Closed-Loop Control
Chelsea Ferrell
Lab 1
Closed-Loop Control According to our book, Motor Learning and Performance, a closed-loop control is a type of control that involves the use of feedback and the activity of error detection and correction processes to maintain the desired state; used by people to control slow, deliberate movements. The book uses a heating and cooling system to illustrate a closed-loop control, but a closed-loop control process is actually used for certain types of human performances. For our first lab, we demonstrated a closed-loop control by tracing twenty-four star shapes while being timed with both our dominant and non-dominant hand. The person tracing the star was the effector because they were carrying out the desired action while the person managing the stop-watch and recording the scores was the executive because they controlled when it was time to begin tracing each star as well as maintaining the stop watch times and data recording. In a way, they were also the comparator, because they took note on if you traced the star left to right or right to left, how effectively you stayed in the lines, etc. By taking note on these actions, they were able to see which method of tracing worked best, which method gave you the fastest time, and which way gave you the lowest error. The star tracing on my dominant showed improvement each time with my first score time being 5.9 seconds and my last time being 4.1 seconds. I believe each time I traced the star I went left to right every time. For my non-dominant hand, there really wasn’t much improvement, sadly. My first time was 5.4 with my last being 5.2. Oddly enough, I had some times throughout in the 6 to 7 second range. I believe the better times were due to tracing left to right, and when I my time was higher was because I traced right to left. I should have stayed left to right the whole time. One factor that affected performance was simply having two people stare at you while you complete a timed task. It
Lab 1
Closed-Loop Control According to our book, Motor Learning and Performance, a closed-loop control is a type of control that involves the use of feedback and the activity of error detection and correction processes to maintain the desired state; used by people to control slow, deliberate movements. The book uses a heating and cooling system to illustrate a closed-loop control, but a closed-loop control process is actually used for certain types of human performances. For our first lab, we demonstrated a closed-loop control by tracing twenty-four star shapes while being timed with both our dominant and non-dominant hand. The person tracing the star was the effector because they were carrying out the desired action while the person managing the stop-watch and recording the scores was the executive because they controlled when it was time to begin tracing each star as well as maintaining the stop watch times and data recording. In a way, they were also the comparator, because they took note on if you traced the star left to right or right to left, how effectively you stayed in the lines, etc. By taking note on these actions, they were able to see which method of tracing worked best, which method gave you the fastest time, and which way gave you the lowest error. The star tracing on my dominant showed improvement each time with my first score time being 5.9 seconds and my last time being 4.1 seconds. I believe each time I traced the star I went left to right every time. For my non-dominant hand, there really wasn’t much improvement, sadly. My first time was 5.4 with my last being 5.2. Oddly enough, I had some times throughout in the 6 to 7 second range. I believe the better times were due to tracing left to right, and when I my time was higher was because I traced right to left. I should have stayed left to right the whole time. One factor that affected performance was simply having two people stare at you while you complete a timed task. It