Query: cognitive learning throwing a ball

title: The Effect of Spatial Working Memory Deterioration on Strategic Visuomotor Learning across Aging
abstract: To evaluate the effect of age related cognitive changes in a visuomotor learning task that depends on strategic control and contrast it with the effect in a task principally depending on visuomotor recalibration.  Participants performed a ball throwing task while donning either a reversing dove prism or a displacement wedge prism, which mainly depend on strategic control or visuomotor recalibration, respectively. Visuomotor performance was then analysed in relation to rule acquisition and reversal, recognition memory, visual memory, spatial planning, and spatial working memory with tasks from the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery ( The results confirmed previous works showing a detrimental effect of age on visuomotor learning. The analyses of the cognitive changes observed across age showed that both strategic control and visuomotor recalibration had significant negative correlations only with the number of errors in the spatial working memory task. However, when the effect of aging was controlled, the only significant correlation remaining was between the reversal adaptation magnitude and spatial working memory.  These results suggest that spatial working memory decline across aging could contribute to age dependent deterioration in both visuomotor learning processes. However, spatial working memory integrity seems to affect strategic learning decline even after controlling for aging.

title: Role of a single session of ball throwing exercise on postural control in older adults with mild cognitive impairment
abstract: The purpose of the study was to investigate the role of training in improvement of balance control in older adults with mild cognitive impairment.  Older adults (mean age 78) with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and cognitively intact older adults (mean age 72) were exposed to self initiated perturbations while performing bilateral shoulder flexion task before and after a single training session consisting of throwing a medicine ball. EMG activity of six trunk and lower limb muscles was recorded. Muscle onsets, integrals of EMG, and muscle co contraction (C) and reciprocal (R) activation indices were calculated and analyzed during the anticipatory and compensatory phases of postural control.  Anticipatory postural adjustments (APAs) were observed in both groups. Individuals with MCI, as compared to controls, had higher level of co contraction of muscles. The training resulted in enhancement of the generation of APAs in individuals with MCI seen as earlier onset of leg and trunk muscle activity prior to the bilateral arm flexion task. While smaller co contraction of muscles post training was seen in both the groups, the effect of a single training session was significant in control subjects only.  The outcome of the exploratory study suggests that perturbation based training could be used to improve balance control in older adults with and without mild cognitive impairment.

title: Cognitive Task Analysis for Implicit Knowledge About Visual Representations With Similarity Learning Methods
abstract: Visual representations are prevalent in STEM instruction. To benefit from visuals, students need representational competencies that enable them to see meaningful information. Most research has focused on explicit conceptual representational competencies, but implicit perceptual competencies might also allow students to efficiently see meaningful information in visuals. Most common methods to assess students' representational competencies rely on verbal explanations or assume explicit attention. However, because perceptual competencies are implicit and not necessarily verbally accessible, these methods are ill equipped to assess them. We address these shortcomings with a method that draws on similarity learning, a machine learning technique that detects visual features that account for participants' responses to triplet comparisons of visuals. In Experiment 1, 614 chemistry students judged the similarity of Lewis structures and in Experiment 2, 489 students judged the similarity of ball and stick models. Our results showed that our method can detect visual features that drive students' perception and suggested that students' conceptual knowledge about molecules informed perceptual competencies through top down processes. Furthermore, Experiment 2 tested whether we can improve the efficiency of the method with active sampling. Results showed that random sampling yielded higher accuracy than active sampling for small sample sizes. Together, the experiments provide the first method to assess students' perceptual competencies implicitly, without requiring verbalization or assuming explicit visual attention. These findings have implications for the design of instructional interventions that help students acquire perceptual representational competencies.

title: Quiet eye training aids the long term learning of throwing and catching in children: Preliminary evidence for a predictive control strategy
abstract: Quiet eye training (QET) may be a more effective method for teaching children to catch than traditional training (TT) methods, but it is unclear if the benefits accrued persist in the long term. Thirty children were randomly allocated into a QET or TT group and, while wearing a mobile eye tracker, underwent baseline testing, training and two retention tests over a period of eight weeks, using a validated throw and catch task. During training, movement related information was provided to both groups, while the QET group received additional instruction to increase the duration of their targeting fixation (QE1) on the wall prior to the throw, and pursuit tracking (QE2) period on the ball prior to catching. In both immediate (R1) and delayed (R2, six weeks later) retention tests, the QET group had a significantly longer QE1 duration and an earlier and longer QE2 duration, compared to the TT group, who revealed no improvements. A performance advantage was also found for the QET compared to the TT group at both R1 and R2, revealing the relatively robust nature of the visuomotor alterations. Regression analyses suggested that only the duration of QE1 predicted variance in catch success post training, pointing to the importance of a pre programming visuomotor strategy for successful throw and catch performance.

title: Where Are You Throwing the Ball? I Better Watch Your Body, Not Just Your Arm!
abstract: The ability to intercept or avoid a moving object, whether to catch a ball, snatch one's prey, or avoid the path of a predator, is a skill that has been acquired throughout evolution by many species in the animal kingdom. This requires processing early visual cues in order to program anticipatory motor responses tuned to the forthcoming event. Here, we explore the nature of the early kinematics cues that could inform an observer about the future direction of a ball projected with an unconstrained overarm throw. Our goal was to pinpoint the body segments that, throughout the temporal course of the throwing action, could provide key cues for accurately predicting the side of the outgoing ball. We recorded whole body kinematics from twenty non expert participants performing unconstrained overarm throws at four different targets placed on a vertical plane at 6 m distance. In order to characterize the spatiotemporal structure of the information embedded in the kinematics of the throwing action about the outgoing ball direction, we introduced a novel combination of dimensionality reduction and machine learning techniques. The recorded kinematics clearly shows that throwing styles differed considerably across individuals, with corresponding inter individual differences in the spatio temporal structure of the thrower predictability. We found that for most participants it is possible to predict the region where the ball hit the target plane, with an accuracy above 80% as early as 400 500 ms before ball release. Interestingly, the body parts that provided the most informative cues about the action outcome varied with the throwing style and during the time course of the throwing action. Not surprisingly, at the very end of the action, the throwing arm is the most informative body segment. However, cues allowing for predictions to be made earlier than 200 ms before release are typically associated to other body parts, such as the lower limbs and the contralateral arm. These findings are discussed in the context of the sport science literature on throwing and catching interactive tasks, as well as from the wider perspective of the role of sensorimotor coupling in interpersonal social interactions.

title: Action Observation Combined With Conventional Training Improves the Rugby Lineout Throwing Performance: A Pilot Study
abstract: Combining action observation (AO) and physical practice contributes to motor skill learning, and a number of studies pointed out the beneficial role of AO training in improving the motor performance and the athletes' movement kinematics. The aim of this study was to investigate if AO combined with immediate conventional training was able to improve motor performance and kinematic parameters of a complex motor skill such as the lineout throw, a gesture that represents a key aspect of rugby, that is unique to this sport. Twenty elite rugby players were divided into two groups. The AO group watched a 5 min video clip of an expert model performing the lineout throw toward a target at 7 m distance and, immediately after the AO, this group executed the conventional training, consisting of six repetitions x five blocks of throws. The CONTROL group performed only the conventional lineout training. Intervention period lasted 4 weeks, 3 sessions/week. The AO group showed significant improvements in throwing accuracy (i.e. number of throws hitting the target) whilst no significant changes were observed in the CONTROL group. As concerns kinematic parameters, hooker's arm mean velocity significantly increased in both groups, but the increase was higher in AO group compared to CONTROL group. Ball velocity significantly increased only in the AO group, whereas ball angle release and ball spinning significantly decreased in both groups, with no differences between groups. Finally, no significant changes in knee and elbow angles were observed. Our results showed that the combination of AO and conventional training was more effective than a conventional training alone in improving the performance of elite rugby players, in executing a complex motor skill, such as the lineout. This combined training led to significant improvements in throwing accuracy and in hooker's and ball's kinematic parameters. Since AO can be easily implemented in combination with conventional training, the results of this study can encourage coaches in designing specific lineout training programs, which include AO cognitive training.

title: From Cognitive Load Theory to Collaborative Cognitive Load Theory
abstract: Cognitive load theory has traditionally been associated with individual learning. Based on evolutionary educational psychology and our knowledge of human cognition, particularly the relations between working memory and long term memory, the theory has been used to generate a variety of instructional effects. Though these instructional effects also influence the efficiency and effectiveness of collaborative learning, be it computer supported or face to face, they are often not considered either when designing collaborative learning situations/environments or researching collaborative learning. One reason for this omission is that cognitive load theory has only sporadically concerned itself with certain particulars of collaborative learning such as the concept of a collective working memory when collaborating along with issues associated with transactive activities and their concomitant costs which are inherent to collaboration. We illustrate how and why cognitive load theory, by adding these concepts, can throw light on collaborative learning and generate principles specific to the design and study of collaborative learning.

title: Physical and Family History Variables Associated With Neurological and Cognitive Development in Sturge Weber Syndrome.
abstract: Sturge Weber syndrome (SWS) is caused by a somatic mutation in GNAQ leading to capillary venous malformations in the brain presenting with various neurological, ophthalmic, and cognitive symptoms of variable severity. This clinical variability makes accurate prognosis difficult. We hypothesized that the greater extent of physical factors (extent of skin, eye, and brain involvement) presence of possible genetic factors (gender and family history) and age of seizure onset may be associated with greater symptom severity and need for surgery in patients with SWS.  The questionnaire was collected from 277 participants (age: two months to 66 years) with SWS brain involvement at seven US sites.  Bilateral brain involvement was associated with both learning disorder and intellectual disability, whereas port wine birthmark extent was associated with epilepsy and an increased likelihood of glaucoma surgery. Subjects with family history of vascular birthmarks were also more likely to report symptomatic strokes, and family history of seizures was associated with earlier seizure onset. Learning disorder, intellectual disability, strokelike episodes, symptomatic stroke, hemiparesis, visual field deficit, and brain surgery were all significantly associated with earlier onset of seizures.  The extent of brain and skin involvement in SWS, as well as the age of seizure onset, affect prognosis. Other genetic factors, particularly variants involved in vascular development and epilepsy, may also contribute to neurological prognosis, and further study is needed.

title: Social Anxiety and Dynamic Social Reinforcement Learning in a Volatile Environment
abstract: Adaptive social behavior requires learning probabilities of social reward and punishment and updating these probabilities when they change. Given prior research on aberrant reinforcement learning in affective disorders, this study examines how social anxiety affects probabilistic social reinforcement learning and dynamic updating of learned probabilities in a volatile environment. Two hundred and twenty two online participants completed questionnaires and a computerized ball catching game with changing probabilities of reward and punishment. Dynamic learning rates were estimated to assess the relative importance ascribed to new information in response to volatility. Mixed effects regression was used to analyze throw patterns as a function of social anxiety symptoms. Higher social anxiety predicted fewer throws to the previously punishing avatar and different learning rates after certain role changes, suggesting that social anxiety may be characterized by difficulty updating learned social probabilities. Socially anxious individuals may miss the chance to learn that a once punishing situation no longer poses a threat.

title: Effectiveness of knowledge of result and knowledge of performance in the learning of a skilled motor activity by healthy young adults
abstract: The acquisition of motor skills are fundamental to human life. There is a lack of research on whether knowledge of performance or knowledge of result as augmented feedback is more effective. The objective of this study was to compare the effectiveness of knowledge of result and knowledge of performance in the learning of a skilled motor activity by healthy young adults.  A total of thirty healthy young adult males and females without any neurological or musculoskeletal impairment, between the age of 18 30 years were the subjects of the study. They were randomly allocated to 2 groups: group 1 was given knowledge of result as feedback, and knowledge of performance was given as feedback to group 2. Both the groups practiced the task of throwing a soft spongy ball for 6 days per week for 4 weeks, with 40 trials each day. The outcome measure used was the distance of the throw.  The results were analyzed using the t test. The mean distances thrown by both the groups showed highly significant improvements and throwing distance of group 2 showed better improvement than that of group 1.  Both types of augmented feedback were effective at improving skilled motor activity, but the knowledge of performance group showed better improvement than the knowledge of result group.