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Bondi D, Robazza C, Lange-Küttner C, Pietrangelo T. Fine motor skills and motor control networking in developmental age. Am J Hum Biol 2022; 34:e23758. [PMID: 35613316 PMCID: PMC9541226 DOI: 10.1002/ajhb.23758] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/13/2021] [Revised: 04/30/2022] [Accepted: 05/04/2022] [Indexed: 11/29/2022] Open
Abstract
Objectives We investigated the relationships between fine motor skills, fitness, anthropometrics, gender and perceived motor performance in school beginners. The aim of our study was to delineate whether and to what extent fine motor control would show meaningful synchrony with other motor variables in the age of onset of handwriting in school. Methods A sample of N = 239 of 6‐to‐8‐year‐old children were tested with an array of tasks measuring fine motor (i.e., dexterity and speed) and grapho‐motor performance (tracing on a tablet screen), anthropometric indexes, and fitness (shuttle run) measures. A subset of 95 children was also tested for perceived motor competence. Results In spite of an overall poor anthropometric condition, our participants were relatively fit. As expected, older children performed better in both, fine motor tasks and the shuttle test. The girls were better in fine motor skills, and an original speed‐quality trade‐off in the drawing was found. However, the magnitude of difference by grade was greater for boys' fine motor skills than those of girls'. A network analysis revealed three specific clusters, (1) perceived competencies, (2) fitness, and (3) fine motor skills. Conclusions Given the relative independence of these areas of physical performance, we suggest focusing on these three clusters as distinct areas of physical education. Fine motor skills deserve further consideration, especially at an early school age. We have demonstrated that network analysis and technology devices used to evaluate motor development are useful and meaningful tools.
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Affiliation(s)
- Danilo Bondi
- Department of Neuroscience, Imaging and Clinical Sciences, University "G. d'Annunzio" of Chieti-Pescara, Chieti, Italy
| | - Claudio Robazza
- Department of Medicine and Aging Sciences, University "G. d'Annunzio" of Chieti-Pescara, Chieti, Italy
| | - Christiane Lange-Küttner
- Department of Psychology, University of Greifswald, Germany.,Department of Psychology, University of Bremen, Bremen, Land Bremen, Germany
| | - Tiziana Pietrangelo
- Department of Neuroscience, Imaging and Clinical Sciences, University "G. d'Annunzio" of Chieti-Pescara, Chieti, Italy
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Lange-Küttner C, Puiu AA. Perceptual Load and Sex-Specific Personality Traits. Exp Psychol 2021; 68:149-164. [PMID: 34711075 PMCID: PMC8691178 DOI: 10.1027/1618-3169/a000520] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/02/2020] [Revised: 07/15/2021] [Accepted: 07/18/2021] [Indexed: 12/04/2022]
Abstract
The impact of sex-specific personality traits has often been investigated for visuospatial tasks such as mental rotation, but less is known about the influence of personality traits on visual search. We investigated whether the Big Five personality traits Extroversion (E), Openness (O), Agreeableness (A), Conscientiousness (C), and Neuroticism (N) and the Autism Quotient (AQ) influence visual search in a sample of N = 65 men and women. In three experiments, we varied stimulus complexity and predictability. As expected, latencies were longer when the target was absent. Pop-out search was faster than conjunction search. A large number of distracters slowed down reaction times (RTs). When stimulus complexity was not predictable in Experiment 3, this reduced search accuracy by about half. As could be predicted based on previous research on long RT tails, conjunction search in target absent trials revealed the impact of personality traits. The RT effect in visual search of the accelerating "less social" AQ score was specific to men, while the effects of the "more social" decelerating Big Five Inventory factors agreeableness and conscientiousness were specific to women. Thus, sex-specific personality traits could explain decision-making thresholds, while visual stimulus complexity yielded an impact of the classic personality traits neuroticism and extroversion.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Andrei-Alexandru Puiu
- Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy
and Psychosomatics, Faculty of Medicine, RWTH Aachen University,
Germany
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3
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Nys M, Hickmann M, Gyselinck V. The role of verbal and visuo-spatial working memory in the encoding of virtual routes by children and adults. JOURNAL OF COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY 2018. [DOI: 10.1080/20445911.2018.1523175] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/05/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Marion Nys
- Laboratoire Mémoire et Cognition, Institut de psychologie & Inserm UMR S894, Université Paris Descartes, Sorbonne Paris-Cité, Paris, France
| | - Maya Hickmann
- Laboratoire Structures Formelles du Langage, CNRS UMR 7023, Université de Paris, Paris, France
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Gauthier S, Anzalone SM, Cohen D, Zaoui M, Chetouani M, Villa F, Berthoz A, Xavier J. Behavioral Own-Body-Transformations in Children and Adolescents With Typical Development, Autism Spectrum Disorder, and Developmental Coordination Disorder. Front Psychol 2018; 9:676. [PMID: 29887813 PMCID: PMC5981221 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00676] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/11/2017] [Accepted: 04/19/2018] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Background: In motor imitation, taking a partner's perspective often involves a mental body transformation from an embodied, ego-centered viewpoint to a disembodied, hetero-centered viewpoint. Impairments of both own-body-transformation (OBT) and abnormalities in visual-spatial processing have been reported in patients with neurodevelopmental disorders including autism spectrum disorder (ASD). In the context of a visual-motor interactive task, studying OBT impairments while disentangling the contribution of visual-spatial impairments associated with motor coordination problems has not been investigated. Methods: 85 children and adolescents (39 controls with typical development, TD; 29 patients with ASD; 17 patients with developmental coordination disorder, DCD), aged 6-19 years, participated in a behavioral paradigm in which participants interacted with a virtual tightrope walker (TW) standing and moving with him. The protocol enables to distinguish ego-centered and hetero-centered perspectives. Results: We show that (1) OBT was possible but difficult for children with neurodevelopmental disorders, as well as for TD children, when the task required the participant to perform a mental rotation in order to adopt a hetero-centered perspective. (2) Using multivariate models, hetero-centered perspective score was significantly associated with age, TW orientation, latency, and diagnosis. ASD and TD groups' performances were close and significantly correlated with age. However, it was not the case for DCD, since this group was specifically handicapped by visual-spatial impairments. (3) ASD and DCD did not perform similarly: motor performance as shown by movement amplitude was better in DCD than ASD. ASD motor response was more ambiguous and hardly readable. Conclusion: Changing perspective in a spatial environment is possible for patients with ASD although delayed compared with TD children. In patients with DCD, their visual-spatial impairments negatively modulated their performances in the experiment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Soizic Gauthier
- Département de Psychiatrie de l'Enfant et de l'Adolescent, AP-HP, Hôpital Pitié-Salpêtrière, Boulevard de l'Hôpital, Paris, France.,CRPMS, EA 3522, Université Paris Diderot, Sorbonne Paris Cité, Paris, France.,Equipe Berthoz, Collège de France, Paris, France
| | | | - David Cohen
- Département de Psychiatrie de l'Enfant et de l'Adolescent, AP-HP, Hôpital Pitié-Salpêtrière, Boulevard de l'Hôpital, Paris, France.,Sorbonne Université, Institut des Systèmes Intelligents et de Robotique, CNRS UMR 7222, Paris, France
| | | | - Mohamed Chetouani
- Sorbonne Université, Institut des Systèmes Intelligents et de Robotique, CNRS UMR 7222, Paris, France
| | - François Villa
- CRPMS, EA 3522, Université Paris Diderot, Sorbonne Paris Cité, Paris, France
| | | | - Jean Xavier
- Département de Psychiatrie de l'Enfant et de l'Adolescent, AP-HP, Hôpital Pitié-Salpêtrière, Boulevard de l'Hôpital, Paris, France.,Sorbonne Université, Institut des Systèmes Intelligents et de Robotique, CNRS UMR 7222, Paris, France
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Bauer JR, Martinez JE, Roe MA, Church JA. Consistent Performance Differences between Children and Adults Despite Manipulation of Cue-Target Variables. Front Psychol 2017; 8:1304. [PMID: 28824489 PMCID: PMC5541061 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01304] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/01/2017] [Accepted: 07/17/2017] [Indexed: 12/26/2022] Open
Abstract
Two behavioral experiments assessed the plasticity and short-term improvement of task switching in 215 children and adults. Specifically, we studied manipulations of cued attention to different features of a target stimulus as a way to assess the development of cognitive flexibility. Each experiment had multiple levels of difficulty via manipulation of number of cued features (2–4) and number of response options (2 or 4). Working memory demand was manipulated across the two experiments. Impact of memory demand and task level manipulations on task accuracy and response times were measured. There were three overall goals: First, these task manipulations (number of cued features, response choices, and working memory load) were tested to assess the stability of group differences in performance between children ages 6–16 years and adults 18–27 years, with the goal of reducing age group differences. Second, age-related transitions to adult-level performance were examined within subgroups of the child sample. Third, short-term improvement from the beginning to the end of the study session was measured to probe whether children can improve with task experience. Attempts to use task manipulations to reduce age differences in cued task switching performance were unsuccessful: children performed consistently worse and were more susceptible to task manipulations than adults. However, across both studies, adult-like performance was observed around mid-adolescence, by ages 13-16 years. Certain task manipulations, especially increasing number of response options when working memory demand was low, produced differences from adults even in the oldest children. Interestingly, there was similar performance improvement with practice for both child and adult groups. The higher memory demand version of the task (Experiment 2) prompted greater short-term improvement in accuracy and response times than the lower memory demand version (Experiment 1). These results reveal stable differences in cued switching performance over development, but also relative flexibility within a given individual over time.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jessie-Raye Bauer
- Department of Psychology, The University of Texas at Austin, AustinTX, United States
| | - Joel E Martinez
- Department of Psychology, Princeton University, PrincetonNJ, United States
| | - Mary Abbe Roe
- Department of Psychology, The University of Texas at Austin, AustinTX, United States
| | - Jessica A Church
- Department of Psychology, The University of Texas at Austin, AustinTX, United States
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