Haskins Publications

Number	558
Year	1986
Drawer	10
Entry Date	11/17/1999
Authors	Saltzman E.
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Publication	Experimental Brain Research Series, 15, 129-144.
url	http://www.haskins.yale.edu/Reprints/HL0558.pdf
Abstract	[Introduction] It is perhaps a truism that skilled actions of the limbs and speech articulators are goal directed. It is equally true, however, that such actions are performed by effector systems that are indifferent to the goals of would-be performers. An effector system is the set of limb segments or speech articulators used in a given action; a terminal device or end-effector is the part or a controlled effector system that is directly related to the goal of a performed action. Thus, in a reaching task, the fingers define the terminal device and the arm and hand comprise the effector system; in a “cup-to-mouth” task, the grasped cup is the terminal device and the combination of hand and arm constitutes the effector system; in a steady-state vowel production task, the tongue body is the terminal device and the jaw and tongue comprise the effector system. During skilled actions, the numerous degrees of freedom defined by the muscles and joints of such effector systems must be harnessed functionally in a manner specific to the task or goal at hand.
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