Extract
Whether we are playing tennis or a cello, driving a bus or a golf ball,
performing in an opera or in an operating room, we are continually engaging in
motor performance, one of the most crucial components of human life. Motor
performance can be divided into a hierarchy of control levels: voluntary
movements (first level), defined as observed behavioral characteristics of
body parts that lead to motor skills (second level), which are in turn the
building blocks of motor tasks (third level), defined as a sequence of motor
skills bound together by a common, often cognitive
goal1. Different
types of measures are often used to quantify motor performance, depending on
the level being examined. For example, process measures are used to evaluate
voluntary movements on the basis of the specific characteristics of the body
position, limb velocity, and forces produced at the muscle level, whereas
performance outcome measures are used to evaluate motor skills and tasks on
the basis of the movement time or accuracy. To fully understand motor
performance, both process and outcome measures should be quantified.