The main goal of my research has been to develop a quantitative understanding of the cognitive mechanisms necessary to learn and carry out skilled movements. The main body of this research addresses the central questions of motor-program representation and generalizability. Lashley, over 40 years ago, made the point that component movements in skilled performance are too rapid, and too dependent on upcoming component movements to be described as learned responses to stimulus input. There must be a detailed, central representation of the movement plan that generates appropriately coordinated component movements. One obvious question concerns the nature of these representations. A second question is whether and how, having become skilled at one movement, we can transfer the information learned to a related but different movement. Thus, does motor learning take the form of generalized specifications involving abstract elements or is this learning embodied in separate representations that, because they have been developed to solve related motor problems, share many features.
I have studied these issues using handwriting, rhythmic performance, aimed hand movements, and bimanual movements. The pursuit of these basic research questions has also led me to several applied research projects involving clinical populations (patients with Alzheimer's dementia, Parkinson's disease, and focal dystonia of the hand) and handwriting pedagogy.
A exciting, upcoming direction for this research is our ability to study the role of concurrent visual feedback in a natural, controlled environment using UCI's new, immersive virtual-reality lab.