title: Evidence for internal representation of a static nonlinearity in a visual tracking task.
abstract: A group of 24 participants was given over 3 h practice at a visual pursuit tracking task with a pronounced static nonlinearity between movement of the joystick and the resulting deflection of the response cursor. The aim was twofold: (1) to determine whether or not participants compensated for the nonlinearity and (2) to show that any such compensation involved the formation of an internal representation of the nonlinear relationship between movement of the joystick as sensed kinaesthetically and/or visually and movement of the response cursor as sensed visually. Results show that participants introduce partial compensation for the static nonlinearity. Furthermore, partial compensation was present even during open-loop tracking when participants were deprived of visual feedback of the position of the response cursor. This implies that participants are able to form an internal representation of the nonlinear relationship between movement of the joystick and the resulting movement of the response cursor.
authors.affiliation: Neuroengineering Laboratory, School of Electrical Engineering and Telecommunications, University of New South Wales, Sydney 2052, Australia.
authors.forename: Asim
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ghous
authors.forename: Peter D
authors.initials: PD
authors.lastname: Neilson
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D006801:Humans; D007699:Kinesthesis; D008297:Male; D008838:Microcomputers; D009039:Motion Perception; D017711:Nonlinear Dynamics; D009949:Orientation; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D011214:Practice, Psychological; D011340:Problem Solving; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D011601:Psychophysics