The Double Step Analysis of Rapid Manual Aiming Movements

Abstract

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.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Becker

Jürgens

(1975). Saccadic reactions to double-step stimuli: Evidence for model feedback and continuous information uptake. Basic mechanisms of ocular motility and their clinical implications. Lennerstrand

Bach-y-Rita

Oxford: Pergamon Press 111–119.

Becker

Jürgens

(1979). An analysis of the saccadic system by means of double-step stimuli. Vision Research 19, 967–983.

Bertelson

(1966). Central intermittency twenty years later. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 18, 153–163.

Bizzi

Polit

(1979). Processes controlling visually evoked movements. Neuropsychologia 17, 203–215.

Deubel

Wolf

Hauske

(1984). The evaluation of the oculomotor error signal. Theoretical and applied aspects of eye movement research. Gale

A. G.

Johnson

Amsterdam: Elsevier/North-Holland 55–62.

Findlay

J. M.

Harris

L. R.

(1984). Small saccades to double-stepped targets moving in two dimensions. Theoretical and applied aspects of eye movement research. Gale

A. G.

Johnson

Amsterdam: Elsevier/North-Holland 71–78.

Georgopoulos

A. P.

Kalaska

J. F.

Massey

J. T.

(1981). Spatial trajectories and reaction times of aimed movements: Effects of practice, uncertainty, and change in target location. Journal of Neurophysiology 456, 725–743.

Gielen

C. C. A. M.

van den Heuvel

P. J. M.

Dernier van der Gon

J. J.

(1984). Modification of muscle activation patterns during fast goal-directed arm movements. Journal of Motor Behavior 16, 2–19.

Gottsdanker

(1966). The effect of superseding signals. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 18, 236–249.

10.

Gottsdanker

(1973). Psychological refractoriness and the organization of step tracking responses. Perception and Psychophysics 14, 60–70.

11.

Kelso

J. A. S.

(1977). Motor control mechanisms underlying human movement reproduction. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance 3, 529–543.

12.

Keppel

(1982). Design and analysis: A researchers’ handbook, (2nd ed.) Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall.

13.

Schmidt

R. A.

Gordon

G. B.

(1977). Errors in motor responding, “rapid” corrections, and false anticipations. Journal of Motor Behavior 9, 101–111.

14.

Schmidt

R. A.

Zelaznik

H. N.

Frank

J. S.

(1978). Sources of inaccuracy in rapid movement. Information processing in motor control and learning. Stelmach

G. E.

New York: Academic Press 183–203.

15.

Vince

M. A.

(1950). Some exceptions to the psychological refractory period in unskilled manual responses (Report No. 124/50) Medical Research Council, Applied Psychology Unit, Cambridge, England.