Decomposition of Variability in the Execution of Goal-Oriented Tasks: Three Components of Skill Improvement.
- 1 January 2004
- journal article
- Published by American Psychological Association (APA) in Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance
- Vol. 30 (1), 212-233
- https://doi.org/10.1037/0096-1523.30.1.212
Abstract
A central ability of the motor system is to achieve goals with great reliability, although never with zero variability. It is argued that variability is reduced with practice by 3 separate means: reduction of stochastic noise (N), exploitation of task tolerance (T), and covariation (C) between central variables. A method is presented that decomposes variability into these components in relation to task space that is defined by the execution variables. Successful variable combinations form the solution manifold. In a virtual skittles task, it is demonstrated that participants' improvement over repetitions, indicated by increasing accuracy, is accounted for by N, T, and, to a lesser degree, C. The relative contribution of these components changes over the course of practice and task variations.Keywords
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