Biomedical subjects

M W Short

Publications and source records attributed to M W Short.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed1999

Precision hypothesis and the end-state comfort effect.

Recently, motor control research has emphasized the planning of macroscopic aspects of control. In object manipulation studies, when participants complete a movement in a comfortable posture, an end-state comfort effect is attained. One explanation for this effect is the precision hypothesis, which states that precision increases when participants are in a comfortable position. This research directly tests the precision hypothesis in two experiments. In Experiment 1, participants picked up a dowel and touched a large or small target on a wall. For the second experiment, the same procedure was followed using a pinpoint target. The probability analyses of the first experiment indicated that the end-state comfort effect was magnified in the small target condition and that the point-of-change effect (Short and Cauraugh, 1997) appeared only when end-state comfort was magnified. Error analyses in Experiment 2 showed that participants were more accurate when in a more comfortable position. The present findings indicate that the precision hypothesis plays a significant role in the end-state comfort effect.

Adult↗

PubMed1999

CD-ROM use by rural physicians.

A survey of 131 eastern Washington rural family physicians showed that 59.5% owned a personal computer with a CD-ROM drive. There was an inverse correlation between the physicians' years in practice and computer ownership: 10 years or less (80.6%), 11 to 20 years (72.2%), 21 to 30 years (55.6%), and more than 30 years (32.4%). Those physicians who owned a computer used their CD-ROM for entertainment (52.6%), medical textbooks (44.9%), literature searching software (25.6%), drug information (17.9%), continuing medical education (15.4%), and journals on CD-ROM (11.5%). Many rural doctors who owned computers felt that CD-ROM software helped them provide better patient care (46.8%) and kept them current on new information and techniques (48.4%). Indications for medical education, libraries and CD-ROM publishers are noted.

Adult↗

PubMed1997

Planning macroscopic aspects of manual control: end-state comfort and point-of-change effects.

A recent emphasis in motor control research is the planning of macroscopic features and how variables such as efficiency and comfort influence the planning process. This paper extends the work by Rosenbaum and Jorgensen (1992) by further studying the end-state comfort effect. In the first experiment, participants picked up a dowel using an underhand or overhand grip and touched one end to a numbered target on the wall. The height of the #9 target was set at the height of participants' right shoulder. The second experiment involved awkwardness ratings. Participants touched the 14 targets with the dowel as well as with a small dumbbell and the comfort of the end position was rated on a seven-point scale. In the third experiment, participants moved a dumbbell to the targets in the same procedure as the first experiment. Overall, the probability analyses indicated that as the end-state comfort effect was magnified, the sequential effect vanished and a distinct point-of-change effect appeared. Optimization theory and the knowledge model readily explained the phenomena of the end-state comfort effect, the sequential effect, and the point-of-change effect. The present findings indicate that comfort has a powerful influence on the planning of motor performance.

Adult↗