Tweet
I would like to minimize the Hawthorne Effect in my gait running assessments. We focus on performance optimization, so our motivated athletes likely try to "look good" during motion capture. The issue may be especially prevalent because many gait variables seem to converge to a stable average after only 10-30 seconds. This makes assessment at each speed quite expedient, but also means it would be easy for the athletes to change their behavior because each trial is so short.
Prior to recording, the athletes commonly do a 10 minute warm-up on the lab treadmill with reflective markers already affixed. Might this be sufficient to allow the athletes to "forget" they are being observed? I have wondered about this for some time, and have not attempted full-body or lower-body motion capture for more than 5 minutes, so I have no data on whether there is a Hawthorne Effect that dissipates with running duration. Of course, then, one needs to deal with fatigue issues.
Prior to recording, the athletes commonly do a 10 minute warm-up on the lab treadmill with reflective markers already affixed. Might this be sufficient to allow the athletes to "forget" they are being observed? I have wondered about this for some time, and have not attempted full-body or lower-body motion capture for more than 5 minutes, so I have no data on whether there is a Hawthorne Effect that dissipates with running duration. Of course, then, one needs to deal with fatigue issues.
Comment