Interacting Learning Processes during Skill Acquisition: Learning to control with gradually changing system dynamics.

ABSTRACT: There is increasing evidence that sensorimotor learning under real-life conditions relies on a composition of several learning processes. Nevertheless, most studies examine learning behaviour in relation to one specific learning mechanism. In this study, we examined the interaction between reward-based skill acquisition and motor adaptation to changes of object dynamics. Thirty healthy subjects, split into two groups, acquired the skill of balancing a pole on a cart in virtual reality. In one group, we gradually increased the gravity, making the task easier in the beginning and more difficult towards the end. In the second group, subjects had to acquire the skill on the maximum, most difficult gravity level. We hypothesized that the gradual increase in gravity during skill acquisition supp

SUBMITTER: Ludolph N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5643438 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature