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Mathematical Methods in Engineering International Symposium IPC, Coimbra, Portugal

21-24 October 2010

A method for segmented-trend estimate and


geometric error analysis in motor learning
M. A. Facas Vicente1,3 , Fernando Martins2,4, Rui Mendes2,5,
Goncalo Dias2 and Julio Fonseca2
1 Department of Mathematics, Faculty of Sciences and Technology, University of Coimbra,
Apartado 3008, EC Universidade, 3001-454 Coimbra, Portugal
vicente@mat.uc.pt
2 Coimbra
College of Education, Polytechnic Institute of Coimbra,
Praca Herois do Ultramar, Solum, 3030-329 Coimbra, Portugal
fmlmartins@esec.pt, rmendes@esec.pt, cajma@sapo.pt,
juliofonseca79@gmail.com.
3 Supported by INESC-C Instituto de Engenharia de Sistemas e Computadores-Coimbra,
Rua Antero de Quental, 199, 3000-033 Coimbra, Portugal.
4 Supported by Instituto de Telecomunicacoes, Polo de Coimbra, Delegacao da Covilha, Portugal.
5 Supported by CIPER - Centro Interdisciplinar de Estudos da Performance Humana,
Faculdade de Motricidade Humana - Universidade Tecnica de Lisboa,
Estrada da Costa, 1499-002, Cruz Quebrada - Dafundo, Portugal

Abstract In this paper we study the golf putt learning procedure for unskilled
players. Segmented-trend estimates of the learning process are obtained via Fourier
truncated series. The geometric error distribution is modeled and statistical tests are
performed for the localization of the putting strokes. The experimental results provide
a sound basis for ameliorating the teaching of this sport task.

1 Introduction
The process of motor learning is, fundamentally, inferred by the level of motor perfor-
mance when a motor action or task is carried out. In the most of the cases, it is done by
analyzing the performance or the learning curve. Then, taking into account its specici-
ties, we characterize the evolutive process of acquisition of capacities and the learning
method.
Key words and phrases. motor variability, approximation function, Fourier series, error ellipse, linear
regression, statistical tests, learning curves, motor control.

ISBN 978-989-8331-11-3 Instituto Superior de Engenharia de Coimbra 433


FACAS VICENTE, MARTINS, MENDES, DIAS, FONSECA

Mathematical Methods in Engineering International Symposium IPC, Coimbra, Portugal


In our problem, we use, with more relevance, the radial error obtained from the 21-24
putting
October 2010

strokes done by 5 unskilled golf players, in order to evaluate the effect of 1050 putting
strokes (for each one) in the learning of this golf movement.
Using the extensive series of data for each novice player, we suggest and make use of,
as an alternative to the method presented in [1], a novel method for the estimation of the
learning curve, which calls truncated Fourier series in order to get the turning points of
the learning procedure.
Moreover, we explore the geometric error positions in order to evaluate the learning
performance, namely obtaining the best least squares error ellipses and we study the dis-
tribution among quadrants by testing, statistically, its equiprobability.
The observed variability of the motor performance leads us to establish new approaches
and methodologies in order to obtain the full information, at it is possible, provided by
the experiments, pretending to be close to the real data given by the extrinsic measures,
such as the radial errors, in particular when we deal with novice players.
This article is comprised by ve sections. In the rst one, we describe the main novice
player of this work. The second one is devoted to the explanation of the held experimen-
tal procedure. In the third one, we introduce a new method for approximating by specic
functions the raw data of radial errors. The geometric error distribution and some statisti-
cal tests are described and its results are presented in section number four. Finally, in the
last section, we establish some conclusions and pave the way to future work in this area.

2 Task and Procedures


The experimental procedure was done as follows. We have ve unskilled players, each
one performing a set of 1050 putt golf trials or attempts, divided into 6 consecutive ses-
sions of 175 putting strokes. Each novice player stayed in just one position, different from
all the other four. Their golf putting stroke positions, and the coordinate system dened in
the experimental tests, are distributed as shown in gure 1. The origin of the coordinates
is at the holes center and the Y axis is aligned with the putting stroke direction of novice
players 1 to 4, being the coordinate reference system direct and orthogonal.

Figure 1: Novice players, hole positions and the dened coordinate system.

ISBN 978-989-8331-11-3 Instituto Superior de Engenharia de Coimbra 434


ANALYSIS IN MOTOR LEARNING
Mathematical Methods in Engineering International Symposium IPC, Coimbra, Portugal
The experiments were done with the putting stroke and hole positions 21-24 and October
the sur-
2010

rounding area located in an horizontal plane. As a consequence, we have no vertical


component of the ball positions.
For each novice player, it is measured the position, in the dened coordinate system, of
the ball after the putting stroke. If it falls into the hole, its coordinates are, obviously, null.
Otherwise, both, or one of those, are different from zero.

3 Method for segmented trend estimate


Despite the fact that, from the experimental procedure, we have the full raw data for all the
ve novice players, in this section we only present results for the novice player number
one. We notice that the other ones produce similar results.
In gure 2, we show the radial error for the total attempts of novice player one. As it
shows, the learning process is not a smooth one. His behaviour is a bit erratic and, in a rst
analysis, it is not easy to see if, after the learning process, the novice player is more able
to perform the task. This assumption can be conrmed by the very small negative slope
of the linear regression line, also shown in gure 2, which gives the general tendency of
the sample.

Figure 2: Error points and linear tendency of the novice player one.

So, in order to obtain a function describing the error behaviour of the novice player, we
suggest the method presented below, based on an approximation function. This function
has several purposes: to determine the change points of the learning trends, to conclude
about the learning evolution and, even, to establish corrective measures of the learning
task.
Therefore, for reasons of numerical stability and capacity of prevision, we suggest an
alternative method to the one presented in [1].
We propose for segmented-trend estimate of the learning trend the following method,
with three steps:

ISBN 978-989-8331-11-3 Instituto Superior de Engenharia de Coimbra 435


FACAS VICENTE, MARTINS, MENDES, DIAS, FONSECA

Mathematical Methods in Engineering International Symposium IPC, Coimbra, Portugal


(i) to choose a truncated Fourier series with n plus one terms [2, pp. 198-204] 21-24 October 2010

n     
X j2 j2
qn (t) = a0 + aj cos t + bj sin t (1)
j=1
T T

that best ts the data in a least squares sense;


(ii) to determine the change points of the Fourier series, namely, the real roots of the
rst derivative of the chosen polynomial

t1 , t2 , . . . , tk such that q (t1 ) = 0, . . . , q (tk ) = 0, (2)

corresponding these points to real changes in the series monotony;


(iii) the segmented trend estimate, using an ordinary least squares linear regression, is
then set to
T (t) = j + j t, (3)
for tj1 < t tj , t0 = 0 and where j = 1, . . . , k + 1 ([3]).
To exemplify our method, we chose a novice golf player that realized a set of 1050
attempts of the putt golf movement, without any experience or practice in this sport, at
a distance of two meters from the hole. An analysis of the learning trend of this novice
player will be done through the radial error (in cm) and the corresponding attempt.
For this case, we consider T = 1050 and n = 4. So, by the rst and second step of our
method, we obtain the following change points:

t0 t1 t2 t3 t4 t5 t6 t7 t8 t9
0 55 217 327 421 563 716 807 934 1050

Finally, after performing the last step of our process, we obtain an estimate of the lear-
ning trend as shown in gure 3.

220

200

180

160

140
Radial Error (cm)

120

100

80

60

40

20

0
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000
Attempt

Figure 3: Learning trend of the novice player number one.

ISBN 978-989-8331-11-3 Instituto Superior de Engenharia de Coimbra 436


ANALYSIS IN MOTOR LEARNING
Mathematical Methods in Engineering International Symposium IPC, Coimbra, Portugal
The performance graphic diagram shows that the novice players behaviour 21-24 is erratic
October 2010

and has major changes along the learning task. We observe, also, a signicative improve-
ment in what concerns to performance in the rst 327 putting strokes. Moreover, the best
series of results occurs in the penultimate series of essays. We see, in the constructed seg-
mented line, three platforms of learning and performance, happening two of them before
the putting stroke number 422.
We think that the rest stops between all the six series of 1075 putting strokes have
different effects in the performance of the novice player. As an example, in the last series
we observe a degradation of the performance in opposition to what occurs in the fth
series. The reasons for this behaviour of observed performance deterioration, could be
effects of boredom and, eventually, accumulation of fatigue.

4 Geometric error distribution


The positions obtained by each novice player, in the reference system, produces, graphi-
cally, a scatter diagram, from which we could achieve some previous conclusions about
novice players behaviour. As an illustration of this fact, see gure 4, obtained from
novice players one data.

Figure 4: Scatter diagram for novice player one.

Typically, in the case of golf, a novice player produces a error scatter roughly seen as
an ellipsoidal gure. Moreover, the ellipse shape has a major axis approximately aligned
with the putting stroke direction. Furthermore, the hole point is not near the ellipses
center but close to one of its focus. This behavior is expected as a consequence of the
specicity of this sport task.
Taking that into account, for each novice player we obtained a scatter diagram and
constructed the best least square t error ellipse. With that purpose, we applied a least
square method in order to nd the best ellipse parameters in the least square sense. The

ISBN 978-989-8331-11-3 Instituto Superior de Engenharia de Coimbra 437


FACAS VICENTE, MARTINS, MENDES, DIAS, FONSECA

Mathematical Methods in Engineering International Symposium IPC, Coimbra, Portugal


output of this procedure consists in the coordinates of the center of the ellipse, the21-24
semi-
October 2010

axis lengths and an angle dening the ellipses orientation. These results could provide
useful information prior to study, planning and correcting the learning task, namely to
adjust the direction and the strength of the putting stroke. In order to illustrate the latter,
in gure 5 we show the error ellipse for the novice player one, together with the scatter
diagram.

Figure 5: Scatter diagram and best least square t ellipse for novice player one.

With the purpose of comparing the novice players error behaviour, we can calculate and
plot all the error ellipses in the same diagram. We can not forget that the available data
for each novice player is not obtained by the same experimental set (different positions
and directions of putting stroke). However, for novice players using the same initial
conditions, we think that this is a valid and measurable comparison (see the illustration in
gure 6).
As stated before, the results provided by the ve novice players show a real error ten-
dency with a shape of an ellipse. Essentially, the novice players give privilege to the error
in length in excess, meaning with the above sentence that they putting stroke the ball more
often with excessive strength than with reduced vigor, because, in the latter case, the ball
stops before the hole. This kind of strategy is recommended as adequate in learning and
practice of the putting stroke task. As expected, the error in direction is much smaller
than in the distance.
Bearing in mind that this kind of experimental work intends to pave the way to the
improvement of the learning process, we also made a brief statistical study of the error
positions distribution. First, we were interested in get information about the distribution
between the four quadrants of the dened coordinate system. The obtained histogram is
shown in gure 7.
With that purpose, we made a Chi-square statistical test in order to check if the quadrant
distribution is uniform (same expected probability to fall in each quadrant). The SPSS

ISBN 978-989-8331-11-3 Instituto Superior de Engenharia de Coimbra 438


ANALYSIS IN MOTOR LEARNING
Mathematical Methods in Engineering International Symposium IPC, Coimbra, Portugal
21-24 October 2010

Figure 6: Error ellipses of the ve novice players.

Figure 7: Histogram of the error distribution for the quadrants of the novice player one.

results for novice player 1 are displayed in gure 8.


As expected (and seen on the histogram), due to the ellipse shape, position and orienta-
tion, the signicance level is close to zero and we reject the equiprobability of the quad-
rants. This conclusion was also obtained for the other four novice players. However,
the orientation of the ellipses axis could lead us to the conjecture of the equiprobability
between rst and second quadrants (and between third and fourth). For the novice player
one, the Chi-square tests give statistical evidence to the near distribution between rst and
second quadrants but not between third and fourth ones, as can be seen in gure 9.
Moreover, in the learning process we may be interested in correct systematic errors such
as a direction or a strength of the putting stroke misbehavior. With that end, we tested the

ISBN 978-989-8331-11-3 Instituto Superior de Engenharia de Coimbra 439


FACAS VICENTE, MARTINS, MENDES, DIAS, FONSECA

Mathematical Methods in Engineering International Symposium IPC, Coimbra, Portugal


21-24 October 2010

Figure 8: SPSS output for the equiprobability of the quadrants.

Figure 9: SPSS Chi-square tests output for equiprobability between the rst and the se-
cond quadrants and between the third and the fourth quadrants.

equiprobability between right and left side of the hole and strength of the putting stroke
to put the ball before or beyond the hole. As it can be seen in gure 10, the left and right
directions are equiprobable but the positions beyond the hole are much more probable

ISBN 978-989-8331-11-3 Instituto Superior de Engenharia de Coimbra 440


ANALYSIS IN MOTOR LEARNING
Mathematical Methods in Engineering International Symposium IPC, Coimbra, Portugal
than the positions before it. The same conclusions were made for novice21-24 players two,
October 2010

three and four but the fth one results were not compatible with the previous ones due to
the orientation of the putting stroke direction.

Figure 10: SPSS Chi-square tests output for equiprobability for direction and strength of
the putting strokes.

The obtained statistical results lead us to the following (learning) conclusions. Never-
theless the dispersion of the putting strokes is huge, in fact there is no tendency to the
left or to the right side of the hole (they are equally distributed). Moreover, there is no
systematic direction error but only a very high dispersion of the putting strokes. In what
concerns to the strength of the putting stroke, it is predominantly high, leading to get
positions beyond the hole.

5 Final Remarks and Conclusions


Due to somehow chaotic learning behaviour of the novice players, it is difcult to get
more explicit conclusions which could provide clues to the improvement in the learning
process. Moreover, for the same reason, is it difcult to establish trends in the novice
players learning.
As future work and open questions, we think we can apply other kind of learning curves,
commonly accepted in several areas of learning, in order to describe the novice players
learning behaviour.
Other fundamental question is the determination of the points where the slope of the
segmented learning curve changes, i.e., nd an optimal method to achieve the points of
trend changes. There are a few methods that we intend to apply and compare. In fact, we

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FACAS VICENTE, MARTINS, MENDES, DIAS, FONSECA

Mathematical Methods in Engineering International Symposium IPC, Coimbra, Portugal


consider that the core of a study of this kind is the identication of the learning line break
21-24 October 2010

points.
It is also important to study the correlation between other variables, such as the type of
putter (and its direction) and the error positions.
Another approach to make the study more real it is to take into account the shape of the
surface of the green, specially the slopes of the green.
For future research, we think that is necessary to consider learning effects in tests of
retention and transfer, as well as the analysis of traditional performance measures such as
the variable, constant and absolute errors.

References
[1] A. Diniz, J. Barreiros, R. Benda and N. Crato, Modelling learning curves: A segmented-trend
method, Proceedings of the International Symposium on Measurement, Analysis and Modeling:
319-324 (2007).
[2] E. Maor, Trigonometric Delights, Princeton University Press, Princeton, USA, 2002.
[3] J. Verbesselt, R. Hyndman, G. Newnham and D. Culvenor Detecting trend and seasonal changes in
satellite image time series, Remote Sensing of Environment 114 (1): 106-115 (2010).

ISBN 978-989-8331-11-3 Instituto Superior de Engenharia de Coimbra 442

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