Motor Chunking in Internally Guided Sequencing
Motor skill learning involves the acquisition of sequential motor movements with practice. Studies have shown that we learn to execute these sequences efficiently by chaining several elementary actions in sub-sequences called <i>motor chunks</i>. Several experimental paradigms, such as s...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2021-02-01
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| Series: | Brain Sciences |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3425/11/3/292 |
| _version_ | 1797395173569724416 |
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| author | Krishn Bera Anuj Shukla Raju S. Bapi |
| author_facet | Krishn Bera Anuj Shukla Raju S. Bapi |
| author_sort | Krishn Bera |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Motor skill learning involves the acquisition of sequential motor movements with practice. Studies have shown that we learn to execute these sequences efficiently by chaining several elementary actions in sub-sequences called <i>motor chunks</i>. Several experimental paradigms, such as serial reaction task, discrete sequence production, and m × n task, have investigated motor chunking in <i>externally specified</i> sequencing where the environment or task paradigm provides the sequence of stimuli, i.e., the responses are stimulus driven. In this study, we examine motor chunking in a class of more realistic motor tasks that involve <i>internally guided</i> sequencing where the sequence of motor actions is self-generated or internally specified. We employ a grid-navigation task as an exemplar of internally guided sequencing to investigate practice-driven performance improvements due to motor chunking. The participants performed the grid-sailing task (GST) (Fermin et al., 2010), which required navigating (by executing sequential keypresses) a 10 × 10 grid from start to goal position while using a particular type of key mapping between the three cursor movement directions and the three keyboard buttons. We provide empirical evidence for motor chunking in grid-navigation tasks by showing the emergence of subject-specific, unique temporal patterns in response times. Our findings show spontaneous chunking without pre-specified or externally guided structures while replicating the earlier results with a less constrained, internally guided sequencing paradigm. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-09T00:30:40Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-9b7d964e03d6439b904db1539d616776 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2076-3425 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-09T00:30:40Z |
| publishDate | 2021-02-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Brain Sciences |
| spelling | doaj.art-9b7d964e03d6439b904db1539d6167762023-12-11T18:33:06ZengMDPI AGBrain Sciences2076-34252021-02-0111329210.3390/brainsci11030292Motor Chunking in Internally Guided SequencingKrishn Bera0Anuj Shukla1Raju S. Bapi2Cognitive Science Lab, Kohli Research Center on Intelligent Systems, International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad 500032, IndiaCognitive Science Lab, Kohli Research Center on Intelligent Systems, International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad 500032, IndiaCognitive Science Lab, Kohli Research Center on Intelligent Systems, International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad 500032, IndiaMotor skill learning involves the acquisition of sequential motor movements with practice. Studies have shown that we learn to execute these sequences efficiently by chaining several elementary actions in sub-sequences called <i>motor chunks</i>. Several experimental paradigms, such as serial reaction task, discrete sequence production, and m × n task, have investigated motor chunking in <i>externally specified</i> sequencing where the environment or task paradigm provides the sequence of stimuli, i.e., the responses are stimulus driven. In this study, we examine motor chunking in a class of more realistic motor tasks that involve <i>internally guided</i> sequencing where the sequence of motor actions is self-generated or internally specified. We employ a grid-navigation task as an exemplar of internally guided sequencing to investigate practice-driven performance improvements due to motor chunking. The participants performed the grid-sailing task (GST) (Fermin et al., 2010), which required navigating (by executing sequential keypresses) a 10 × 10 grid from start to goal position while using a particular type of key mapping between the three cursor movement directions and the three keyboard buttons. We provide empirical evidence for motor chunking in grid-navigation tasks by showing the emergence of subject-specific, unique temporal patterns in response times. Our findings show spontaneous chunking without pre-specified or externally guided structures while replicating the earlier results with a less constrained, internally guided sequencing paradigm.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3425/11/3/292learningmotor sequence learningmotor chunkinginternally guided sequencinggrid navigation tasks |
| spellingShingle | Krishn Bera Anuj Shukla Raju S. Bapi Motor Chunking in Internally Guided Sequencing Brain Sciences learning motor sequence learning motor chunking internally guided sequencing grid navigation tasks |
| title | Motor Chunking in Internally Guided Sequencing |
| title_full | Motor Chunking in Internally Guided Sequencing |
| title_fullStr | Motor Chunking in Internally Guided Sequencing |
| title_full_unstemmed | Motor Chunking in Internally Guided Sequencing |
| title_short | Motor Chunking in Internally Guided Sequencing |
| title_sort | motor chunking in internally guided sequencing |
| topic | learning motor sequence learning motor chunking internally guided sequencing grid navigation tasks |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3425/11/3/292 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT krishnbera motorchunkingininternallyguidedsequencing AT anujshukla motorchunkingininternallyguidedsequencing AT rajusbapi motorchunkingininternallyguidedsequencing |