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Tradeoff between manual response speed and pursuit accuracy revealed by a deadline procedure

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Abstract

To examine the tradeoff between manual reaction times (RTs) and smooth pursuit accuracy, we manipulated manual RTs to a visual target presented during pursuit by using a deadline procedure that required different response speeds to a target (300, 400, or 500 ms). Participants attempted to pursue a moving row of circles as accurately as possible, while responding to a target within a preset time. Stimulus velocity and target position were manipulated. As the preset time became shorter, participants responded with faster manual RTs and larger pursuit velocity errors, irrespective of the stimulus velocity, indicating a tradeoff between manual RTs and pursuit accuracy. Pursuit velocity errors were also larger after target onset. These results not only suggest that attentional resources as well as spatial shifts of attention play an important role in maintaining accurate pursuit, but also support the notion that a manual RT task is useful for revealing the operation of attention during pursuit.

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Acknowledgments

The research was supported by Grants-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B) 25870916 to Y. S. and for Scientific Research (A) 25240023 to S. M.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Human and Computer Intelligence, Ritsumeikan University, 1-1-1, Noji-higashi, Kusatsu, Shiga, 525-8577, Japan

    Yasuhiro Seya

  2. Intelligent Science Division, Department of Informatics, Faculty of Information Science and Electrical Engineering, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan

    Shuji Mori

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  1. Yasuhiro Seya
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  2. Shuji Mori
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Correspondence to Yasuhiro Seya.

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Seya, Y., Mori, S. Tradeoff between manual response speed and pursuit accuracy revealed by a deadline procedure. Exp Brain Res 233, 1845–1854 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-015-4256-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-015-4256-2

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