Work

Very Slow Search and Reach: Failure to Maximize Expected Gain in an Eye-Hand Coordination Task

Year: 2012

Type: article

Abstract: We examined an eye-hand coordination task where optimal visual search and hand movement strategies were inter-related. Observers were asked to find and touch a target among five distractors on a touch screen. Their reward for touching the target was reduced by an amount proportional to how long they took to locate and reach to it. Coordinating the eye and the hand appropriately would markedly reduce the search-reach time. Using statistical decision theory we derived the sequence of interrelated eye and hand movements that would maximize expected gain and we predicted how hand movements should change as the eye gathered further information about target location. We recorded human observers' eye movements and hand movements and compared them with the optimal strategy that would have maximized expected gain. We found that most observers failed to adopt the optimal search-reach strategy. We analyze and describe the strategies they did adopt.

Source: PLoS Computational Biology

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1002718

Authors: Hang Zhang, Camille Morvan, Louis-Alexandre Etezad-Heydari, Laurence T. Maloney

Institutions: New York University, Harvard University

Language: English

Topic: Motor Control and Adaptation

Subfield: Cognitive Neuroscience

Field: Neuroscience

Domain: Life Sciences

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $3,043

Funders: National Institutes of Health, National Eye Institute