How does a partner's motor variability affect joint action?

ABSTRACT: Motor learning studies demonstrate that an individual's natural motor variability predicts the rate at which she learns a motor task. Individuals exhibiting higher variability learn motor tasks faster, presumably because variability fosters exploration of a wider space of motor parameters. However, it is unclear how individuals regulate variability while learning a motor task together with a partner who perturbs their movements. In the current study, we investigated whether and how variability affects performance and learning in such joint actions. Participants learned to jointly perform a sequence of movements with a confederate who was either highly variable or less variable in her movements. A haptic coupling between the actors led to translation of partner's movement variability into a

SUBMITTER: Sabu S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7595416 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature