Ting Liu

My area of interest is developmental motor learning. In particular, I am interested in how children learn new motor skills at different developmental stages. The aim of the ongoing project entitled ' Auditory-Visual Feedback Effectiveness for Skill Acquisition in Children' is to investigate which feedback modality is most effective in facilitating skill acquisition in children. The participants include children between 4 and 10 years of age. Based on Piaget's (1929) major stages of cognitive development, subjects 4-6 years old are placed in a younger children group and 8-10 years olds are placed in an older children group. Subjects in both age groups are randomly assigned to either an audio, visual or audio-visual feedback condition. The visual feedback consists of viewing a 17" computer monitor which displays current and target speeds. Participants under the auditory condition hear different tones to indicate current and target speeds. Those in the visual-auditory feedback group receive a combination of both sensory stimuli. Participants in all conditions are told that the task is to learn cycling at 80 revolutions per minute (rpm). First, a base line test (40, 80 and 120 rpm) is performed with no feedback. Then, all participant complete three practice sessions with either visual, auditory, or audio-visual feedback separated by a 3-day interval, and are then given a retention (80 rpm) and transfer test (40 and 120 rpm) 5-days after the third practice session with no feedback. In each practice session, subjects are instructed to pedal three blocks of five 15-second trials. The graph shows the success of 4-6 years olds at maintaining the goal cadence. The results indicate that the visual feedback is more beneficial than other modalities for younger children in skill acquisition.