2013 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

Fundamental research for training of perceptual skills (I): Can the motor skill learning really contribute to the improvement of perceptual skills?

Research Project

Project/Area Number	23500674
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
Allocation Type	Multi-year Fund
Section	一般
Research Field	Physical education
Research Institution	Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology
Principal Investigator	TANAKA Hideyuki 東京農工大学, 工学(系)研究科(研究院), 准教授 (70231412)
Project Period (FY)	2011 – 2013
Keywords	知覚 / 運動制御 / 運動学習 / 認知系脳科学 / 動作解析
Research Abstract	The research aimed to investigate whether motor skill practices could improve perceptual skills. We performed three ball-throwing experiments. In Experiment 1, subjects practiced throwing a ball into a target using a shooting tool for two months. In Experiments 2 & 3, subjects threw a ball vertically to different targets and catch it while sitting in a chair. The subjects performed this motor, partially mental, task in three different modes: actual execution, pantomime, and imagination without swing actions. For the subject who experienced baseball the motor practice could improve the accuracy of perceptual judgments regarding back-forces acting on the hand at the ball release. Pantomime throwing reproduced the motor patterns observed during actual throwing and significantly reduced the variability of mental simulation of ball flights compared to the imagination mode. We hypothesized that simulated motor execution can play an important role in estimating a consequence of motor actions.