INADEQUACIES OF THE PROPORTIONAL DURATION MODEL - PERSPECTIVES FROM A DYNAMIC ANALYSIS OF JUGGLING

It is argued that the proportional duration model provides an inadequate route into the problem of timing in skilled movements. It is theoretically shallow and lacks the predictive power to guide a research programme. An alternative, task-dynamical approach is proposed and exemplified in a study of relative timing in juggling. The adopted methodology emphasizes the need to first identify the major temporal constraints on the task and its key relative timing variable(s), and then to construct specific hypotheses regarding both the invariant and the variant properties of these relative timing variable(s).