Children
ABSTRACT
Aims
The purpose of this study was to explore whether typically developing children learn a motor skill better if the skill is first learned by the proximal motor apparatus and then transferred to the distal motor apparatus.
Methods
Thirty-one typically developing children were randomly assigned to either proximal or distal muscle group. The children in the proximal muscle group learned to draw a large pattern using the proximal muscle groups (shoulder and elbow) and transferred the skill to the distal muscle group (wrist and hand) by reproducing a similar but smaller pattern. The children in the distal muscle group did the opposite.
Results
A two way ANOVA revealed skill was transferred …show more content…
Vangheluwe et al. (2004) reported intramanual transfer when participants learned a new task of drawing (starline drawing paradigm) [8]. Participants performed two different tasks with the right and left limb in parallel. Thirty-six undergraduate students were assigned to two different groups. In the first group the participants practiced the star-line drawing task with the proximal motor apparatus using the shoulder and elbow joints, and then transferred the performance to the distal motor apparatus using the wrist and finger joints. In the second group the participants practiced the star-line drawing task with the wrist-finger joints (distal) and then transferred the performance to the shoulderelbow joints (proximal). The participants practiced the star-line task for 25 trials per day for three days. The results showed that there was a transfer advantage of the skill of line performance (error of orientation angle) from the proximal to the distal motor apparatus.
Imamizu and Shimojo (1995) have theorized that transfer of a skill takes place at the task (cognitive) level rather than at the effector (hand) level [9]. Teixeira