Generalization of Motor Learning Depends on the History of Prior Action
2006
How Prior Actions Affect Learning New Movements
publication
Evidence: moderate
Author Information
Author(s): John Krakauer
Hypothesis
How does the history of prior actions influence the learning of new movements?
Conclusion
The history of how body parts have been used influences the ability to learn new movements, with different body parts affecting learning in distinct ways.
Supporting Evidence
- Learning with the arm helps learning with the wrist, but not the other way around.
- Using different body parts to learn different rules helps keep the rules separate.
- The model used in the study predicted the effects observed in the experiments.
Takeaway
When you learn something new, what you did before can help or make it harder, depending on how you used your body.
Methodology
Participants learned to control a cursor using either wrist or arm movements while their movements were manipulated.
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
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