The Double Step Analysis of Rapid Manual Aiming Movements

The present paper examines the control principles underlying rapid manual tracking responses to horizontal double-step stimuli. The paper reports an experiment concerned with responses made to step-stimuli presented in quick succession. The amplitude of the second-step was varied between the initial step-position and the home-base. Double-step response parameters were analysed as a function of the determinant time interval (D) between the second step and the onset of the initial response. The initial response amplitude was observed to vary as a function of D. Amplitude transition functions were constructed representing the transition of the initial response amplitude between the two step positions; their slopes, furthermore, depended on the amplitude of the second target step. No delays in the initial reaction time with the interstimulus interval were observed. Minor delays to the onset of a corrective response were observed. These delays were in part related to a movement time constraint that is independent of any limitations in central processing capacity. The present findings for the manual control system are compared to double-step tracking analyses of the oculomotor control system.

[1]  G. Stelmach.  Information processing in motor control and learning , 1978 .

[2]  P. Bertelson.  Central Intermittency Twenty Years Later * , 1966, The Quarterly journal of experimental psychology.

[3]  C. Gielen,et al.  Modification of muscle activation patterns during fast goal-directed arm movements. , 1984, Journal of motor behavior.

[4]  J. Kelso.  Motor control mechanisms underlying human movement reproduction. , 1977, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[5]  J. T. Massey,et al.  Spatial trajectories and reaction times of aimed movements: effects of practice, uncertainty, and change in target location. , 1981, Journal of neurophysiology.

[6]  Laurence R. Harris,et al.  Small Saccades to Double-Stepped Targets Moving in Two Dimensions , 1984 .

[7]  E. Bizzi,et al.  Processes controlling visually evoked movements , 1979, Neuropsychologia.

[8]  Robert Gottsdanker,et al.  Psychological refractoriness and the organization of step-tracking responses , 1973 .

[9]  R. Schmidt,et al.  Errors in motor responding, "rapid" corrections, and false anticipations. , 1977, Journal of motor behavior.

[10]  H. Zelaznik,et al.  Sources of Inaccuracy in Rapid Movement , 1978 .

[11]  W. Becker,et al.  An analysis of the saccadic system by means of double step stimuli , 1979, Vision Research.

[12]  W. Wolf,et al.  The Evaluation of the Oculomotor Error Signal , 1984 .

[13]  R Gottsdanker,et al.  The Effect of Superseding Signals , 1966, The Quarterly journal of experimental psychology.