Theory of motor behaviour

In addition to examining fundamental motor control concepts (e.g., Wolpert et al., 1995) in complex movement behaviors (Hossner, 2004), we have made additional theoretical contributions to motor-control theory. These include, for example, the metaphor of the “The Baden Room” in relation to concepts of internal models and optimal feedback control (Hossner, 2009), the derivation of sports-relevant learning mechanisms in the context of dealing with sensorimotor variance (Hossner et al., 2020; Hossner & Zahno, 2022) as well as the hypothesis that an internal focus of attention selectively degrades performance at specific “nodal points” of the controlled movement (Hossner & Ehrlenspiel, 2010). Other theoretical contributions regard: the transfer of the Modularity Hypothesis to motor learning (Hossner), the assumption that contextual knowledge is used to optimize predictive saccades in dynamic situations (Beck), the empirically substantiated assumption that risk optimization in sensorimotor behaviour is not finalized in a planning phase before movement execution but continuous during ongoing movements (Zahno), the inhibition hypothesis – proposing that performance gains from the quiet eye are rooted in the inhibition of suboptimal movement variants – (Klostermann), the idea that gaze strategies are optimized in regards to saccadic-suppression and peripheral-resolution costs (Vater), and the alternative approach to creativity, which traces creative performance in sports games back to an improved skill repertoire (Zahno). For specific references, see the respective research pages.

Selected Publications

Hossner, E.-J. (2004). Bewegende Ereignisse. Hofmann.

Hossner, E.-J. (2009). A cognitive movement scientist's view on the link between thought and action. Insights from the Badische Zimmer metaphor. In M. Raab, J. Johnson & H. Heekeren (Eds.), Mind and motion. The bidirectional link between thought and action. Progress in Brain Research: Vol. 174 (pp. 25-34). Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0079-6123(09)01303-X

Hossner, E.-J. & Ehrlenspiel, F. (2010). Time-referenced effects of an internal vs. external focus of attention on muscular activity and compensatory variability. Frontiers in Psychology, 1:230. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2010.00230

Hossner, E.-J., Kredel, R. & Franklin, D. W. (2020). Practice. In D. Hackfort & R. J. Schinke (Eds.), The Routledge international encyclopedia of sport and exercise psychology (pp. 532–554). Routledge.

Hossner, E.-J., & Zahno, S. (2022). Beyond task-space exploration: On the role of variance for motor control and learning. Frontiers in Psychology, 13:935273. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.935273

Literature

Wolpert, D. M., Ghahramani, Z. & Jordan, M. I. (1995). An internal model for sensorimotor integration. Science, 269, 1880–1882. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.7569931

Contact

Ernst-Joachim Hossner
Stephan Zahno