Movement velocity and movement time as determiners of degree of preprogramming in simple movements.

Abstract

Assigned 8 male and 4 female undergraduate and graduate students to perform a timing task involving a striking movement in order to estimate the degree of feedback control in discrete movements. Ss were pretrained to make 22.8- or 49.5-cm movements in exactly 150 or 750 msec., and Ss used this movement later in the timing task. A 2 * 2 repeated-measures design (Movement Time * Movement Distance) was used. Feedback involvement was assessed by an index of preprogramming (IP). Reducing the movement time (MT) from 750-150 msec. nearly doubled the IP implying greatly reduced feedback control in the 150-msec movement. Doubling the movement velocity by lengthening the movement distance (MT constant) had no effect on the IP. This result supports the notion that lack of feedback involvement in movement of short duration (e.g., 150 msec.) is due to a temporal limitation in feedback processing, and that even very slow responses with 150-msec MTs may be highly preprogrammed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved)