The function of “looking-at-nothing” for sequential sensorimotor tasks: Eye movements to remembered action-target locations

Foerster RM (2019)
Journal of Eye Movement Research 12(2): 1-28.

Zeitschriftenaufsatz | Veröffentlicht | Englisch
 
Download
OA 2.67 MB
Abstract / Bemerkung
When performing manual actions, eye movements precede hand movements to target locations: Before we grasp an object, we look at it. Eye-hand guidance is even preserved when visual targets are unavailable, e.g., grasping behind an occlusion. This “looking-at- nothing” behavior might be functional, e.g., as “deictic pointer” for manual control or as memory-retrieval cue, or a by-product of automatization. Here, it is studied if looking at empty locations before acting on them is beneficial for sensorimotor performance. In five experiments, participants completed a click sequence on eight visual targets for 0-100 trials while they had either to fixate on the screen center or could move their eyes freely. During 50-100 consecutive trials, participants clicked the same sequence on a blank screen with free or fixed gaze. During both phases, participants looked at target locations when gaze shifts were allowed. With visual targets, target fixations led to faster, more precise clicking, fewer errors, and sparser cursor-paths than central fixation. Without visual in- formation, a tiny free-gaze benefit could sometimes be observed and was rather a memory than a motor-calculation benefit. Interestingly, central fixation during learning forced early explicit encoding causing a strong benefit for acting on remembered targets later, inde- pendent of whether eyes moved then.
Stichworte
eye movements; looking-at-nothing; saccades; gaze; sensorimotor control; memory; sequence learning; attention
Erscheinungsjahr
2019
Zeitschriftentitel
Journal of Eye Movement Research
Band
12
Ausgabe
2
Seite(n)
1-28
eISSN
1995-8692
Finanzierungs-Informationen
Open-Access-Publikationskosten wurden durch die Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft und die Universität Bielefeld gefördert.
Page URI
https://pub.uni-bielefeld.de/record/2936311

Zitieren

Foerster RM. The function of “looking-at-nothing” for sequential sensorimotor tasks: Eye movements to remembered action-target locations. Journal of Eye Movement Research. 2019;12(2):1-28.
Foerster, R. M. (2019). The function of “looking-at-nothing” for sequential sensorimotor tasks: Eye movements to remembered action-target locations. Journal of Eye Movement Research, 12(2), 1-28. doi:10.16910/jemr.12.2.2
Foerster, Rebecca M. 2019. “The function of “looking-at-nothing” for sequential sensorimotor tasks: Eye movements to remembered action-target locations”. Journal of Eye Movement Research 12 (2): 1-28.
Foerster, R. M. (2019). The function of “looking-at-nothing” for sequential sensorimotor tasks: Eye movements to remembered action-target locations. Journal of Eye Movement Research 12, 1-28.
Foerster, R.M., 2019. The function of “looking-at-nothing” for sequential sensorimotor tasks: Eye movements to remembered action-target locations. Journal of Eye Movement Research, 12(2), p 1-28.
R.M. Foerster, “The function of “looking-at-nothing” for sequential sensorimotor tasks: Eye movements to remembered action-target locations”, Journal of Eye Movement Research, vol. 12, 2019, pp. 1-28.
Foerster, R.M.: The function of “looking-at-nothing” for sequential sensorimotor tasks: Eye movements to remembered action-target locations. Journal of Eye Movement Research. 12, 1-28 (2019).
Foerster, Rebecca M. “The function of “looking-at-nothing” for sequential sensorimotor tasks: Eye movements to remembered action-target locations”. Journal of Eye Movement Research 12.2 (2019): 1-28.
Alle Dateien verfügbar unter der/den folgenden Lizenz(en):
Creative Commons Namensnennung 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0):
Volltext(e)
Name
Access Level
OA Open Access
Zuletzt Hochgeladen
2019-07-05T14:12:18Z
MD5 Prüfsumme
fbf5901fa72f4ad50808ea6e035be791


Link(s) zu Volltext(en)
Access Level
OA Open Access

Export

Markieren/ Markierung löschen
Markierte Publikationen

Open Data PUB

Suchen in

Google Scholar