Finger fatigue: Blockings and approximate kinematic invariances

Abstract

Among the classic problems of the physiology and psychology of work are the origins and consequences of fatigue (LUCZAK 1983, SCHMIDTKE 1965). Modern types of work with a high information-processing load and an intensive use of keyboards are often associated with different kinds of central and peripheral fatigue (ROHMERT & LUCZAK 1973). A signature of most varieties of fatigue is an increased variability of physiological and behavioral processes. As far as muscles are concerned, there is also a general reduction of force developed at a certain level of activation. In this chapter, I shall illustrate a rather unexpected, but observed consequence as well as an expected, but largely absent consequence of these basic phenomena. The unexpected, but observed consequences of variability are blockings. The expected, but largely absent consequences of muscle fatigue are kinematic changes. © 2009 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.