title: Fitts' law in human standing: the effect of scaling.
abstract: Fitts' law states that the movement time (MT) of an aiming movement is a linear function of the index of difficulty (ID), where ID = log2(2A/W, A is the movement amplitude, and W is the target width. This law implies that MT should remain unchanged as long as A/W remains constant (i.e. the absence of a scaling effect). The goal of this study was to investigate whether, during upright posture, reciprocal-pointing movements with the center of pressure location follow Fitts' law. Six subjects performed the task with six IDs factorially combined with four As. The results showed that for each A, MT was a linear function of ID. However, the slopes of the linear-regression lines increased with decreases in A. These findings indicate the presence of a scaling effect which violates Fitts' law.
authors.affiliation: Department of Kinesiology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park 16802, USA. fxd5@psu.edu
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Danion
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Duarte
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Grosjean
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016014:Linear Models; D008297:Male; D009048:Motor Skills / Q000502:physiology*; D009068:Movement / Q000502:physiology*; D004856:Postural Balance / Q000502:physiology*; D011187:Posture / Q000502:physiology*