Fitts' Law for Manipulative Temporal Motor Responses with and without Path Constraints

Abstract

This study shows that a univariate linear model, analogous to Fitts' arm movement model, is appropriate for manipulative motor responses involving serial hand movements with a maximum information rate of 5.5 bits/sec. which is half that determined by Fitts. For such manipulative tasks with different types of movement path constraints imposed, it is shown that a second-order model with interaction is appropriate for relating movement time to movement information and constraint information, the latter independent variable providing the greatest contribution to movement time.