TIMING OF TWO SIMULTANEOUS MOVEMENTS OF ARMS AND LEGS.

Abstract The ability of people to perform simultaneous movements involving speed and accuracy, and the relationships among the several time measures for these movements were studied. Five movement tasks using two simultaneous movements of arms and legs were performed. Reliability of time measures ranged between 0.830 and 0.988. There were no significant differences between the two tasks involving an arm and a leg. Reaction time for tasks involving an arm and leg was slower than for tasks involving two arms. An increase in task complexity resulted in an increase in starting time difference and contact time difference. Common variance between tasks for several time measures was relatively high. For all tasks, except the one using identical movements for the two arms, a consistent movement pattern was found in which the right hand started first and finished last.