Single or combined motor patterns that contribute to the formation of higher-order goal-directed actions; also used for dynamical processes more generally. The late dynamical systems theorist, Edward S. Reed (1954-1997), intriguingly portrayed movements as transitions between postures. One classification distinguishes among discrete movements (those with a clear-cut onset and offset, e.g., reaching, catching, throwing), serial movements (those consisting of a series of interrelated individual discrete movements, e.g., dancing, triple jump, writing), and continuous or cyclical movements (those without a clear-cut onset and offset, e.g., cycling, running, walking).
One of the best descriptions of movement and its various meanings, including motor control, can still be found in the Dictionary of philosophy and psychology (1901) edited by James Mark Baldwin (1861-1934). Here is the relevant, and rather long, citation from that dictionary:
Movement is used (1) in the broadest possible sense to cover mechanical motion. But there is a distinct tendency to restrict the term motion to the mechanical, and to use movement (2) for the action of organisms, in which vital or psychological processes complicate the phenomena. The further restriction contained in definition (3) has arisen in psychology, where the distinction between the motor and the sensory processes, and their correlative psychological states, has made the term movement in this sense convenient. On the whole, it is safe to recommend that the term be restricted in psychology to meaning (3); that, nevertheless, its use in sense (2) be recognised in physiological discussions; but that, so far as possible, the distinction between movement and motion be observed, the latter having exclusive application to the objective phenomena of change of place. For example, I make a movement of my arm; but I observe by sight the motion of a bird through the air. For the midway cases of one’s observation of his own movement, the term movement is preferable, as in the phrases ‘movement sensations,’ ‘illusions of movement,’ &c.; yet when these are classified with other phenomena of motion, the latter term should be applied to them.
Psychological theories in the realm of movement are largely concerned with the formulations respecting conation — with reflexes, instincts, and voluntary determinations — on the side of consciousness; and with those of reaction, dynamo genesis, theory of kinaesthetic sensations and equivalents, on the side of the organism; together with the motor and ‘action’ theories, which assign to elements of motor content — attitudes, dispositions, habits, accommodations, &c. — important r√ales in mental development. The discussions of effort, fatigue, and emotional expression, and the investigations into the localisation of the motor areas of the brain cortex, have emphasised the tendency to make active accommodation and its requirements at least as essential as are the cognitive and receptive functions — a point of view quite undeveloped until this generation. The two sides of the mental life, however, are more sharply distinguished for the purposes of theory than from any fundamental difference of kind; for the movement elements are throughout sensational in their origin, and accordingly the reduction of the motor to the sensory continuum seems to be legitimate. The theoretical question then concerns the determination of the sensational elements — muscular and kinaesthetic — which, in their function as determining motor accommodation and control, minister to the progress of the mental life. This is where motor or action theories get their value; and it is being fully recognised in current discussion.
The analysis of a given movement function, of which HANDWRITING (q.v.) may be taken as a good example, results in the establishment of certain factors
(1) a ‘copy series,’ which is held up to be reproduced. (2) The acquisition, by a process of selection through experimentation, of the series of kinaesthetic equivalents required for reproducing the ‘copy-series’; this we suggest calling the ‘efficient series.’ (3) The association of the efficient series with any ‘remote’ sensation series (cf. KINAESTHETIC SENSATION) which enters into the accomplished movement. (4) The establishment of a ‘control series,’ by which the efficient series is, term by term, held to its proper course in each successive performance of the movement. Of these elements the first is not kinaesthetic, but is a copy presented by sight, hearing, or other sense, to the reproduction of which the muscular apparatus is made to bend its energies. The second, the efficient, is gradually brought into conformity with the copy. The third comes to take the place of the copy, so that short-cuts are established, allowing the performance of the movement without the original copy-series. The fourth is found in that one — or all — of the series in question which stands to check and guide the performance of the movement. It establishes what is called the control of a movement, and may be looked at a little more closely.
The phenomenon of muscular performance with control seems to have two elements, more or less distinct from each other release and actual control. The release is found in the conscious ‘equivalent,’ of the kinaesthetic order, which, when held in the attention, serves as preparation for the voluntary execution of the efficient series. Without attention successfully given to the equivalent the movement is impossible; this is shown in cases of patients who cannot move a limb unless that limb be seen — the equivalent being visual. The control, on the other hand, is not essential to the movement, but regulates it. It consists of the holding in the attention, together with the efficient series, of a secondary or auxiliary series, seen negatively in handwriting with the eyes closed the hand goes astray, because of the absence of the optical perception of the letters as they are made. This latter, when present, acts as control in the progress of the writing, although without it writing of an irregular and unformed kind is still possible.
The most adequate theory of the mechanism of control makes it a function of attention, which effects a synthesis of all the elements necessary for the perfected movement; certain more important series, however, taking the lead in this case or that. Interesting differences among individuals are brought out in pathological cases to some, from their mental type, habit of performance, or emphasis in learning, one series is more necessary; to some another, in the performance of the same motor function. Furthermore, there is the fact of progressive automatisation of function in the matter of control, as elsewhere. Such a semi-automatic performance starts with the same release; but the attention is given not to the details of the successive stages of the action, but to the act as a whole. In these cases, the attempt to control the movements by giving attention to the individual terms of the control series delays and disturbs the action.
See Action, Dynamical system, Fundamental movement pattern, Kinesiology, Motility, Motor ability, Motor milestone, Motor skill, Movement coordination, Object-directed behaviors, Posture, Serial ordering, Spontaneous, Spontaneous motor activity