Meerhoff L Rens A, de Poel Harjo J, Jowett Tim W D, Button Chris
School of Physical Education, Sport and Exercise Science, University of Otago, PO Box 56, Dunedin 9054, New Zealand.
Center for Human Movement Sciences, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, P.O. Box 196, 9700 AD Groningen, The Netherlands.
Hum Mov Sci. 2017 Aug;54:377-387. doi: 10.1016/j.humov.2017.06.005. Epub 2017 Jul 7.
Regulating distance with a moving object or person is a key component of human movement and of skillful interpersonal coordination. The current set of experiments aimed to assess the role of gait mode and body orientation on distance regulation using a cyclical locomotor tracking task in which participants followed a virtual leader. In the first experiment, participants moved in the backward-forward direction while the body orientation of the virtual leader was manipulated (i.e., facing towards, or away from the follower), hence imposing an incongruence in gait mode between leader and follower. Distance regulation was spatially less accurate when followers walked backwards. Additionally, a clear trade-off was found between spatial leader-follower accuracy and temporal synchrony. Any perceptual effects were overshadowed by the effect of one's gait mode. In the second experiment we examined lateral following. The results suggested that lateral following was also constrained strongly by perceptual information presented by the leader. Together, these findings demonstrated how locomotor tracking depends on gait mode, but also on the body orientation of whoever is being followed.
利用移动的物体或人来调节距离是人类运动以及熟练的人际协调的关键组成部分。当前的这组实验旨在通过一个周期性的运动跟踪任务来评估步态模式和身体朝向对距离调节的作用，在该任务中参与者跟踪一个虚拟引导者。在第一个实验中，参与者在前后方向上移动，同时操纵虚拟引导者的身体朝向（即面向或背向跟随者），从而使引导者和跟随者之间的步态模式不一致。当跟随者向后走时，距离调节在空间上的准确性较低。此外，在引导者与跟随者的空间准确性和时间同步性之间发现了明显的权衡。任何感知效应都被一个人的步态模式的影响所掩盖。在第二个实验中，我们研究了横向跟随。结果表明，横向跟随也受到引导者呈现的感知信息的强烈限制。总之，这些发现证明了运动跟踪不仅取决于步态模式，还取决于被跟随者的身体朝向。
