Motor Skills in Work Settings

Introduction

Despite the fact that work is increasingly mechanized and automatized, motor skills are still the main vehicles by which tasks in industrial settings are performed. The literature in this area is vast, originating from psychology, engineering, biology, neuroscience, kinesiology, and physical education. Within the present limited framework, only a few topics can be dealt with to provide some understanding of the basic concepts and a flavour for the field.

First some classificatory schemas and definitions will be provided, and a brief overview is given of the major motor control theories. Then a short description of how movement speed and movement accuracy is formalized in Fitts' law is followed by some methods of observation applied in work settings.

Motor Skills

A motor skill is defined by Jensen, Schulz, and ...