Control of Performance in a Multi-element Repetitive Task

This research is the latest part of a Series of studies of the functioning of higher-level control loops in the motor-control hierarchy. Previous experiments had shown that this control level could be studied by analyzing and modelling the sequential dependencies between performance on successive cycles of a repetitive motor-control task. The present research applies the previously develeped methods to a repetitive motor task having four elements per cycle, rather than one or two elements as studied previously The effects of visual vs blind control and practice at the task are examined. The previously-developed first order autoregressive model again fitted the results well and the effects of vision and practice are examined in terms of parameters of this model. The sequential dependencies found in this task were generally lower than those found in previous studies. It was also found that sequential dependencies decreascd with both visual control and practice at the task. Conclusions from both the current and previous research are presented.