New research from the University of Memphis, published this week in the journal
PLoS ONE, has found another use: psychological experimentation. By integrating the Nintendo Wiimote with a laboratory computer, psychologist Rick Dale and his student collaborators were able to extract rich information about a person’s reaching movements while they performed a learning task.
The authors were interested in how the dynamic characteristics of arm movement change as people become better at a task. Data from the Wiimote permitted the researchers to demonstrate that body movements change systematically along with change in mental processing (in this case, learning). These results provide new evidence that cognition and action systems, still thought by many to be relatively separate subsystems in the human mind, are actually deeply intertwined.
“The Wiimote is in fact the perfect interface to perform these kinds of experiments,” Dale remarked. “As the game itself is already designed to absorb a person’s body into the videogame experience, we just have to hook the Wiimote into a lab computer, and we can enjoy the rich streaming data that videogames typically use, but this time track them in experiments.”
Dale and his students continuously tracked the position and acceleration of participants’ choices as they learned to match unfamiliar symbols into pairs. As people learned, their bodies reflected the confidence of that learning. Participants moved the Wiimote more quickly, more steadily, and also pressed on it more firmly as they became familiar with the symbols. While everyone knows that you get better at moving in tasks that require intricate movement (such as learning to use chopsticks), these results suggest that your body movements are related to learning other information as well.
Their results suggest that when the body accompanies more complex learning experiences in school or at work, it can richly reflect that underlying process of learning. The authors suggest that this idea may help adaptive computer interfaces and learning technologies extract information about a user or learner – by paying close attention to their body dynamics.
The authors note that using the Wiimote now provides psychologists with a very affordable and immersive environment to study the relations between cognition and action. Existing technology to track three-dimensional movement typically costs many thousands of dollars, but the use of the Wiimote may provide an accessible and enjoyable alternative.
“One reason the Nintendo Wii is so wildly successful is that it integrates natural bodily movements with the mental processing involved in gaming,” Dale notes, “our results offer further testament to this. Your body and your mind are really one system, naturally changing with each other in all our daily learning and other cognitive experiences.”
Citation: Dale R, Roche J, Snyder K, McCall R (2008) Exploring Action Dynamics as an Index of Paired-Associate Learning. PLoS ONE 3(3): e1728. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0001728 (
http://www.plosone.org/doi/pone.0001728)
Source: Public Library of Science
Related stories:
Scientists Find First Immune Responses to HIV Infection Ineffective
(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists have identified the very first antibodies to appear in the wake of HIV infection and have concluded that they are virtually impotent in mounting a meaningful defense against the invading virus.
Nobel prizewinner describes his chemistry research as ‘a 1970s disco light'
Columbia University professor Martin Chalfie called the subject of his Nobel Prize-winning research "a 1970s disco light" that traces the growth of diseases such as cancer and Alzheimer's.
Robots, the bizarre and the beautiful (Robot Special part 4)
(PhysOrg.com) -- The future is a foreign country, and nowhere is it more foreign that the designs thrown up by a surge in robotics research. The feverish imagination and creativity of European robot scientists has led to dozens of robot designs, some bizarre, some beautiful, but all are inspired.
Step right up, let the computer look at your face and tell you your age
People who hope to keep their age a secret won't want to go near a computer running this software. Like an age-guesser at a carnival, computer software being developed at the University of Illinois can fairly accurately estimate a person's age. But, unlike age-guessers, who can view a person's body, the software works by examining only the person's face.
Filmmaker examines the future in 3D
Melissa Butts has seen the future, and it looks startlingly clear and lifelike. Butts is a filmmaker who specializes in 3D digital movies, an emerging market that is increasingly drawing the interest of major Hollywood studios, theater chains, and top directors like James Cameron and Steven Spielberg.
Inflammatory response to infection and injury may worsen dementia
Inflammation in the brain resulting from infection or injury may accelerate the progress of dementia, research funded by the Wellcome Trust suggests. The findings, published this week in the journal
Biological Psychiatry, may have implications for the treatment and care of those living with dementia.
Cardiologists find physical exams just as good for assessing heart failure
Patient history and physical examination, traditionally the cornerstone diagnostic tool for medical care, may still be among the most accurate and cost-efficient methods to assess patients with congestive heart failure, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have found.
Baby eyes are taking in the world, applying self-experience to other people
(PhysOrg.com) -- Those wide-eyed babies are taking in and using more information than previously believed. In fact, new research by psychologists at the University of Washington's Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences indicates 12- and 18-month-old babies not only are observing what is going on around them but also are using their own visual self-experience to judge what other people can and cannot see.