Abstract
To cite the ever-quotable Grateful Dead, "What a Long, Strange Trip it has Been" (Garcia, J., et al., 1970). Although Garcia and colleagues' original characterization of their TRIP model is certainly accurate, additional data collected in the many years following the publication of this seminal work (i.e., Lyons et al. 1994-2021) strongly suggest that the descriptors inspiring, exciting, humbling, gratifying, and just plain all around awesome must now be added to this characterization as modifiers of their original Long/Strange hypothesis. As with any great journey, there are always detours from the original path. Some of these lead to the unexpected delight of discovery of new and fascinating places of great interest, whereas some lead to dead-end back alleys filled with rusting dumpsters. In this talk I will present an abridged summary of what was discovered along all of these roads well-travelled. In keeping with, and in honour of, Professor Wilberg's dedication to (and actual creation of) SCAPPS and his student-forward mentoring philosophy, I will constrain the content of this retrospective journey to only our lab's research that: a) first saw the public light of day at this wonderful conference, and b) has been driven, and often led, by the boundless imagination, creativity and industry of my graduate students over the past many years. This summary will include studies that span our collective interest in basic movement science (e.g., visual regulation of aiming and other movements, Inhibition of Return, etc.), to those that explore more abstract expressions of motor behaviour (e.g., Illusions of Control, gambling behaviours, etc.) to those that deal with issues of Human Factors and other Human-Environment interactions (e.g., Auditory tone-space relationships, End and Goal State comfort in applied settings, etc.). The outcomes of some of these studies were very fruitful, resulting in impactful publications and future research directions for our students, and some…well…not so much (see dumpster reference above). But regardless of the eventual outcome, all of these investigations were driven by the desire to better understand the incredible complexity of human behaviour and the motor control contributions that subserve these behaviours. My intention is not to dwell on any of these individual studies in great detail. Rather, the overarching goal of this talk is to provide an overview of this 25 year research road trip, back alleys and all, that I have taken with many, many true friends and respected colleagues (even if some of the more recent ones can't sing along to Truckin' in the car because they don't know the words, and even if I am now showing more than just a "Touch" of Grey).
