Perception-action mediation in sensory-motor learning: observational and motor practice

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Demonstrations are commonly used as tools for conveying information succinctly and easily. Despite their ubiquity, there are uncertainties about the type of information that is conveyed, the conditions under which observational practice is effective, and how they work to facilitate motor skill acquisition. In view of recent evidence showing shared brain structures for seeing and doing, researchers have discussed observational practice benefits in terms of activation of motor structures, supposedly enabling simulation and motor learning. It has long been thought, however, that observational learning benefits were mediated by cognitive (strategic) representations or perceptual 'blueprints' of desired actions. In this research I will use 3 tasks to study how observation mediates and potentially facilitates motor performance and learning. In Task A I will use a loud startling stimulus to test whether observation of an action involves covert preparation of the action in the observer. According to 'simulation' theories, observation involves the same processes as action, with either sub-threshold activation and/or inhibition. In Task B, I will see how observational practice aids people learning to adapt to changes in environmental conditions, merely through watching. The idea that people engage in predictive processes associated with actually moving when watching, has implications for how they would switch between normal and new environments, allowing for conclusions about the types of knowledge underpinning observational learning. In Task C I will study how people learn to represent the observed or felt movements of others in order to perform jointly and alone in coordination tasks. This will aid our understanding of how (observed) actions are represented, how they inform learning and aid training when only part of the action can be practised, due to injury, disease or practical limits. This coordination task will also be used to probe how observers develop knowledge (insight) and how procedural awareness interacts with and precedes or follows sensory-motor learning. These experiments will add to theories of visual-motor learning and aid in devising practice that is best suited for efficiency, retention and transfer.