Festman Yariv, Adam Jos J, Pratt Jay, Fischer Martin H
Department of Psychology, University of Potsdam, Karl-Liebknecht-Str. 24/25, House 14, 14476 Potsdam-Golm, Germany.
Atten Percept Psychophys. 2013 May;75(4):644-9. doi: 10.3758/s13414-013-0430-4.
Previous research on the interaction between manual action and visual perception has focused on discrete movements or static postures and discovered better performance near the hands (the near-hand effect). However, in everyday behaviors, the hands are usually moving continuously between possible targets. Therefore, the current study explored the effects of continuous hand motion on the allocation of visual attention. Eleven healthy adults performed a visual discrimination task during cyclical concealed hand movements underneath a display. Both the current hand position and its movement direction systematically contributed to participants' visual sensitivity. Discrimination performance increased substantially when the hand was distant from but moving toward the visual probe location (a far-hand effect). Implications of this novel observation are discussed.
