Figure 1
Schematic overview of variance structure of an effector system. Well analogy in 3D space, illustrating how the goal-relevant variability is dependent upon the central tendency of the system’s state where the space that the effector state is attracted upon can be expressed by the analogy of the potential energy of a well (A). The well’s basin width (r) represents the goal-irrelevant variability, which is the repertoire of configurations that will converge toward the goal state—i.e. flexibility. The well depth (1-VORTH) represents the magnitude of goal-relevant variability, where an increased depth indicates the strength of the convergent attraction for motor solutions to meet the goal state. The depth of the well represents a resistance to system perturbations and disruptive external influences—i.e. stability (B). When a task evolves across time, a sequence of manifolds across the slices of time will express the design of the control system (C). This will be observed from the structure of variance relative to the manifold, where changes both parallel and orthogonal will describe the characteristics of the well and hence the design of the system’s controllers (D). This figure has been generated by researcher AG using Adobe Illustrator.
