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Target width scaling in a repetitive aiming task: switching between cyclical and discrete units of action

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Abstract

An aiming task was used to identify the processes whereby the motor system adapted a repetitive aiming action to systematic changes in ID (ID = log2 (2A/W), Fitts in J Exp Psychol 47:381–391, 1954) within a single trial. Task ID was scaled in a trial by moving the outside edge of two stationary targets to produce nine different target IDs in a trail. The ID within a trial was scaled in one of two directions: (1) an increasing ID condition, starting with an ID = 3.07 and ending with an ID = 5.91; and (2) a decreasing ID condition, starting with an ID = 5.91 and ending with an ID = 3.07. An index of movement harmonicity (Guiard in Acta Psychol 82:139–159, 1993) revealed that the repetitive aiming action was harmonic in nature when task ID was 3.07, and consisted of a series of discrete segments when task ID was 5.91. This finding provides evidence for the existence of discrete and cyclical units of action that are irreducible and that may be employed independently to assemble longer continuous actions. The scaling of ID within a trial promoted a transition in repetitive aiming motions assembled from discrete and cyclical units of action. A variety of kinematic measures (e.g., movement harmonicity, time spent accelerating the limb) revealed a critical ID (IDc) region (4.01–4.91) separating aiming motions governed by the different units of action. Enhancement of fluctuations before the transition were found in the movement harmonicity data and in the distance traveled to peak velocity data, with variability in these measures highest in the IDc region. The enhancement of fluctuations indicates that loss of stability in the limb’s motion acted as a key mechanism underlying the transition between units of action. The loss of stability was associated with the transition from cyclical to discrete actions and with the transition from discrete to cyclical actions. The transition between units of action may be conceptualized as a transition from a limit cycle attractor (cyclical unit of action) to a shift between two fixed-point attractors (discrete unit of action) when ID was increased, with the transition occurring in the opposite direction when ID was decreased.

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Notes

  1. Movement amplitude (A) is measured in a Fitts task from target center to target center. To keep A fixed based on this measurement approach would have required the inside and outside edges of the targets to change together. This may have produced a large visual perturbation that may have been interpreted as a change in target position. For this reason, the inside edges of the targets were fixed at a constant amplitude to reduce the perceptual impact of scaling W within a trial. As a result, the change in W by the same 0.87° by moving the back edge of the target produced < a 1 bit change for each change in target size, but produced approximately a 3 bit change across the experiment. Even though A varied in the task, since shifting the target’s outer edge changed W, the change in A was limited to a 3% change for each change in W.

  2. In the current task, the change in ID was manipulated to control for visual perturbations of the target’s position that have been shown to influence aiming behavior (Elliott et al. 1999; Heath et al. 1998). In order to provide more support for the conclusion that the scaling of task ID resulted in transitions between units of action, it is necessary to utilize other scaling techniques that produce equal changes in ID around the IDc. For example, moving both edges of the target such that ID increases in equal bit steps such as 2, 2.5, 3, 3.5 etc. An equal step size increase in ID may produce more abrupt shifts in measures like movement harmonicity as predicted by static ID conditions (Guiard 1997; Mottet et al. 2001).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Human Performance Laboratories, Department of Health and Kinesiology, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, 77843-4243, USA

    John J. Buchanan & Charles H. Shea

  2. Department of Physical Education, Korea University, Seoul, Korea

    Jin-Hoon Park

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  1. John J. Buchanan
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Correspondence to John J. Buchanan.

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Buchanan, J.J., Park, JH. & Shea, C.H. Target width scaling in a repetitive aiming task: switching between cyclical and discrete units of action. Exp Brain Res 175, 710–725 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-006-0589-1

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