Visual-Motor Organization: Between- and Within-Individual Differences
Abstract
The research described in this report uses control theory's tracking paradigm of voluntary movement to identify nine elementary psychomotor tasks that are simple to administer, and that tap nonverbal cognitive or perceptual attributes. Two series of experiments are reported. Study 1 examined the hypothesis that dissimilar arrays of individual differences, as determined through test-retest correlations, may exist among the same subjects across the various static and dynamic visual and motor components which enter as terms into the mathematical expressions of control theory's tracking equations and also in the organization of these components. The hypothesis could not be rejected. Study 2 determined that the originally observed test-retest individual differences in visual-motor organization not only persisted in the absence of practice, but also withstood active practice intervention. This study additionally showed that subjects differed reliably in their ability to plan, i. e., to take advantage of coherence in visual-motor organization. Together, the two studies indicate that between- and within-individual differences exist in fundamental, nonverbal cognitive or perceptual modes of discriminating and organizing static and dynamic, visual and motor components selected from the tracking paradigm of voluntary action.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Nov 01, 1981
- Accession Number
- ADA145457
Entities
People
- D. R. Tufano
- J. M. Notterman
- J. S. Hrapsky
Organizations
- Princeton University