Eye movement accuracy determines natural interception strategies.
Eye movements aid visual perception and guide actions such as reaching or grasping. Most previous work on eye-hand coordination has focused on saccadic eye movements. Here we show that smooth pursuit eye movement accuracy strongly predicts both interception accuracy and the strategy used to intercept a moving object. We developed a naturalistic task in which participants (n = 42 varsity baseball players) intercepted a moving dot (a "2D fly ball") with their index finger in a designated "hit zone." Participants were instructed to track the ball with their eyes, but were only shown its initial launch (100-300 ms). Better smooth pursuit resulted in more accurate interceptions and determined the strategy used for interception, i.e., whether interception was early or late in the hit zone. Even though early and late interceptors showed equally accurate interceptions, they may have relied on distinct tactics: early interceptors used cognitive heuristics, whereas late interceptors' performance was best predicted by pursuit accuracy. Late interception may be beneficial in real-world tasks as it provides more time for decision and adjustment. Supporting this view, baseball players who were more senior were more likely to be late interceptors. Our findings suggest that interception strategies are optimally adapted to the proficiency of the pursuit system.
Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, CanadaGraduate Program in Neuroscience, University of British Columbia, Vancouver Canadafooken@cs.ubc.ca.
Jolande
J
Fooken
Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation Sciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UKs.yeo@bham.ac.uk.
Sang-Hoon
SH
Yeo
Computer Science, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, CanadaInstitute for Computing, Information and Cognitive Systems, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, CanadaCentre for Brain Health, University of British Columbia, Vancouver Canadapai@cs.ubc.ca.
Dinesh K
DK
Pai
Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, CanadaInstitute for Computing, Information and Cognitive Systems, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, CanadaCentre for Brain Health, University of British Columbia, Vancouver CanadaInternational Collaboration on Repair Recoveries, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canadamspering@mail.ubc.ca.
Miriam
M
Spering
D001484:Baseball / Q000502:physiology*; D005133:Eye Movements / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009039:Motion Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D011698:Pursuit, Smooth / Q000502:physiology*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D055815:Young Adult