Dwell time in reciprocal aiming tasks

Sequential aiming with one and two limbs: Effects of target size

“…Consistent with past research, pause times at the first target were increased when the accuracy demands were increased (e.g., Adam et al, 2000). The increased pause times likely disrupted the transition and integration between the two movements causing the segments to be controlled and executed as independent units (Adam et al, 2000;Adam & Paas, 1996;Adam et al, 1995;Rand & Stelmach, 2000). Interestingly, the one-target advantage was also not present for the two limb task when the first target was small.…”

“…Movements to a small target are characterised by relatively long pause times between response segments thereby functionally separating the movements to first and second targets (Adam & Paas, 1996;Adam et al, 1995;Adam et al, 2000;Rand & Stelmach, 2000). Hence, with small targets, the principles underlying the movement integration hypothesis and movement constraint hypothesis do not apply since the two segments are controlled as separate units.…”

“…With regards to the size of the first target, we expected that consistent with past research the one-target advantage would emerge for both the single and two limb conditions when the first target was large. When the first target was small, we expected that the one-target advantage would not emerge when the two target movement was performed with a single limb because the accuracy demands result in the two segments being controlled as separate units (Adam & Paas, 1996;Adam et al, 1995;Adam et al, 2000;Rand & Stelmach, 2000). Of particular interest was whether the one-target advantage would emerge when the first target was small under the two limb condition.…”

Pupil responses to continuous aiming movements

“…5. This definition of movement time follows that in Fitts's (1954) study, which includes the dwelling time (Adam and Paas, 1996) which is from when the tooltip touches the target to the start of the next movement.…”

“…We decided to use this typical aiming task which clearly relates to Fitts' law and has been employed in many motor control studies (Adam et al, 2000;Adam and Paas, 1996;Binsted et al, 2001;Elliott et al, 2001;Lavrysen et al, 2007;Smits-Engelsman et al, 2002). The task was designed to be self-paced, without any explicit stimulus to indicate the start of a movement during a trial, because we tried to measure the task workload in as natural a setting as possible.…”