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留的机制。也就是说，在我们学习了一项技能之后，影响该技能遗忘的因素是什么？这些因素是否与影响技能学习速度的因素相同？遗忘曲线和学习曲线相似吗？我们对技能留存的理解大多集中在短期内（即最初练习后的几个小时、几天或几周）。然而，在日常生活中，我们学习的技能是用一生来完成的。最明显的例子是骑自行车，但其他的例子还包括被认证执行特定临床技能的医生。如果很长一段时间没有实践，医生还能胜任吗？过度学习是否会阻止或减缓遗忘？触摸反馈在这些学习和遗忘过程中的作用将被讨论。更具体地说，触摸或触觉在指导中的作用将在习得和长期保留（最初习得后数月甚至数年）期间进行研究。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，将使用行为方法来测量上肢运动的结果或过程。学习的技能将包括各种复杂程度的任务，从简单的实验室技能到非常复杂的临床技术技能，如缝合或进行结肠镜检查。研究这种技能复杂性的范围，可以解决运动学习模型的通用性。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，本研究也具有实际应用价值。我们的研究结果对许多需要运动技能的环境（例如，工作或工业环境、医疗保健、军事、康复、体育、音乐）具有启示意义，并且可能潜在地节省培训费用、提高生产率和提高安全性。

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.