Wilkie Richard M, Wann John P
Institute of Psychological Sciences, University of Leeds, Leeds, United Kingdom.
J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform. 2006 Feb;32(1):88-96. doi: 10.1037/0096-1523.32.1.88.
To steer a course through the world, people are almost entirely dependent on visual information, of which a key component is optic flow. In many models of locomotion, heading is described as the fundamental control variable; however, it has also been shown that fixating points along or near one's future path could be the basis of an efficient control solution. Here, the authors aim to establish how well observers can pinpoint instantaneous heading and path, by measuring their accuracy when looking at these features while traveling along straight and curved paths. The results showed that observers could identify both heading and path accurately (approximately 3 degrees ) when traveling along straight paths, but on curved paths they were more accurate at identifying a point on their future path (approximately 5 degrees ) than indicating their instantaneous heading (approximately 13 degrees ). Furthermore, whereas participants could track changes in the tightness of their path, they were unable to accurately track the rate of change of heading. In light of these results, the authors suggest it is unlikely that heading is primarily used by the visual system to support active steering.
为了在世界中导航，人们几乎完全依赖视觉信息，其中光流是关键组成部分。在许多运动模型中，航向被描述为基本控制变量；然而，也有研究表明，注视自己未来路径上或附近的点可能是一种有效控制解决方案的基础。在此，作者旨在通过测量观察者在沿直线和曲线路径行进时观察这些特征时的准确性，来确定他们确定瞬时航向和路径的能力有多强。结果表明，观察者在沿直线路径行进时能够准确识别航向和路径（约3度），但在曲线路径上，他们在识别未来路径上的点（约5度）时比指示瞬时航向（约13度）更准确。此外，虽然参与者能够跟踪路径曲率的变化，但他们无法准确跟踪航向的变化率。鉴于这些结果，作者认为视觉系统不太可能主要利用航向来支持主动转向。
