Perceptual and motor processes in interceptive timing

doi:10.1016/0167-9457(94)90045-0

Human Movement Science

Volume 13, Issues 3–4, August 1994, Pages 335-373

https://doi.org/10.1016/0167-9457(94)90045-0 Get rights and content

Abstract

Precise timing of interceptive actions appears to be based on perceptually derived time-to-contact (T_c) information. Two questions are considered. First, “What are the perceptual processes involved in extracting T_c information from sensory stimulation?” A preliminary answer is provided in the form of an account of the functional organisation of the perceptual process based on work on information integration. This account is used to interpret in a unified manner a number of recent empirical and theoretical results. Second, “How is T_c information used to control interceptive timing?” Problems of how to use perceptual information are identified. Solutions to some of these are examined through development of a model of continuous control of movement in a ball-punching task studied by Lee and colleagues. The model is based on the equilibrium point hypothesis for motor control (Feldman, 1986) and illustrates how perceptual information can determine muscle forces and movement kinematics.

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Cited by (46)

Effects of acoustic startle stimuli on interceptive action
2006, Neuroscience
Citation Excerpt :
Panels A1 and B1 show a sub-threshold buildup of response-related activation during the viewing period in anticipation of the GO command. This anticipation is possible because information about the target’s TTC is continuously available throughout the viewing period (Regan, 1992; Tresilian, 1994). The dotted horizontal line represents the threshold for triggering motor command generation.
In reaction time (RT) tasks, presentation of a startling acoustic stimulus (SAS) together with a visual imperative stimulus can dramatically reduce RT while leaving response execution unchanged. It has been suggested that a prepared motor response program is triggered early by the SAS but is not otherwise affected. Movements aimed at intercepting moving targets are usually considered to be similarly governed by a prepared program. This program is triggered when visual stimulus information about the time to arrival of the moving target reaches a specific criterion. We investigated whether a SAS could also trigger such a movement. Human experimental participants were trained to hit moving targets with movements of a specific duration. This permitted an estimate of when movement would begin (expected onset time). Startling and sub-startle threshold acoustic probe stimuli were delivered unexpectedly among control trials: 65, 85, 115 and 135 ms prior to expected onset (10:1 ratio of control to probe trials). Results showed that startling probe stimuli at 85 and 115 ms produced early response onsets but not those at 65 or 135 ms. Sub-threshold stimuli at 115 and 135 ms also produced early onsets. Startle probes led to an increased vigor in the response, but sub-threshold probes had no detectable effects. These data can be explained by a simple model in which preparatory, response-related activation builds up in the circuits responsible for generating motor commands in anticipation of the GO command. If early triggering by the acoustic probes is the mechanism underlying the findings, then the data support the hypothesis that rapid interceptions are governed by a motor program.
Selective activation and deactivation of the human brain structures between speeded and precisely timed tapping responses to identical visual stimulus: An fMRI study
2004, NeuroImage
We investigated the difference between brain activities in speeded and precisely timed responses to identical visual stimulus using fMRI. Stimulus used was a row of seven light-emitting diodes (LEDs) lightened up one after another with constant speed within a trial but with various speeds between trials. Subjects were asked to execute finger-thumb tapping with the right hand in response to the onset of the first LED light in the reaction time (RT) task and in anticipation of the onset of the last (i.e., seventh) LED light in the timing task. In control condition, they were asked to passively view the stimulus without motor response. Results showed that various movement-related areas including contralateral cingulate motor cortex were commonly activated for both tasks relative to the control condition, suggesting these structures are involved in general perception and response execution rather than specific function for speeded or precisely timed responses. In the RT task, the presupplementary motor area extending to the cingulate sulcus was activated more strongly than in the timing task probably to focus attention to the onset of the first LED light unpredictably presented after random foreperiods. The lateral occipital area extending to the temporo-parieto-occipital junction was activated more strongly in the timing task than in the RT task; the same area was deactivated in the RT task relative to the control condition. Auditory-related areas were also deactivated in the both tasks. This inter- and intramodal task-specific modification including deactivation underscores significance of the context for perception and action and can have an important role in dexterous or skilled performance.
Chapter 8 The information-based control of interceptive timing: A developmental perspective
2004, Advances in Psychology
The present chapter deals with the development of the informational basis of infant's timing of interceptive actions such as eye blinking to avoid an approaching object or catching to intercept one. We show that during the first year of life infants discover the affordances for avoidance and interception and further improve the perception of these affordances. Concurrently, the movements performed to actualize these affordances appear to get better attuned to the situation. That is, experimental findings suggest that the first rudimentary movements appear to be based on non-specifying optical variables (e.g., optical angle) which result in sub-optimal performance. However, with age the infants appear to convergence on to specifying variables (e.g. τ), and hence become more successful in performing the task. It is concluded therefore that changes in the development of the information-based regulation of interceptive actions can be understood as an education of attention, that is, a convergence to the more useful information.
Chapter 19 The fallacious assumption of time-to-contact perception in the regulation of catching and hitting
2004, Advances in Psychology
Interceptive actions, such as catching and hitting, were thought to be timed on the basis of a critical value of perceived time-to-contact (TTC), provided by the optical variable τ(). This optical variable is a monocular invariant that specifies, given a constant approach velocity, the time-to-contact of the ball with the observer's eye. The present Chapter shows that the original formulations of this TTC model were fatally flawed in many ways and that they are subjected to revision. The second part of this Chapter presents alternative models for the information-based regulation of interceptive actions. We no longer present the perception of TTC as an intermediate phase in interceptive timing. Instead, we propose that information directly regulates action. Furthermore, we suggest that not a sole variable, but multiple variables might constrain natural interceptive actions. The question what information contributes to interceptive timing cannot be posed in isolation from the question how information is used to regulate timing. The original TTC model assumed a critical timing strategy, but there is also online regulation. The final section of the present chapter discusses different online control models and their informational inputs.
Chapter 11 Multiple sources of information influence time-to-contact judgments: Do heuristics accommodate limits in sensory and cognitive processes?
2004, Advances in Psychology
There is an increasing number of studies which indicates that judgments about time-to-contact (TTC) are influenced by multiple sources of information and are constrained by threshold factors and cognitive operations. In this chapter, I provide an overview of these studies and attempt to provide a framework for studying TTC judgments based on five hypotheses: (a) TTC judgments are based on multiple sources of information, including heuristics (e.g., pictorial depth cues) and invariants (e.g., tau); (b) The sources of information that influence TTC judgments are determined, in part, by limits in sensory processes and (c) by limits in cognitive processes; (d) The sources of information that influence TTC judgments vary throughout a task or event;(e) Apparent spatial extent and mental structure can influence TTC judgments. Support for these hypotheses is presented. It is concluded that the effectiveness of tau is constrained by limits in sensory and cognitive processes and that it is adaptive for the visual system to rely on other sources of information including heuristics, which serve to accommodate such limits and to provide flexibility in performance. Such limits also play an, important role in determining which sources of information are effective throughout a task or event. Future research should consider the role of limitations in sensory and cognitive processes in models of TTC perception determine the effective sources of information for TTC judgments throughout a task or event, and measure the relative strengths and combinatorial rules of these sources.
There is an increasing number of studies which indicates that judgments about TTC and related tasks are influenced by multiple sources of information and are constrained by threshold factors and cognitive operations. In this chapter, I provide an overview of these studies, focusing on research that my collaborators and I have conducted since 1989. In doing so, I hope to provide a framework for studying judgments of time to contact. This framework is based on five hypotheses around which this chapter is organized.
These hypotheses are introduced below, but first a note on terminology is in order. In this chapter, I discuss judgments about collision and non-collision events. These include judgments of time to contact (or time to collision, time to arrival, arrival time, time to passage) and judgments about, whether a collision would occur (or potential collision, collision detection) rather than when a collision would occur. Here “TTC” refers generally to the time to completion of any such event rather than specifically to time to contact. The phrase “TTC judgments” includes these related tasks. Also, the generic term optical TTC information refers to visual information that veridically specifies any TTC event, such as local τ or global τ. Unless noted, the studies described in this chapter involved computer simulations of such events.
In the five main sections of this chapter, I present an overview of research that supports each of the following hypotheses. In the final section, I conclude that heuristics play an important role in TTC judgments and consider reasons that they would do so. I begin with a list of the hypotheses and a brief introduction to how each is supported. This serves as a preview of what will be detailed in the main sections of the chapter.
- Hypothesi 1.
  TTC judgments are based on multiple sources of information, including heuristics and invariants. Heuristics are implicated by findings that TTC judgments are influenced by pictorial depth information, including relative size (the size-arrival effect), height in field, and occlusion. This makes it necessary to determine how effects combine when multiple sources of information are available. Other relevant data include measures of TTC judgments when optical TTC information or one of its components is nullified (by manipulating optic flow via self motion, or occluders).
- Hypothesis 2.
  The sources of information that influence TTC judgments are determined, in part, by limits in sensory processes. Limits in sensory processes are implicated by findings that (a) TTC judgments are influenced by lower-order motion which does not specify TTC unequivocally, such as optical magnification, expansion rate, and image velocity; (b) TTC judgments are not affected by irregularities in optical TTC information due to computer aliasing. This suggests that TTC information is not extracted on a frame-by-frame basis, possibly due to limits in the temporal resolution of the visual system; (c) TTC judgments are affected by retinal eccentricity, and attention instructions, which suggests that useful information for such judgments may not be accessible to the observer within a single glance or attentional act.
- Hypothesis 3.
  The sources of information that influence TTC judgments are determined, in part, by limits in cognitive processes. Limits, in cognitive processes are implicated by findings that TTC judgments are affected by the number of objects in the display (set size) in a manner consistent with limited-capacity processing and limits in memory. Other studies of TTC judgments implicate cognitive motion extrapolation and visual imagery.
- Hypothesis 4.
  The sources of information that influence TTC judgments vary throughout a task or event. Studies indicate that it is difficult to identify a critical value of a single source of information that accounts for TTC judgments. For example analyses of a collision-avoidance task and relative TTC judgments indicated that optical size, change in optical size, rate of expansion, or TTC, did not consistently account for performance. However, such analyses assume that the information sources that govern performance remain constant throughout a task. This seems unlikely because the quality of some sources of depth information varies with distance. Alternatively, information sources that influence TTC judgments vary as the distances between the observer and objects in the environment change. This is adaptive and provides flexibility in performance.
- Hypothesis 5.
  Apparent spatial extent and mental structure can influence TTC judgments. Apparent spatial extent is implicated by findings that TTC judgments are affected by visual illusions such as the Sander parallelogram illusion. Mental structure is implicated by effects of perceptual set or intention on TTC judgments, particularly a coupling between apparent TTC and apparent depth.
Chapter 7 Interceptive action: What's time-to-contact got to do with it?
2004, Advances in Psychology
The time remaining before an object arrives somewhere — its time-to-contact (TTC) with that place — is a quantity could be used to control the timing of interceptive and evasive actions directed at that object. This potential use for TTC information is the primary motivation for studying how people and animals perceive it. However, studies of interceptive actions and the role TTC information might play in controlling them have been very limited until recently — studies of the perceptual process of TTC estimation have been more popular. Unfortunately, TTC perception depends upon the task being performed and it seems impossible to understand TTC perception without understanding interceptive tasks. This chapter argues this case and discusses recent experiments that have attempted to determine how performance of interceptive actions-particularly their timing-depends upon task variables including the speed of the target, the distance to be moved to intercept it, the viewing time, the size of the target and of the intercepting manipulandum. Results demonstrate that the duration and velocity of interceptive movements are systematically and consistently affected by all these variables. The relationship between movement duration and the task variables derived from experimental results is interpreted as an empirical reflection of the ‘rule’ used by the central nervous system to preprogram movement duration. The role of TTC in the programming and initiation of interceptive movements is explicated.

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Perceptual and motor processes in interceptive timing

Abstract

Journal of Biomechanics

Neuroscience

Vision Research

Human Movement Science

Wave nature of the central process of formation of the trajectories of change in the joint angle in man

Biophysics

Model of central regulation of the parameters of motor trajectories

Biophysics

An operational analysis of a one-handed catching task using high speed photography

Journal of Motor Behavior

Functional measurement and psychophysical judgment

Psychological Review

Foundations of information integration theory

Display analysis with the optimal control model of the human operator

Human Factors

Juggling dynamics

Stellungs-, Spannungs- und Lagewahrnehmung

Handbuch der Psychologie

Arm trajectory formation in monkeys

Experimental Brain Research

Posture control and trajectory formation during arm movement

Journal of Neuroscience

Does the nervous system use equilibrium point control to guide single and multiple joint movements?

Behavioural and Brain Sciences

Accuracy of perceptual processes subserving different perception-action systems

Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology

Timing an attacking forehand drive in table tennis

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance

Visual perception: Psychology, physiology and ecology

Minimodularity and the perception of layout

Journal of Experimental Psychology: General

The conceptual framework of psychology

Visual factors in the contact analogue

Visual information and skill level in time-to-collision estimation

Perception

Theory of the human operator in control systems II. Man as an element in a control system

British Journal of Psychology

Perception with an eye for motion

Pictorial depth cues and motion-based information for depth perception

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance

Age, sex, speed and practice in coincident-anticipation performance of children

Perceptual and Motor Skills

Functional tuning of the nervous system with control of movement or maintenance of steady posture. II. Controllable parameters of muscles

Biophysics

Control of the length of a muscle

Biophysics

Once more on the equilibrium point hypothesis (λ model) for motor control

Journal of Motor Behaviour

The origins of electromyograms -Explanations based on the equilibrium point hypothesis

Control of trajectory modifications in target-directed reaching

Journal of Motor Behaviour

The control of hand equilibrium trajectories in multi-joint arm movements

Biological Cybernetics

Generation of reaching movements: Plausibility and implications of the equilibrium trajectory hypothesis

Brain Behaviour and Evolution

The coordination of arm movements: An experimentally confirmed mathematical model

Journal of Neuroscience

Signal detection theory and Psychophysics

Motion perception is not direct with indirect viewing systems

Estimates of time to contact based on changing size and changing target vergence

Perception

Human visual orientation