Chi-Mei Lee

Date Approved

2012

Degree Type

Open Access Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department or School

Psychology

Committee Member

Jin Bo, PhD, Assistant Professor, Chair

Committee Member

Thomas A. Schmitt, PhD, Assistant Professor

Committee Member

Renee R. Lajiness-O’Neill, PhD, Associate Professor

Abstract

Children with Developmental Coordination Disorders (DCD) have shown motor learning deficits in visuomotor adaptation tasks, and the failure of detecting errors seems to be the key that impedes motor learning. Recent studies suggested that presenting larger feedback improves the rate and extent of motor learning in healthy subjects and stroke patients. The present study recruited young adults with and without motor difficulties and aimed to examine their adaptability in visuomotor adaptation tasks with either regular (30° rotation) or enlarged (30° + double error) visual feedbacks. Results revealed that participants with lower motor ability showed less adaptability than those with higher motor ability in the regular feedback condition. However, they were able to reach a similar level of adaptability compared to the controls in the enlarged feedback condition. It can be argued that participants with motor difficulties can successfully compensate for their "noisy" visuomotor mapping by relying more on their feedback processes.

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