Graduate Students
Scott Young
Ph.D. Candidate
Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering
University of Toronto
Advisors: Dr. Tom Chau, Dr. Jay Pratt
Email: Scott[dot]Young[at]rogers[dot]com
Education:
Scott holds a B.Sc. and M.Sc. from the University of Manitoba, both in Biosystems Engineering. Previous academic coursework and research focused on machines for agricultural production and human factors for operators of heavy machinery. Industry work has included prototype testing for agricultural machinery and safety systems in a nuclear power production.
Research title:
Visual Discrimination of Speed-Accuracy Tradeoffs
Research abstract:
Children with Developmental Co-ordination Disorder (DCD) have difficulty choosing appropriate movements when learning a new motor task. As a result, they can find it difficult to learn how to ride a bike, tie their shoes, button their clothes, or wash their hair. In order to better understand the difficulties experienced by people with DCD, we need a better method for measuring the ability of people to choose between different motor actions.
The objective of this project is to measure how people choose between motor actions that differ by a systematic difference in a speed-accuracy trade-off. The speed-accuracy tradeoff is what causes faster movements to be less predictable than slower movements. It has been observed that people plan motor actions for this trade-off, but it is not clear how well people can explicitly choose between movements based on this factor.
To date, apparatus has been developed and the first component of the project has been completed. Contrary to our expectations, we found that the choices of able-bodied adults were not always consistent with their speed-accuracy tradeoff. Future work will focus on understanding this bias and determining its implications for models of movement planning.
Other Interests:
Scott is involved in the Biomedical Engineering Students Association at the University of Toronto, as well as being a student member of SfN, and IEEE. In his spare time, Scott enjoys playing sports, skiing, and hiking.
Personal website: http://individual.utoronto.ca/scottjyoung
