Hafkamp Marijn S J, Casanova Remy, Bootsma Reinoud J
Institut des Sciences du Mouvement, Aix-Marseille Université, CNRS, Marseille, France.
Front Psychol. 2024 Aug 29;15:1436099. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1436099. eCollection 2024.
In the manual ball-and-beam task, participants have to control a ball that is rolling continuously on a long and hand-held beam. Since the task can be performed individually, in a solo action setting, as well as collaboratively, in a (dyadic) joint action setting, it allows us to investigate how joint performances arise from individual performances, which we investigate in a series of interrelated studies. Here we focused on individual skill acquisition on the ball-and-beam task in the solo action setting, with the goal to characterize the behavioral dynamics that arise from learning to couple (ball motion) perception and (beam motion) action. By moving a beam extremity up and down to manipulate the beam's inclination angle, the task's objective was to roll the ball as fast as and accurately as possible between two indicated targets on the beam. Based on research into reciprocal aiming tasks, we hypothesized that the emergent dynamics of the beam's inclination angle would be constrained by the size of the targets, such that large targets would evoke a continuous beam movement strategy, while small targets would lead to a discrete beam movement strategy. 16 participants individually practiced the task in two separate six-block sessions. Each block consisted of one trial per target-size condition (small, medium and large). Overall, the number of target hits increased over trials, due to a larger range of motion of the beam's inclination angle, a stronger correlation between the ball and beam motion and a smaller variability of the beam motion. Contrary to our expectations, target size did not appreciably affect the shape of the beam movement patterns. Instead, we found stable inter-individual differences in the movement strategies adopted that were uncorrelated with the number of target hits on a trial. We concluded that multiple movement strategies may lead to success on the task, while individual skill acquisition was characterized by the refinement of behavioral dynamics that emerged in an early stage of learning. We speculate that such differences in individual strategies on the task may affect the interpersonal coordination that arises in joint-action performances on the task.
在手动球杆任务中，参与者必须控制一个在长且可手持的杆上持续滚动的球。由于该任务既可以在单独行动设置中由个人完成，也可以在（二元）联合行动设置中协作完成，这使我们能够研究联合表现是如何从个人表现中产生的，我们在一系列相互关联的研究中对此进行了探究。在这里，我们聚焦于单独行动设置下球杆任务中的个人技能习得，目的是刻画从学习将（球的运动）感知与（杆的运动）行动相耦合中产生的行为动力学。通过上下移动杆的一端来操纵杆的倾斜角度，任务的目标是使球在杆上的两个指定目标之间尽可能快速且准确地滚动。基于对相互瞄准任务的研究，我们假设杆倾斜角度的动态变化会受到目标大小的限制，即大目标会引发连续的杆移动策略，而小目标会导致离散的杆移动策略。16名参与者在两个单独的六组训练中分别练习该任务。每组由每个目标大小条件（小、中、大）下的一次试验组成。总体而言，随着试验次数的增加，目标命中次数增多，这是由于杆倾斜角度的运动范围更大、球与杆运动之间的相关性更强以及杆运动的变异性更小。与我们的预期相反，目标大小并未明显影响杆运动模式的形状。相反，我们发现所采用的运动策略存在稳定的个体间差异，这些差异与一次试验中的目标命中次数无关。我们得出结论，多种运动策略可能会导致任务成功，而个人技能习得的特征是在学习早期出现的行为动力学的细化。我们推测，任务中个体策略的这种差异可能会影响该任务联合行动表现中产生的人际协调。
