Cookies on this website

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you click 'Accept all cookies' we'll assume that you are happy to receive all cookies and you won't see this message again. If you click 'Reject all non-essential cookies' only necessary cookies providing core functionality such as security, network management, and accessibility will be enabled. Click 'Find out more' for information on how to change your cookie settings.

The study of speed-accuracy trade-offs has a long history in scientists' attempts to understand human movement control. In most such studies of reciprocal aiming, participants have been required to make reaching or pointing movements in space to targets of varying size. We wished to extend this body of work to a situation in which participants had to use a steering wheel in order to move a cursor on a computer monitor. Our results revealed a positive linear relationship between movement times and movement difficulty. We also observed an increased contribution of nonlinear dynamical terms as the movement difficulty increased. These results are consistent with the claim that a linear speed-difficulty relationship is a general feature of human motor control and one which is effector-independent. These results have relevant application to the study of human driving performance.

Original publication

DOI

10.1007/s00221-008-1379-8

Type

Journal article

Journal

Exp Brain Res

Publication Date

06/2008

Volume

188

Pages

141 - 146

Keywords

Adolescent, Adult, Automobile Driving, Biomechanical Phenomena, Female, Humans, Male, Motion Perception, Movement, Neuropsychological Tests, Nonlinear Dynamics, Orientation, Photic Stimulation, Psychomotor Performance, Reaction Time, Space Perception