Motor Performance with a Simulated Artificial Limb

The present study was conducted to examine performance differences on a reaching and grasping task related to an activity of daily living. This involved either the anatomical limb or a simulated artificial limb. College-aged volunteers (2 men and 4 women), one of whom was left-handed, performed the reaching and grasping task. The apparatus, placed on a table before the seated participant, was a square wooden board which contained a starting key and holes for the insertion and removal of a small Fiberglas dowel. At the beginning of the trial the participant depressed the start key, reached forward and grasped the dowel, and then returned the dowel to a finishing hole located directly in front of the start key. The results of 2 (side) × 2 (type of limb) repeated-measures multivariate analyses of variance on the mean and standard deviation of the movement times showed a significant main effect for type of limb (Wilks Λ33= .047 and .079, respectively, p