Dates: Mondays 2:15-5pm (Totman, room 131B)
Many of the key issues in modern day movement coordination were formulated by the Russian neurophysiologist and movement pioneer Nikolai Bernstein during the first half of the past century. Some of these issues include the degrees of freedom problem, motor equivalence, and non-univocality of motor commands and peripheral effects. Bernstein's work is so important as many theoretical "streams" lay claim to his insights and work. This offers an excellent opportunity to revisit the different theoretical perspectives in the study of action and perception. This is all the more necessary because all too often different approaches are conveniently put into bins (such as "dynamical systems perspective" versus "motor program perspective") without a sufficiently grounded insight into the more subtle differences or existing similarities. Also, what might have been a significant contrast 30 years ago, might have developed into a completely different set of issues and/or assumptions at this day and age. It is therefore paramount to examine developments in different areas of motor control that have emerged from a variety of theoretical and methodological bases.
In this special seminar we will take a closer look at contributions to movement science from the following perspectives: cybernetics, hierarchical approaches (such as schema theory and generalized motor programs), original developments in ecological psychology, "natural" or "ecological" physics, synergetics, equilibrium-point and computational approaches.
Updated 31-Jan-2001 mtr@cs.umass.edu