ABSTRACT
The relative contribution of central planning and sensory information processing in movement control has been debated for a number of years. Researchers have developed models of limb control that are based predominantly on ‘open-loop’ processes (Plamondon and Alimi, 1997; Schmidt et al., 1979), while others have stressed the importance of sensory information processing (Crossman and Goodeve, 1983). Related to this debate is the question of how the role of sensory information changes throughout the acquisition of a motor skill. During the early stages of learning a skill such as a dance routine or a golf swing, people will often look at their limbs to guide their movements. It has been suggested that the reliance on this sensory information decreases as learning progresses since motor programs are developed and refined which free the individual of the need to use time-consuming feedback-based control (Schmidt, 1975; Schmidt and McCabe, 1976). Others have suggested that there is no decrease in the importance of sensory information, but a shift in the importance of one source of sensory information to another, for example, from visual to proprioceptive feedback (Adams et al., 1977; Fleishman and Rich, 1963). Although both of these viewpoints differ in their account of how the use of sensory information changes as a function of practice, common to both positions is the proposition that there is a decreasing reliance on visual feedback.
