Modelling relative motion to facilitate intra-limb coordination Gavin Breslin a, * , Nicola J. Hodges b , A. Mark Williams c,d , Will Curran a , John Kremer a a School of Psychology, Queen’s University Belfast, David Keir Building, BT7 1NN, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom b School of Human Kinetics, War Memorial Gym, University of British Columbia, 210-6081 University Boulevard, Vancouver, BC, Canada V6T 1Z1 c Research Institute for Sport and Exercise Sciences, Liverpool John Moores University, The Henry Cotton Building, 15-21 Webster Street, Liverpool, L3 2ET, United Kingdom d Visiting Research Scientist, Human Performance Laboratory, Learning Systems Institute, Florida State University, United States Available online 15 August 2005 Abstract The importance of relative motion information when modelling a novel motor skill was examined. Participants were assigned to one of four groups. Groups 1 and 2 viewed demon- strations of a skilled cricket bowler presented in either ÔvideoÕ or Ôpoint lightÕ format. Group 3 observed a single point of light pertaining to the ÔwristÕ of the skilled bowler only. Participants in Group 4 did not receive a demonstration and acted as controls. During 60 acquisition trials, participants in the demonstration groups viewed a model five times before each 10-trial block. Retention was examined the following day. Intra-limb coordination was assessed for the right elbow relative to the wrist in comparison to the model. The demonstration groups showed greater concordance with the model than the control group. However, the ÔwristÕ group per- formed less like the model than the Ôpoint lightÕ and ÔvideoÕ groups, who did not differ from each other. These effects were maintained in retention. Relative motion information aided the acquisition of intra-limb coordination, while making this information more salient (through point lights) provided no additional benefit. The motion of the modelÕs bowling 0167-9457/$ - see front matter Ó 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.humov.2005.06.009 * Corresponding author. Tel.: +44 028 90975655; fax: +44 028 90 664144. E-mail address: g.breslin@qub.ac.uk (G. Breslin). Human Movement Science 24 (2005) 446–463 www.elsevier.com/locate/humov