P

A

P

A

Ongoing Research in the SPoCC

L. James (Jay) Smart, Jr., Ph.D.

Department of Psychology

Miami University

Oxford, OH

SmartLJ@miamioh.edu

Users.muohio.edu/smartlj

P

A

P

A

A little bit of history

Serendipity

- psychology and sailing

P

A

P

A

A little bit of history

Serendipity

- psychology and sailing

“Marketable Outcomes”

- Direction

- One –on – One interaction

- “Behind the scenes” view

- A way to put my students’ coursework to actual work

- A peak into “graduate” life

- Marketable skills for non-graduate life

- Sought after skills for graduate education

A quick word about research

Undergraduate Research

What we do - Apprenticeship model - Undergraduate RA’s are

encouraged to be an integral part of the research process

- Guidance from both faculty and graduate students

- Second year students typically start their own project

- Provide many opportunities for presentation at local, regional, national, & international venues

- Most go on to graduate school in a number of areas

P

A

P

A

New takes on an old problem

As living beings we exhibit three key properties (E.J. Gibson, 1994): – retrospectivity -

recognition of past events

– flexibility (adaptability) – modulation based on current events

– prospectivity – planning or goal oriented regulation of behavior

Postural “control”

-Posture is not maintained for its own sake, rather posture is maintained in order to facilitate other actions (Riccio & Stoffregen, 1991)

Goals

Biomechanics Environment

Posture

Perception

Action

P

A

P

A

Questions Raised How is posture proactively (vs. reactively) regulated? How can we use behavioral data to understand “mental” strategies? What happens when the perceptual information obtained does not support action (or actions that the organism is familiar with)? What are the implications of improper postural control/ regulation?

(motion sickness) How do we regain appropriate regulatory strategies?

(adaptation)

New takes on an old problem

Smart & Smith, 2001

P

A

P

A

While questions regarding the relationship between Perception and Action are not new… Technology has provided a new means of examining these relationships Virtual environment have the potential to allow “natural” behaviors to occur in an “artificial” (controlled) environment

Old Wine in a Virtual Bottle

P

A

P

A

Consequences of Control • Examined postural control while

engaged in a task*

• Looked at the issue of control in virtual environments

• 22 participants

• Exposed to a virtual environment

– Baseline

– Control

– Experimental (1/2 active – quasi yoked design)

• Measured postural motion

Research Examples

Littman, Otten, & Smart, 2010

P

A

P

A

Consequences of Control • Analysis of postural motion

– State space plots

– Phase space plots

– Fractal Analysis

• Plots revealed that P’s that remained well found appropriate strategies

• Plots revealed that P’s that became sick failed to find appropriate strategies

Research Examples

Littman, Otten, & Smart, 2010

P

A

P

A

Consequences of Control • Analysis of postural motion

– State space plots

– Phase space plots

– Fractal Analysis (dispersion)

• Main effect of control (ML)

• Smaller values when passive

• Main effect of health (ML)

• Larger values when sick

• Interaction (ML)

• When passive, no difference

• When active, sick higher values

Research Examples

Littman, Otten, & Smart, 2010

P

A

P

A

Driver never sick • Examined postural control

while engaged in a task* • Looked at the issue of

control and gender in virtual environments

• 20 participants (same gender pairs)

• Exposed to a virtual environment

– Baseline – Control – Experimental (1/2 active

– yoked design) • Measured postural motion

Research Examples

Smart, et al. in review

P

A

P

A

Driver never sick

• Analysis of postural motion

– Standard Measures

– Fractal Analysis (dispersion)

• Found significant interaction between gender and control (AP) and main effect of control (lateral)

• When active males moved slower and less

• When passive females moved faster and more

• General drivers slower than passengers

Research Examples

Smart, et al. in review

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

Male Female

Gender

Me

an

(SE

) A

P v

ari

ab

ility

(cm

)

Active

Passive

P

A

P

A

Driver never sick

• Analysis of postural motion

– Standard Measures

– Fractal Analysis (dispersion)

• Found significant main effects for control in both AP and lateral motion (no effect of gender*)

• General finding in that when participants were drivers they were less uniform (predictable) then when they were drivers*

Research Examples

Smart, et al. in review

P

A

P

A

Interim Summary Postural strategies are different for proactive and reactive (compensatory) goals Postural coordination is organized around the behavior goals of the person The role of gender is less clear – but it doesn’t seem to be behaviorally based In determining what our measures are telling us – must consider the task Next Step: closing the loop – dynamic alterations of the perception-action cycle

Research Examples

Littman et al., 2010; Smart, et al. in review

Do you KNOW what this means?

Standing by Starlight

A number of researchers have been able to demonstrate that artificially generated optical flow can be used to produce instability and subsequent motion sickness However, the moving room methodology used in these studies could not be used to test key aspects of PI theory

Immersive, but… Open-loop (no impact of P’s motion) Artificially generated (approximation of human movement)*

The current study sought to account for these limitations by looking at:

The nature of the relationship between optic flow and postural regulation The extent that the perceptual information supports this regulation How to specify the changes in postural control that lead to motion sickness

P

A

P

A

Research Examples

Otten, 2008; Otten & Smart, 2009 , Smart et al., in prep

Design • Examined postural control under normal and altered conditions

• 40 participants (ten/condition)

• Exposed to a virtual environment

– Baseline* (10 min)

– Experimental (10 min x 4) – Sine wave (0.2 Hz, uncoupled)

– Uncoupled playback*

– Coupled (anti-phase)

– Reverse coupled (in-phase)

• Measured postural motion @ 50 Hz

P

A

P

A

Incidence

• As predicted by the original theory (Riccio & Stoffregen, 1991; Stoffregen & Smart, 1998) presenting visual motion which closely resembled that generated by posture was disruptive.

• In particular, when we changed the relation between perception & action the incidence of sickness increased dramatically*

• Predictable motion resulted in almost complete absence of sickness • The key for PI theory is whether the postural data reflect this outcome…

Research Examples

Otten, 2008; Otten & Smart, 2009 , Smart et al., in prep

P

A

P

A

Quantitative Results (Main Effects) • As with previous studies quantitative differences were found prior

to reports of sickness. • Across conditions Participants who would later become motion sick

demonstrated different postural strategies then those who remained well

• Specifically, Sick Participants over time exhibited increases in magnitude and spatial complexity – but were more “rigid” temporally

Research Examples

Otten, 2008; Otten & Smart, 2009 , Smart et al., in prep

P

A

P

A

Qualitative Results (Main Effects) • As with previous studies quantitative differences were found prior

to reports of sickness. • Across conditions Participants who would later become motion sick

demonstrated different postural strategies then those who remained well

• Specifically, Sick Participants over time exhibited increases in magnitude and spatial complexity – but were more “rigid” temporarly

Research Examples

Otten, 2008; Otten & Smart, 2009 , Smart et al., in prep

AP position

AP

ve

loci

ty

P

A

P

A

Regaining Prospective

Virtual prism adaptation

Experiments designed to test how functional movement ‘strategies’ reemerge with novel perception-action relationships

Looked are the role of available optical structure on this process

Research Examples

Littman Dissertation 2011

P

A

P

A

Regaining Prospective

Virtual prism adaptation

Experiments designed to test how functional movement ‘strategies’ reemerge in novel conditions

Looked are the role of available optical structure on this process

Research Examples

Littman Dissertation 2011

P

A

P

A

Regaining Prospective

Participants had to navigate a virtual maze

Physical movement was recorded (head motion – analyzed with fractal measure (Hurst Exponent))

Real-time updating of virtual scene based on participant’s motion

12 trials (3 mazes – blocks of 4 trials)

Research Examples

Littman Dissertation 2011

P

A

P

A

Regaining Prospective

Baseline

No distortion

Maze/letter: 32.2 s

No Maze/letter: 20.5 s

Complex: 26 s

Research Examples

Littman Dissertation 2011

P

A

P

A

Regaining Prospective

Trial 1

Distortion

Maze/letter: 143.6 s

No Maze/letter: 115.1 s

Complex: 297.7 s

Research Examples

Littman Dissertation 2011

P

A

P

A

Regaining Prospective

Trial 4

Distortion

Maze/letter: 56 s

No Maze/letter: 18.2 s

Complex: 238.2 s

Research Examples

Littman Dissertation 2011

P

A

P

A

Regaining Prospective Trial 12 Distortion

Maze/letter: 36.7 s MS = 19%

No Maze/letter: 16.6 s MS = 6%

He values increased over time (no difference across visual conditions) Complex: 81.1 s

MS = 47%

He values increased over time for well participants Increases were smaller for maze condition Extent (Path Length) of motion also decreases over time*

Research Examples

Littman Dissertation 2011

P

A

P

A

Summary

• Postural disruptions precede and are predictive of motion sickness

• The ability to anticipate/ predict/control the relation between perceptual information and action is key for maintaining stability and preventing motion sickness

• The fractal analyses employed are first steps in addressing the “how” question – in that they show differences in structure rather than differences in central tendency or spread (the “how much” question).

• Questions remain about the appropriate use, choice, and interpretation of these measures

Research Examples

P

A

P

A

Graduate Students Eric Littman, Ph.D Adam Strang, Ph.D. Ed Otten, Ph.D. Joe Thoreson, M.A. Shawn Oates, Ph.D. Henry Cook IV, B.A. Jen Braun, B.A.

Many Thanks

Undergraduates Rob Leitner B.A., Bernitta Johnson B.A., Colleen Lennon B.A., Jen Shinkle B.A., Kaleigh Coughlin B.A., Meghan Capistrano B.A., Emily LaPlante B.A., Pat Harmon B.A., Marissa Luli B.A. , Kelly Vitatoe, B.A., Jack Shuler, B.A., Bumi Hidaka, B.A., And the current crew in the SPoCC

Miami University Office for the Advancement of Research and Scholarship