RESEARCH AT TEXAS WOMAN'S UNIVERSITY | |
FACULTY PROFILE SYSTEM | |
| Name: | Beth Norris, PhD |
| Title: | Assistant Professor |
| Department: | Physical Therapy-Dallas |
| Email address: | bnorris@mail.twu.edu |
| Description of research activities: "How does use of motor learning principles impact the learning of lifting with a squat technique?” was the initial research question that drove Dr. Norris' dissertation research. The motor learning principles studied were contextual interference. Contextual interference involves practice under conditions of high or low interference which creates a random or blocked practice schedule. The analysis of lifting involved motion analysis of trunk and lower extremity joint coordination. She would like to expand this research to include treatment variables of: mental practice, multiple practice sessions, the amount of practice necessary to change lifting performance, and similar task vs different task to create interference. Additionally, she would like to expand the analysis of lifting performance to include EMG and force analysis of the trunk and lower extremity musculature. Her second area of interest is analysis of shoulder muscles when performing task specific training and when performing basic therapeutic exercises. A main function of the shoulder is to position the hand in space for the completion of a specific task. Typically, the task the upper extremity performs has a goal of accuracy (grasping, reaching) or speed (rate of movement, force production). A well established motor control concept is the speed-accuracy trade-off. She has completed an pilot investigation of shoulder musculature during therapeutic exercises, and would like to expand this research to include upper extremity task specific training with tasks requiring accuracy and tasks requiring speed. | |
| Keywords: Biomechanics, motor learning, motion analysis, EMG, work performance, squat lift, upper extremity control, task specific training | |
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