title: Humans rapidly estimate expected gain in movement planning.
abstract: We studied human movement planning in tasks in which subjects selected one of two goals that differed in expected gain. Each goal configuration consisted of a target circle and a partially overlapping penalty circle. Rapid hits into the target region led to a monetary bonus; accidental hits into the penalty region incurred a penalty. The outcomes assigned to target and penalty regions and the spatial arrangement of those regions were varied. Subjects preferred configurations with higher expected gain whether selection involved a rapid pointing movement or a choice by key press. Movements executed to select one of two goal configurations exhibited the same movement dynamics as pointing movements directed at a single configuration, and were executed with the same high efficiency. Our results suggest that humans choose near-optimal strategies when planning their movement, and can base their selection of strategy on a rapid judgment about the expected gain associated with possible movement goals.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Giessen University, Giessen, Germany. julia.trommershaeuser@psychol.uni-giessen.de
authors.forename: Julia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Trommershäuser
authors.forename: Michael S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Landy
authors.forename: Laurence T
authors.initials: LT
authors.lastname: Maloney
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002755:Choice Behavior; D003118:Color Perception; D003657:Decision Making; D004193:Discrimination Learning; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation; D009949:Orientation; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D010470:Perceptual Masking; D011337:Probability Learning; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D011930:Reaction Time; D012718:Set, Psychology