Fifty years later: A neurodynamic explanation of Fitts' law.
An intrinsic property of human motor behaviour is a trade-off between speed and accuracy. This is classically described by Fitts' law, a model derived by assuming the human body has a limited capacity to transmit information in organizing motor behaviour. Here, we propose an alternative foundation, based on the neurodynamics of the motor circuit, wherein Fitts' law is an approximation to a more general relationship. In this formulation, widely observed inconsistencies with experimental data are a consequence of psychomotor delay. The methodology developed additionally provides a method to estimate the delay within the motor circuit from the speed-accuracy trade-off alone.
Beamish
Dan
D
Academy of Mathematics and Systems Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100080, People's Republic of China. dan.beamish@gmail.com
Bhatti
Shabana Ali
SA
MacKenzie
I Scott
IS
Wu
Jianhong
J
D006801:Humans; D008959:Models, Neurological; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000502:physiology*; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology*; D013997:Time Factors