Approach
Movement tracking
Sonification
Data
Controlled experiment
Lab study
Quantitative analysis
Qualitative analysis
Period
2019
Motor Variability in Complex Gesture Learning
Effects of Movement Sonification and Musical Background
Despite the importance of motor variability in motor learning, we know little about how it evolves when learning complex movements, especially in response to feedback, such as movement sonification, or specific user characteristics, such as musical background. We present an experiment in which musicians and non-musicians learn two gesture sequences over three days, with and without movement sonification. Results indicate that, although motor variability is not completely eliminated when learning complex movements, it does decrease over time, and is influenced by both movement sonification and users’ musical backgrounds. Specifically, the presence of sound at the beginning of the learning process generates higher variability regardless of musical background. When sound is absent, participants first focus on the overall shape, then shift their attention to gesture details, while losing the details of the overall shape. Furthermore, gesture characteristics as well as sonification strategies also influence motor variability.
The figure below shows the two gestures used in the study. (a)–(d): gesture 1, which is more rhythmic and (e)–(i): gesture 2, which is performed at constant speed. Dashed line represents gesture preparation.
The figure below shows (a) Experiment setup includes an Optitrack motion capture sensor and PC, a camera and a MacBook Pro that records audio, video and motion capture data; (b) the glove that participants wear, with 4 markers for track- ing and an R-IoT sensor; (c) a participant wearing the glove and sitting on a chair in front of the camera and Optitrack sensors.
Publication
Wanyu Liu, Michelle Agnes Magalhaes, Wendy E. Mackay, Michel Beaudouin-Lafon, and Frédéric Bevilacqua. 2022. Motor Variability in Complex Gesture Learning: Effects of Movement Sonification and Musical Background. ACM Transactions on Applied Perception. 19, 1, Article 2 (January 2022), 21 pages. DOI:https://doi.org/10.1145/3482967