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Background People may be stigmatized if they have mental illness, emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD), or physical or intellectual disabilities. Being stigmatized adversely affects one’s psychological well-being and quality of life. While occupational therapists frequently work with people with EBD and disabilities, all healthcare practitioners may encounter these populations, and stigmatizing attitudes of healthcare professionals towards such clients can negatively affect the therapeutic relationship, evaluation, and treatment. Therefore, understanding attitudes of healthcare students—as future practitioners in all fields of healthcare—towards people in this regard is fundamental to the future implementation of anti-stigma programs. We aimed to develop and test questionnaires for examining stigmatizing attitudes of healthcare students towards people with mental illness or disabilities and children with EBD. Methods A literature review was conducted to identify surveys related to attitudes towards people with mental illness, EBD, and disabilities. Items that were pertinent to the concept of stigma were selected and modified to fit into the Taiwanese context. A total of 336 students from departments of occupational therapy, physical therapy, nursing, and medicine in 7 universities across Taiwan completed the questionnaires. Item analysis and factor analysis were used to examine the reliability and validity of the questionnaires. Gender differences were also considered. Results Factor analyses of the three questionnaires yielded factor structures that explained 61.34 to 67.15% of the variance, with Cronbach’s α values ranging from 0.71 to 0.89. The Questionnaire on Stigmatizing Attitudes Towards Mental Illness consisted of 16 items with 4 subscales: deviant behavior, social isolation, negative stereotype, and self-stigma. The Questionnaire on Stigmatizing Attitudes Towards Children with EBD consisted of 14 items with 3 subscales: rejective attitude, negative stereotype, and deviant behavior. The Questionnaire on Stigmatizing Attitudes Towards Disabilities consisted of 10 items with 3 subscales: positive stereotype, negative stereotype, and pessimistic expectation. In addition, men had slightly higher stigmatizing attitudes than women. Conclusions The results showed satisfactory factor structures and internal consistency, and thus support the use of these questionnaires to understand attitudes of healthcare students towards these populations. In addition, particular attention should be paid to gender differences in stigmatizing attitudes of healthcare students.

Attitudes of healthcare professionals towards people with disorders/disabilities are important for the development of therapeutic relationships, as well as to the evaluation and intervention processes. Therefore, it is critical to be aware and reduce stigmatizing attitudes in future healthcare professionals. An 18-week anti-stigma course was developed for occupational therapy students based on literature review and focus group interview. The course consisted of three components, including social contact, roleplaying, and critical reflection strategies. A quasi-experimental design was implemented to evaluate participants at three time points (i.e., pre-test, post-test, and one year after completion) using the Social Distance Scale and several questionnaires (i.e., stigmatising attitudes towards mental illness, physical disabilities, and children with emotional behavioural disorders). A total of 16 students completed the course and had significantly decreased social distance and stigmatising attitudes towards mental illness and emotional behavioural disorders in the post-test. These decreases remained one year later. The results support the provision of an anti-stigma course for occupational therapy students to reduce stigmatising attitudes. Future research should extend the anti-stigma course to occupational therapy students at other universities to increase both the sample size and overall generalisability.

People with Parkinson’s disease (PD) may experience stigma due to their visible features of movement and communication difficulties. This paper aimed to examine the role of experienced stigma in health-related quality of life (QOL), after controlling for personal and clinical characteristics. This is a preliminary analysis of a subset of baseline data from the Social Self-Management of Parkinson’s Disease Study (SocM-PD), an ongoing 3-year prospective cohort study. Seventy-three people with PD (M age = 65.72, 29 women) participated in this study. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses were used to determine the role of stigma in QOL, after controlling for gender, disease severity, depression, and motor difficulties of daily living. Significant correlations were found between QOL with gender (r = .26), disease severity (r = .38), depression (r = .65), motor difficulties of daily living (r = .71), and stigma (r = .83). After controlling for the significant covariates, stigma made a significant and unique contribution to the explanation of QOL by 13.7 % (p

Background/Objective Patients with schizophrenia not only have psychiatric symptoms, but also have movement problems, which might also be associated with their reduced quality of life. Little is known about how to improve their movement performance for patients. Manipulating object size and distance is common in occupational therapy practice to evaluate and optimize reaching performance in patients with physical disabilities, but effects of the manipulation in patients with schizophrenia remain unclear. The purpose of this study was to examine whether object size and distance could change performance of reaching kinematics in patients with mild schizophrenia. Methods Twenty-nine patients with mild schizophrenia and 15 age- and gender-matched healthy controls were required to reach for, as quickly as possible, a small or large object that was placed at a near or far distance. We measured movement time, peak velocity, path length ratio, percentage of time to peak velocity, and movement units to infer movement speed, forcefulness, spatial efficiency (directness), control strategies, and smoothness. Results Patients’ reaching movements were slower ( p = .017) and less direct ( p = .007) than those of controls. A larger object induced faster ( p = .016), more preprogrammed ( p = .018), and more forceful ( p = .010) movements in patients. A farther object induced slower, more feedback dependent, but more forceful and more direct movements (all p Conclusion The results of kinematic deficiencies suggest the need of movement training for patients with mild schizophrenia. Occupational therapists may grade or adapt reaching activities by changing object size and distance to enhance movement performance in patients with schizophrenia.

Research has shown that moving targets help Parkinson's disease (PD) patients improve their arm movement while sitting. We examined whether increasing the speed of a moving ball would also improve standing postural control in PD patients during a virtual reality (VR) ball-catching task. Twenty-one PD patients and 21 controls bilaterally reached to catch slow-moving and then fast-moving virtual balls while standing. A projection-based VR system connected to a motion-tracking system and a force platform was used. Dependent measures included the kinematics of arm movement (movement time, peak velocity), duration of anticipatory postural adjustments (APA), and center of pressure (COP) movement (movement time, maximum amplitude, and average velocity). When catching a fast ball, both PD and control groups made arm movements with shorter movement time and higher peak velocity, longer APA, as well as COP movements with shorter movement time and smaller amplitude than when catching a slow ball. The change in performance from slow- to fast-ball conditions was not different between the PD and control groups. The results suggest that raising the speed of virtual moving targets should increase the speed of arm and COP movements for PD patients. Therapists, however, should also be aware that a fast virtual moving target causes the patient to confine the COP excursion to a smaller amplitude. Future research should examine the effect of other task parameters (e.g., target distance, direction) on COP movement and examine the long-term effect of VR training.

To investigate the effects of target speed on unimanual and bimanual movements during a bimanual prehension and assembly task in patients with mild schizophrenia and healthy controls.Fifteen patients with schizophrenia and 15 age- and gender-matched healthy controls were instructed to reach and assemble spacers with both hands for a target that moved at two speeds: fast or slow. Dependent variables were movement kinematics: movement time, number of movement units and timing intervals between both hands.A fast-moving target induced shorter movement times, fewer movement units and shorter timing intervals than did a slow-moving target for patients. Under the slow-target condition, patients had longer movement times and a longer timing interval during prehension, as well as longer movement times, more movement units and a longer timing interval during assembly than did controls. Under the fast-target condition, patients still had slower and less-synchronized prehension than did controls, but their assembly improved to a level similar to that of controls.A fast-moving target induced faster, smoother and more synchronized movements than did a slow-moving target for patients with schizophrenia, especially during assembly.A fast-moving target might elicit faster, smoother, and more synchronized movements than might a slow-moving target during a bimanual assembly task for patients with mild schizophrenia. The findings of impaired movement kinematics under the slow-target condition suggest that patients with schizophrenia need movement training.

Postural dysfunctions are prevalent in patients with schizophrenia and affect their daily life and ability to work. In addition, sensory functions and sensory integration that are crucial for postural control are also compromised. This study intended to examine how patients with schizophrenia coordinate multiple sensory systems to maintain postural stability in dynamic sensory conditions. Twenty-nine patients with schizophrenia and 32 control subjects were recruited. Postural stability of the participants was examined in six sensory conditions of different level of congruency of multiple sensory information, which was based on combinations of correct, removed, or conflicting sensory inputs from visual, somatosensory, and vestibular systems. The excursion of the center of pressure was measured by posturography. Equilibrium scores were derived to indicate the range of anterior-posterior (AP) postural sway, and sensory ratios were calculated to explore ability to use sensory information to maintain balance. The overall AP postural sway was significantly larger for patients with schizophrenia compared to the controls [patients (69.62±8.99); controls (76.53±7.47); t1,59 = -3.28, p

An important assumption for comparing children's quality of life (QoL) between children's and parents' perceptions is that measurement equivalence/invariance (ME/I) exists. The ME/I across the child- and parent-reported Chinese PedsQL was examined, and the latent means between child self-reports and parent-proxy reports were compared. Third-grade to sixth-grade children (n = 519) and their parents (n = 270) respectively completed the child- and parent-reported PedsQL. Seventy-eight parents completed parent-proxy reports twice. Full ME/I across child and parent reports was found in first- and second-order factor loadings. Partial ME/I was supported in item intercepts and item residual variances. The latent means of child self-reports and of parent-proxy reports were not significantly different, which suggested interchangeability between child- and parent-reported PedsQL. The ME/I results support the use of PedsQL scores to compare children's and parents' perceptions of children's QoL.

We used a trunk-assisted prehension task to examine the effect of task (reaching for stationary vs. moving targets) and environmental constraints (virtual reality [VR] vs. physical reality) on the temporal control of trunk and arm motions in people with Parkinson's disease (PD). Twenty-four participants with PD and 24 age-matched controls reached for and grasped a ball that was either stationary or moving along a ramp 120% of arm length away. In a similar VR task, participants reached for a virtual ball that was either stationary or moving. Movement speed was measured as trunk and arm movement times (MTs); trunk-arm coordination was measured as onset interval and offset interval between trunk and arm motions, as well as a summarized index-desynchrony score. In both VR and physical reality, the PD group had longer trunk and arm MTs than the control group when reaching for stationary balls (p

Getting lost (GL) behavior is among the early symptoms in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Only a few tests, however, have been developed to screen for this symptom. The aim of this study was to develop an instrument, the Route Map Recall Test (RMRT), for the screening of the GL problem in AD patients. We examined the psychometric properties of the RMRT and its clinical utility to predict the GL risk in 23 AD patients and 43 cognitively healthy older adults. The results showed that the RMRT has a sound reliability (test-retest, r = .752, p < .001; Cronbach's α = 0.887, p < .001). The convergent validity was supported by the high correlations with Trail Making Test A and B. With the optimal criteria (93.5/104), the discriminative validity for the diagnosis of AD showed good sensitivity (86%) and specificity (70%), and sensitivity (100%) and specificity (67%) for GL in AD patients. The findings support the RMRT to be a useful tool for clinical screening of AD patients and their GL risk.

Objective: To investigate the effect of eating utensil weight on kinematic performance in people with Parkinson’s disease. Design: A counterbalanced repeated-measures design. Setting: A motor control laboratory in a university setting. Subjects: Eighteen adults with Parkinson’s disease and 18 age-matched controls. Experimental conditions: Each participant performed a food transfer task using spoons of three different weights: lightweight (35 g), control (85 g) and weighted (135 g). Kinematic variables of arm movement were derived and compared between conditions. Main measures: Kinematic variables of arm movement, including movement time, peak velocity and number of movement units. Results: Utensil weights significantly affected the movement kinematics of all participants. Both groups had fewer movement units in the lightweight condition (Parkinson’s disease group: 22.18, controls: 19.89) than in the weighted condition (Parkinson’s disease group: 22.68, controls: 21.36), suggesting smoother movement in the former condition. In addition, both groups had higher peak velocity in the lightweight than in the weighted condition. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that a lightweight utensil may facilitate smoother and higher-velocity arm movement than a weighted one in people with Parkinson’s disease.

Objective: To examine, in a dual-task paradigm, the effect of auditory stimuli on people with Parkinson's disease. Design: A counterbalanced repeated-measures design. Setting: A motor control laboratory in a university setting. Subjects: Twenty individuals with Parkinson's disease. Experimental conditions: Each participant did two experiments (marching music experiment and weather forecast experiment). In each experiment, the participant performed an upper extremity functional task as the primary task and listened to an auditory stimulus (marching music or weather forecast) as the concurrent task. Each experiment had three conditions: listening to the auditory stimulus, ignoring the auditory stimulus and no auditory stimulus. Main measures: Kinematic variables of arm movement, including movement time, peak velocity, deceleration time and number of movement units. Results: We found that performances of the participants were similar across the three conditions for the marching music experiment, but were significantly different for the weather forecast experiment. The comparison of condition effects between the two experiments indicated that the effect of weather forecast was (marginally) significantly greater than that of marching music. Conclusions: The results suggest that the type of auditory stimulus is important to the degree of interference with upper extremity performance in people with Parkinson's disease. Auditory stimuli that require semantic processing (e.g. weather forecast) may distract attention from the primary task, and thus cause a decline in performance.

Objectives. To validate the Schizophrenia Quality of Life Scale Revision 4 (SQLS-R4) Chinese version with factor analysis. We also investigated factors influencing quality of life results. Method. One hundred patients with schizophrenia participated in this study. Experienced psychiatrists evaluated each patient's current psychological condition to assure intact judgment. Participants then filled out the quality of life questionnaire, SQLS-R4. We used principal component analysis to analyze SQLS-R4 with oblique rotation. We also collected demographic data, another subjective and objective quality of life questionnaire, and information about the functional status of the participants at the same time. Multiple linear regression was used to analyze collected factors which may influence the quality of life of schizophrenic patients. Results. We extracted seven factors that explained a 68.1% variance in the patients' quality of life. The factors were relationships with others, loneliness, exhaustion, depressed thinking, somatic concerns, vitality, and worry. Conclusion. We found that the SQLS-R4 factor analysis provided insights into the structure of the quality of life of patients with schizophrenia. We also found that subjective social participation, subjective health, and depression were quality-of-life-related factors. Whether other factors influence the quality of life in patients with schizophrenia requires further investigation.

Objective: To examine the effect of spoon-handle size on kinematic performance in people with Parkinson's disease. Design: A counterbalanced repeated-measures design. Setting: A motor control laboratory in a university setting. Subjects: Eighteen individuals with Parkinson's disease and 18 age-matched controls. Experimental conditions: Each participant was instructed to scoop water (simulated soup) using spoons with three different-sized handles. Main measures: Kinematic variables (movement time, peak velocity and number of movement units) of arm movement, size of hand aperture and number of fingers to grasp the spoon. Results: The movement of the participants with Parkinson's disease was faster (shorter movement time) and smoother (fewer movement units) when they used spoons with a small- or medium-sized handle than when using a spoon with a large-sized handle. In contrast, the healthy controls showed no significant differences in movement kinematics between handle sizes. Moreover, the participants with Parkinson's disease had a significantly smaller hand aperture and used more fingers to hold the spoons than the controls did. Conclusions: These results suggest that, for people with Parkinson's disease, a small-to-medium-sized handle is more suitable than a large-sized built-up handle.

The trend toward international cooperation in research projects emphasizes the need to translate existing validated tools into local languages. The purpose of this study was to test the reliability and validity of a Chinese-translated version of the 39-item Parkinson's Disease Questionnaire (PDQ-39). Seventy-three Taiwanese individuals with Parkinson's disease were consecutively recruited. The internal consistency reliability was satisfactory for all domains (Cronbach's alpha = 0.80-0.96), except for the social support, cognition, and bodily discomfort domains (alpha = 0.58-0.63). The convergent validity was also supported by strong correlations between domains measuring related constructs of the PDQ-39 and Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (r = 0.81-0.86), and between those of the PDQ-39 and SF-36 (r = -0.70--0.93). Except for the bodily discomfort domain, all domains of the PDQ-39 significantly discriminated patients at different stages, as indicated by the Hoehn and Yahr scale. Overall, the results of this study are consistent with the reports of the PDQ-39 in other countries (e.g., UK, Spain, US, and Greece), which suggests that the PDQ-39 is appropriate for use among Taiwanese individuals with PD. This study lays the foundation for future combinations and comparisons of data cross-nationally.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine whether one single auditory cue affected movement kinematics of more than one step in a sequential upper limb task in patients with Parkinson's disease. Design: A counter-balanced repeated-measures design was employed. A total of 16 male patients with Parkinson's disease and 16 age-matched male and female controls performed the task under two conditions. In the signal-present condition, the participants were instructed to start the movement when they heard a bell ring. In the signal-absent condition, there was no bell ringing, and they were told to start the movement when they were ready. Kinematic performances for the first two movement segments (i.e., reaching for the pen and bringing the pen to the paper) were compared between conditions. Results: The results indicated that the presence of the single auditory cue affected movement kinematics of the patients with Parkinson's disease but not that of the controls. When given external cueing, the patients elicited faster, more forceful, more efficient, more stable, but less smooth movement. Conclusions: The results suggest that therapists should provide external cues according to their treatment goals. In addition, researchers should be aware of the influence of start signals when designing subsequent experiments.

Schizophrenia affects not only mental function but also movement. We compared the movement of patients with mild schizophrenia and healthy control participants during a bimanual assembly task and examined whether changes in object size affected unimanual and bimanual movements. Fifteen patients with schizophrenia and 15 age- and gender-matched control participants were instructed to bimanually reach for and assemble objects. We manipulated the object size for the left hand (large vs. small) and measured movement time, peak velocity, and bimanual synchronization to represent movement speed, forcefulness, and bimanual coordination. Patients with schizophrenia showed slower and less forceful unimanual movements and less coordinated bimanual movements than control participants. Increasing the object size elicited faster and more forceful unimanual movements and more coordinated bimanual movements in patients. The results suggest the need for movement rehabilitation in patients with schizophrenia and the possibility of manipulating object size to optimize patients’ movements. These results benefit the practice of evidence-based therapy.

Objective. When teaching clients a multistep functional task, therapists tend to break down the task into part tasks with discrete movements. The purpose of this study was to compare the kinematic performance between part and whole tasks in elderly persons. Method. A counterbalanced repeated-measures design was used. Twenty elderly persons without motor problems (7 men, 13 women) performed a signature task in two conditions. For the part-task condition, the participants did the task in a step-by-step manner: (a) reach for a pen, (b) bring the pen to the paper, and (c) sign the name. For the whole-task condition, the participants performed the task in an integrated continuous flow. Kinematic performances for two movement segments (i.e., reaching for the pen, bringing the pen to the paper) were compared between conditions. Results. Generally, the whole-task condition elicited a more efficient, more forceful, and smoother movement than the part-task condition. Conclusion. The results suggest the importance of keeping a multistep functional task whole.

Objective: To investigate whether practising reaching for virtual moving targets would improve motor performance in people with Parkinson’s disease. Design: Randomized pretest–posttest control group design. Setting: A virtual reality laboratory in a university setting. Participants: Thirty-three adults with Parkinson’s disease. Interventions: The virtual reality training required 60 trials of reaching for fast-moving virtual balls with the dominant hand. The control group had 60 practice trials turning pegs with their non-dominant hand. Main outcome measures: Pretest and posttest required reaching with the dominant hand to grasp real stationary balls and balls moving at different speeds down a ramp. Success rates and kinematic data (movement time, peak velocity and percentage of movement time for acceleration phase) from pretest and posttest were recorded to determine the immediate transfer effects. Results: Compared with the control group, the virtual reality training group became faster ( F = 9.08, P = 0.005) and more forceful ( F = 9.36, P = 0.005) when reaching for real stationary balls. However, there was no significant difference in success rate or movement kinematics between the two groups when reaching for real moving balls. Conclusion: A short virtual reality training programme improved the movement speed of discrete aiming tasks when participants reached for real stationary objects. However, the transfer effect was minimal when reaching for real moving objects.

To evaluate the psychometric properties and gender invariance of the Chinese version of the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory (PedsQL) for 8- to 12-year-olds.Psychometric testing and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were used with a convenience sample of 8- to 12-year-old children (n = 479) for PedsQL full and short forms.The internal consistency reliability was satisfactory for all subscales and total scores (Cronbach's α = 0.73-0.90), except for the school subscale (0.68 [full form], 0.62 [short form]). Test-retest reliability was 0.67-0.84. Convergent validity was supported by the correlation between the Children's Depression Inventory and PedsQL psychosocial subscale (r = -0.69). Construct validity determined using CFA showed a better model fit in the short form (RMSEA = 0.06) than in the full form (RMSEA = 0.08). Measurement invariance across gender determined using nested CFA models showed that all absolute ΔRMSEA values were0.01.The Chinese version of the PedsQL is a relatively reliable and valid instrument, and the PedsQL short form showed a better construct validity than did the full form. Measurement across gender was invariant; therefore, the comparisons of quality of life between boys and girls were appropriate.

We tested the reliability, sensitivity, and validity of a Chinese translation of the Schizophrenia Quality of Life Scale Revision 4 (SQLS-R4). One hundred Taiwanese individuals with schizophrenia were recruited. The internal consistency reliability was satisfactory for both the psychosocial and vitality domains (Cronbach's alpha = 0.92, 0.84). The test-retest reliability was also high (psychosocial: ICC = 0.84, vitality: ICC = 0.84) for those individuals whose psychological conditions remained stable between the two-week interval. However, the responsiveness coefficient for those with considerable changes in psychological conditions ranged from very small to moderate, suggesting either low responsiveness for the vitality domain or a complex relationship between the change of psychological conditions and quality of life, and the need to estimate responsiveness more conclusively in a future intervention study. The convergent validity was supported by moderate-to-large correlations between domains measuring related constructs of the SQLS-R4 and SF-36 (r = -0.65 to -0.67). Overall, the results of this study provide preliminary evidence for the reliability and validity of the SQLS-R4 used in Taiwanese individuals with schizophrenia. This study provides a common ground for international researchers to understand quality of life in Taiwanese patients with schizophrenia.

OBJECTIVE. In clinical practice, occupational therapists identify characteristics or demands of a task and, to improve coordination or problem solving ability, grade it along the complexity dimension. Effects of increased complexity of functional tasks have not been studied to date. The purpose of this study was to continue to examine the characteristics of occupation by testing the effect of task complexity on motor performance in elderly people. METHOD. A counterbalanced repeated-measures design was used. Twenty-eight elderly people without motor problems (9 men, 19 women) performed checker game moves ranging from one to four steps. Only the first segment of movement from start position to the first designated place was kinematically analyzed and compared among the four conditions because it has been shown in earlier studies that differences in strategy are apparent from the first segment. RESULTS. Generally, the more complex moves elicited higher peak velocity (indicating greater force employed, F [3,72] = 3.45, p = .0210) and more movement units (indicating a less smooth and less efficient movement, F [3,72] = 4.71, p = .0047) than a simple move. CONCLUSION. The results indicate that in this study, task complexity affects forcefulness and smoothness of motor performance, supporting the practice of activity analysis and gradation along the complexity dimension in occupational therapy. When treating elderly people in clinics, therapists may increase the number of steps within a task to facilitate the force embedded in movement, or decrease the number of steps to facilitate smooth and economical movement.

This article is the second of a two-part synthesis of research regarding the effects of occupational therapy to improve activity and participation and to reduce impairment for persons with stroke. Part I synthesized research findings for restoration of role participation and activity performance. Part II synthesizes research findings regarding the effects of occupational therapy to remediate psychosocial, cognitive-perceptual, and sensorimotor impairments. Only 29 studies involving 832 participants (mean age = 64.3 years) addressed these goals. No studies directly researched the effects of occupational therapy on depression after stroke. Eight studies addressed cognitive-perceptual abilities. The findings indicated that homemaking tasks resulted in greater improvement of cognitive ability than paper-and-pencil drills and that tasks that forced awareness of neglected space, including movement of the opposite limb into that space, improved unilateral neglect. Fifteen studies examined the effect of occupational therapy on various motor capacities after stroke. Coordinated movement improved under these conditions: (a) following written and illustrated guides for movement exercises, (b) using meaningful goal objects as targets, (c) practicing movements with specific goals, (d) moving both arms simultaneously but independently, and (e) imagining functional use of the affected limb. Research on inhibitory splinting was inconclusive. Based on these few studies and lack of replication, we could make only tentative recommendations for practice. Further definitive research is needed.

Objective. A major concern of occupational therapy is the identification of context characteristics that optimize performance. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of context on skill acquisition and transfer. Method. Forty college students without disabilities (12 men, 28 women) were randomly assigned to the task of learning to use chopsticks in either a natural or a simulated context. Each participant practiced 60 trials in an acquisition phase on 1 day and was tested on a transfer task 24 hr after the acquisition phase. Their performances in the acquisition and transfer phases were measured with the variables of success rate and reaching kinematics. Results. The natural context elicited significantly larger improvement of success rate in the acquisition phase and a significantly higher success rate in the transfer phase than the simulated context. No major difference was found in kinematic variables between the two contexts. Conclusion. These results suggested the use of natural contexts to facilitate the outcome of motor skill learning.