Number of trials necessary to achieve performance stability in a reaching kinematics movement analysis game.
Yuping Chen, Sergio Garcia-Vergara, Ayanna Howard
PMID 31519383WHAT IT FOUND
Healthy children and adults needed 6 practice trials to stabilize arm movement in a VR game.
The study suggests therapists should collect multiple trials before assessing performance, as even simple reaching requires repetition to be reliable.
Key findings
01Using a sequential averaging method, healthy participants required an average of approximately 5 to 6 trials to reach stable performance in a virtual reality reaching task.
02There was no significant difference in the number of trials needed for stability between the dominant and non-dominant hands.
03The number of trials required for stability varied depending on the statistical method used, with the ICC method suggesting fewer trials (3-5) than the sequential averaging method (6).
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study only included healthy children and adults, so the number of trials needed may be higher for patients with neurological or orthopedic impairments. Most child participants were older than 9 years, so findings may not generalize to younger children who might have different learning curves. Participants were not constrained in their movements, and instructions were open-ended ('pop at your comfortable pace'), which may have led to inconsistent interpretation of 'comfortable' speed, especially in children. The study used a specific game and motion capture system (Kinect), which may not be directly applicable to other clinical tools or motion capture technologies.
Declared interests
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that six trials are sufficient for all patients. This study was conducted on healthy individuals with typical motor control. Patients with conditions like cerebral palsy or stroke may require significantly more practice trials to achieve stable performance, and these findings should not be directly applied to them without further validation.