. The Wrst component, which is mostly declarative, is reXected by changes in movement onset time (OT); the second, which occurs without subject's awareness, is measured by changes in kinematic variables, including movement time (MT). Key-press-based serial reaction time tasks (SRTT) have been used to investigate sequence learning and results interpreted as indicative of the implicit acquisition of the sequence order. One limitation to SRT studies, however, is that only one measure is used, the response time, the sum of OT and MT: this makes interpretation of which component is learnt diYcult and disambiguation of implicit and explicit processes problematic. Here, we used an arm-reaching version of SRTT to propose a novel interpretation of such results. The pattern of response time changes we obtained was similar to the key-pressbased tasks. However, there were signiWcant diVerences between OT and MT, suggesting that both partial learning of the sequence order and skill improvement took place. Further analyses indicated that the learning of the sequence order might not occur without subjects' awareness.
The capacity of action observation to drag the trainees' motor pattern toward the observed model
Scientific Reports
Action Observation Training (AOT) promotes the acquisition of motor abilities. However, while the cortical modulations associated with the AOT efficacy are well known, few studies investigated the AOT peripheral neural correlates and whether their dynamics move towards the observed model during the training. We administered seventy-two participants (randomized into AOT and Control groups) with training for learning to grasp marbles with chopsticks. Execution practice was preceded by an observation session, in which AOT participants observed an expert performing the task, whereas controls observed landscape videos. Behavioral indices were measured, and three hand muscles' electromyographic (EMG) activity was recorded and compared with the expert. Behaviorally, both groups improved during the training, with AOT outperforming controls. The EMG trainee-model similarity also increased during the training, but only for the AOT group. When combining behavioral and EMG similarity findin...