On the effects of changing reference command as humans learn to control dynamic systems

We present results from an experiment in which 44 human subjects each interact with a dynamic system 40 times over a one-week period. For each interaction, a subject is asked to perform a command-following task. For each subject and each interaction, the dynamic system is the same; however, the task (i.e., reference command to be followed) is not necessarily the same. We use the experimental results to examine the effect of changing task on the learning process. Experimental results show that the subjects are able to generalize a control strategy learned on one task to a different task. Results also suggest that subjects are able to learn without relying on prediction, but their ability without prediction is more limited.