A Perceptually Driven Dynamical Model of Bimanual Rhythmic Movement (and Phase Perception)

Transfer of learning between unimanual and bimanual rhythmic movement coordination: transfer is a function of the task dynamic

“…Finally, the understanding developed in the current study of what occurs during learning to promote transfer required theoretically motivated models of the task at hand such as the various versions of the Bingham model (bimanual 0°/180°: Bingham, 2001Bingham, , 2004aunimanual 0°/180°: Snapp-Childs et al 2011;bimanual and unimanual 90°: Bingham and Snapp-Childs in preparation). These models contain specific hypotheses about mechanism that, in turn, enables us to use them to make successful predictions about learning and transfer.…”

“…Coordinated rhythmic movement is a standard model perception-action task for studying performance and learning, and the task dynamic has been modelled explicitly as a perceptionaction system with terms in the equations representing the perceptual information and action control variables involved (Bingham 2001, 2004a, b, Snapp-Childs et al 2011. The model predicted results both from movement studies (e.g.…”

Identifying the information for the visual perception of relative phase

“…This perceptual variability is strongly implicated as the reason why movement at 90º is variable (Bingham, 2004a(Bingham, , 2004b. The practical upshot of this fact for the present study was that in order to use this paradigm at 90º, we required trained observers of 90º.…”

“…Variability was detected identically at all points for 0º; at 180º, variability was still detected at all points in the trajectory, but not equally (detection was poor at peak velocity). Bingham (2004b) concluded that relative speed functioned as a noise term, affecting the participants' ability to resolve the underlying information. He also concluded that the information itself was present at all points in the trajectory and that, under these conditions, phase perception could, therefore, be continuous.…”

“…On the basis of these results, Bingham (2001Bingham ( , 2004aBingham ( , 2004b proposed a perception-action dynamical systems model of coordinated rhythmic movement, in which two nonlinearly damped mass-spring oscillators are coordinated via a perceptual coupling function; each mass-spring is driven by the perceived phase of the other mass-spring, modified by perceived relative phase. Constrained by the empirical data described above, the model predicted that the information for perceived relative phase is the relative direction of motion of the two oscillators, the detection of which is modulated by relative speed.…”