Where to Grasp a Tool?
Task-Dependent Adjustments of Tool Transformations by Tool Users
Abstract
Biomechanical and environmental constraints limit body movements and tool use actions. However, in the case of tool use, such constraints can often be overcome by adjusting a tool’s tool transformation to the requirements of the intended tool use action. The research presented here examined whether participants grasped a lever at different positions, thus modifying the lever’s tool transformation, to accommodate speed and accuracy requirements of different tasks. Participants were asked to quickly track a sequence of targets with the lever. If accuracy requirements were high, participants compensated for limits in the accuracy of hand movements by grasping the lever at a position that enabled precise control of the lever. If accuracy requirements were low, participants compensated for limits in hand speed by grasping the lever at a position that enabled fast lever movements with comparatively slow hand movements. This task-dependent grasp selection was only present after participants had practiced the tasks. The data show that in addition to adapting to fixed tool transformations, participants also actively controlled tool transformations to facilitate tool use actions.
References
2001). Sensorimotor adaptation to rotated visual input: Different mechanisms for small versus large rotations. Experimental Brain Research, 140, 407–410. doi: 10.1007/s002210100846
(2003). Transfer of sensorimotor adaptation between different movement categories. Experimental Brain Research, 148, 128–132.
(1996). Learning to reach: A mathematical model. Developmental Psychology, 32, 811–823.
(2007). Emergent effector-independent internal spaces: Adaptation and intermanual learning transfer in humans and neural networks. Proceedings of the International Joint Conference on Neural Networks, 2007, 1970–1975.
(2004). Where grasps are made reveals how grasps are planned: Generation and recall of motor plans. Experimental Brain Research, 157, 486–495. doi: 10.1007/s00221-004-1862-9
(1993). The lateral preference inventory for measurement of handedness, footedness, eyedness, and earedness: Norms for young adults. Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society, 31, 1–3.
(1954). The information capacity of the human motor system in controlling the amplitude of movement. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 74, 381–391.
(1998). Signal-dependent noise determines motor planning. Nature, 394, 780–784.
(2010). Planning and control of hand orientation in grasping movements. Experimental Brain Research, 202, 867–878. doi: 10.1007/s00221-010-2191-9
(2011a). The continuous end-state comfort effect: Weighted integration of multiple biases. Psychological Research. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1007/s00426-011-0334-7
(2011b). Habitual and goal-directed factors in (everyday) object handling. Experimental Brain Research, 213, 371–382. doi: 10.1007/s00221-011-2787-8
(1999). Independent learning of internal models for kinematic and dynamic control of reaching. Nature Neuroscience, 2, 1026–1031.
(2007). Spatial compatibility effects with tool use. Human Factors: The Journal of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, 49, 661–670. doi: 10.1518/001872007X215737
(1994). Using confidence intervals in within-subject designs. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 1, 476–490.
(2007). Programming tool-use actions. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 33, 692–704. doi: 10.1037/0096-1523.33.3.692
(2006). An implicit plan overrides an explicit strategy during visuomotor adaptation. The Journal of Neuroscience, 26, 3642–3645.
(2005). Remapping hand movements in a novel geometrical environment. Journal of Neurophysiology, 94, 4362–4372. doi: 10.1152/jn.00380.2005
(2008). Reaching while walking: Reaching distance costs more than walking distance. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 15, 1100–1104. doi: 10.3758/PBR.15.6.1100
(1990). Constraints for action selection: Overhand versus underhand grips. In , Attention and performance, (Vol. XIII, pp. 321–345). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
(2005). Eye-hand coordination during learning of a novel visuomotor task. The Journal of Neuroscience, 25, 8833–8842.
(2009a). Functional independence of explicit and implicit motor adjustments. Consciousness and Cognition, 18, 145–159. doi: 10.1016/j.concog.2008.12.001
(2009b). Learning the visuomotor transformation of virtual and real sliding levers: Simple approximations of complex transformations. Experimental Brain Research, 195, 153–165. doi: 10.1007/s00221-009-1764-y
(2003). Task-specific internal models for kinematic transformations. Journal of Neurophysiology, 90, 578–585. doi: 10.1152/jn.01087.2002
(2003). Statistical decision theory and trade-offs in the control of motor response. Spatial Vision, 16, 255–275.
(1997). Variability of practice and implicit motor learning. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 23, 987–1006.
(