Advantage of Early Focus on Visual Information in Bi-Modal Training of Bimanual Coordination

Previous studies have shown that learning bimanual coordination is modality-specific, and both visual and kinesthetic information about relative phase can be used to facilitate learning. However, an extended training with focus on visual information leads to the neglect of kinesthesis and a complete reliance on vision to perform the coordination. The current study explored the bi-modal training of bimanual coordination, where the participants were guided to attend to both visual and kinesthetic information to learn 90° coordination. Thirty participants in their 20s were trained for 10 sessions (two sessions a day for five days), during which they were randomly divided into three groups of 10 participants each to practice the coordination. The V-K group was focused first on visual information, and then on kinesthetic information, to learn the 90° coordination. The K-V group was focused first on kinesthetic information, and then on visual information to learn the coordination. The Random group randomly shifted their focus between visual and kinesthetic information to learn the coordination. All participants were tested as they performed the 90° coordination with and without visual information before, halfway, and after the training. The results showed that the bi-modal training yielded more improved and transferred coordination than the uni-modal training. However, among the three types of bi-modal training, the V-K schedule exhibited the most modality-specific learning and transfer. Therefore, when using both visual demonstration and physical guidance to teach bimanual coordination skills, providing visual demonstration in the early stage should be recommended.