The role of haptics in motor learning and forgetting

我的目标是了解我们如何促进运动技能的获得，并了解更多关于运动技能长期保持的机制。也就是说，在我们学习了一项技能之后，影响忘记这项技能的因素是什么--它们是否与影响技能学习速度的因素相同？遗忘曲线与学习曲线相似吗？我们对技能保留的大多数理解都集中在短期内（即，小时、天或周后的初始实践）。然而，在日常生活中，我们学习的技能是在一生中执行。最明显的例子是骑自行车，但其他例子包括医生谁是认证执行特定的临床技能。如果长时间不行医，医生还能胜任吗？过度学习会阻止或减缓遗忘吗？触摸反馈在学习和遗忘过程中的作用将得到解决。更具体地说，触觉或触觉在引导中的作用将在获得和长期保留（最初获得后数月甚至数年）期间进行检查。将使用行为方法，当人类参与者在上述训练条件下学习执行各种熟练动作时，将测量上肢运动的结果或过程。所研究的技能将包括不同复杂性的任务，从简单的实验室技能到非常复杂的技术临床技能，如结肠镜检查或进行结肠镜检查。研究这一系列的技能复杂性，使运动学习模型的普遍性得到解决。这项工作将有助于我们对运动学习和遗忘过程的理论理解。然而，这项研究也有实际应用。我们的研究结果对许多执行运动技能的环境（例如，工作或工业环境、医疗保健、军事、康复、体育、音乐），并可能节省培训费用、提高生产率和改善安全性。

My goal is to understand how we can facilitate the acquisition of motor skills and to learn more about the mechanisms of long term retention of motor skills. That is, after we have learned a skill, what are the factors that influence the forgetting of that skill - are they the same factors that influence how quickly a skill is learned? Is the forgetting curve similar to the learning curve? The majority of our understanding of skill retention has focused on the short term (i.e., hours, days or weeks after initial practice). However, in everyday life we learn skills that are performed over a lifetime. The obvious example is riding a bike, but other examples include the physician who is certified to perform a particular clinical skill. If a long period goes by without practice, is the physician still competent? Does over learning prevent or slow down the forgetting? The role of touch feedback during these processes of learning and forgetting will be addressed. More specifically, the role of touch or haptics in guidance will be examined both during acquisition and long-term retention (months and even years after initial acquisition). A behavioural approach will be used where the outcome, or process of making upper limb movements, will be measured as human participants learn to perform various skilled movements under the above-mentioned training conditions. The skills studied will include tasks of varying complexity ranging from simple laboratory skills to very complex technical clinical skills such as suturing or performing a colonoscopy. Studying this range of skill complexity allows the generalizability of models of motor learning to be addressed. This work will contribute to our theoretical understanding of the processes of motor learning and forgetting. However, this research also has practical application. Our findings have implications for many environments where motor skills are performed (e.g., work or industrial environments, health care, military, rehabilitation, sports, music) and could potentially save training dollars, increase productivity, and improve safety.