Fitt's law as an explicit time/error trade-off

The widely-held view that Fitts' law expresses a speed/accuracy trade-off is presumably correct, but it is vague. We outline a simple resource-allocation theory of Fitts' law in which movement time and error trade for each other. The theory accounts quite accurately for the data of Fitts' (1954) seminal study, as well as some fresh data of our own. In both data sets we found the time/error trade-off to obey a power law. Our data, which we could analyze more thoroughly than Fitts', are consistent with a square-root function with a single adjustable constant. We suggest that the resource-allocation framework should help combine information and energy considerations to allow a more complete account of Fitts' law.

[1]  J. H. Steiger,et al.  The Problem Is Epistemology, Not Statistics: Replace Significance Tests by Confidence Intervals and Quantify Accuracy of Risky Numerical Predictions , 2002 .

[2]  S S Stevens,et al.  On the Theory of Scales of Measurement. , 1946, Science.

[3]  Sang Joon Kim,et al.  A Mathematical Theory of Communication , 2006 .

[4]  Richard J. Smith.  Use and misuse of the reduced major axis for line-fitting. , 2009, American journal of physical anthropology.

[5]  I. Scott MacKenzie,et al.  An informatic rationale for the speed-accuracy trade-off , 2009, 2009 IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man and Cybernetics.

[6]  Yves Guiard,et al.  The problem of consistency in the design of Fitts' law experiments: consider either target distance and width or movement form and scale , 2009, CHI.

[7]  Y. Guiard,et al.  Effets de gamme et optimum de difficulté spatiale dans une tâche de pointage de Fitts , 1998 .

[8]  H. Zelaznik,et al.  Motor-output variability: a theory for the accuracy of rapid motor acts. , 1979, Psychological review.

[9]  David E. Meyer,et al.  Speed—Accuracy Tradeoffs in Aimed Movements: Toward a Theory of Rapid Voluntary Action , 2018, Attention and Performance XIII.

[10]  Ian Mackenzie,et al.  Fitts' law as a performance model in human-computer interaction , 1992 .

[11]  Daniel G Bobrow,et al.  On data-limited and resource-limited processes , 1975, Cognitive Psychology.

[12]  H Pashler,et al.  How persuasive is a good fit? A comment on theory testing. , 2000, Psychological review.

[13]  E. R. Hoffmann,et al.  The Use of Dimensional Analysis in Movement Studies. , 1996, Journal of motor behavior.

[14]  I. MacKenzie,et al.  A note on the information-theoretic basis of Fitts' law. , 1989, Journal of motor behavior.

[15]  MacKenzie Is.  A Note on the Information-Theoretic Basis for Fitts’ Law , 1989 .

[16]  Yves Guiard,et al.  Disentangling relative from absolute amplitude in Fitts' law experiments , 2001, CHI Extended Abstracts.

[17]  Daniel G. Bobrow,et al.  On the Analysis of Performance Operating Characteristics. , 1976 .

[18]  I.,et al.  Fitts' Law as a Research and Design Tool in Human-Computer Interaction , 1992, Hum. Comput. Interact..

[19]  I. Scott MacKenzie,et al.  Fitts' throughput and the speed-accuracy tradeoff , 2008, CHI.

[20]  R Plamondon,et al.  Speed/accuracy trade-offs in target-directed movements , 1997, Behavioral and Brain Sciences.

[21]  P. Fitts.  The information capacity of the human motor system in controlling the amplitude of movement. , 1954, Journal of experimental psychology.

[22]  P. Fitts,et al.  Information capacity of discrete motor responses under different cognitive sets. , 1966, Journal of experimental psychology.

[23]  Yves Guiard,et al.  What is a Zero-Difficulty Movement? A Scale of Measurement Issue in Fitts' Law Research , 2010 .

[24]  P. Fitts,et al.  INFORMATION CAPACITY OF DISCRETE MOTOR RESPONSES. , 1964, Journal of experimental psychology.

[25]  I. Scott MacKenzie,et al.  Towards a standard for pointing device evaluation, perspectives on 27 years of Fitts' law research in HCI , 2004, Int. J. Hum. Comput. Stud..

[26]  David A. Rosenbaum,et al.  Development of a method for measuring movement-related effort , 2002, Experimental Brain Research.