Variability and performance in ballistic movements
Period
01 / 1999 - unknown
Status
Completed
Research number
OND1278885
Abstract
Whether a certain movement is successful depends in general on several parameters of the movement. Which value for a parameter will result in a successful movement depends on the value of other parameters. The question in this project is how subjects choose movement strategies to exploit this dependency. As an example we choose throwing darts, a task in which the optimal direction and speed of the dart's motion at time of release depend on the position of release. These variables depend on the accuracy in timing of the release. The most robust movement strategy for this task is to move the hand according to a trajectory in which the combination of velocity and position insure a hit irrespective of the moment of release. By comparing subjects with various levels of performance, we will investigate whether the variations in performance depend on variations in movement strategy or reduction of variability within a movement strategy.
