Department of Kinesiology and Health Sciences, University of Waterloo, Canada.
Department of Systems Design Engineering, University of Waterloo, Canada.
Hum Mov Sci. 2024 Dec;98:103279. doi: 10.1016/j.humov.2024.103279. Epub 2024 Sep 6.
The Fitts' task is a simple and effective method for evaluating motor capacity that can be used to reveal detailed aspects of visuomotor control when hand and eye kinematics are recorded simultaneously. With advances in technology, the classical Fitts' reciprocal tapping task was modified for use with digitizer tablets and computer screens that require sliding rather than tapping hand movements, which may rely on different visuomotor control strategies. Given the ubiquity of digital devices and touchscreens that often require execution of sliding movements, it is important to compare the underlying visuomotor control and eye-hand coordination involved in reciprocal sliding and tapping movements, which was the aim of the current study. Twelve young adults performed both tasks while their hand and eye movements were recorded. Results revealed motor capacity was significantly higher (p < 0.0001, d = 2.67) in the tapping task (19.62 ± 5.89 bits/s) compared to the sliding task (7.87 ± 2.02 bits/s). Examining hand kinematics showed the deceleration interval was significantly longer in the sliding compared to the tapping task at the lowest task difficulty (ID 2.28: 0.160 s ± 0.026 vs 0.129 s ± 0.017; p < 0.01), which was exacerbated as task difficulty increased (ID 6.97: 0.355 s ± 0.059 vs 0.226 s ± 0.020, p < 0.0001), indicating greater reliance on visual feedback during the sliding task. Examining temporal eye-hand coordination pattern showed that hand movement initiation tended to precede eye movement in both tasks. Overall, the results of this study provide a comprehensive examination of eye and hand kinematics demonstrating salient differences in visuomotor control between tapping and sliding movements. The findings also reveal a novel insight into the temporal pattern of eye-hand coordination for reciprocal tapping and sliding movements, which is in contrast to previous studies that examined discrete (rather than reciprocal) target-directed pointing movements where the eyes typically precede the hand by approximately 100 ms. In conclusion, the current study revealed substantial differences between the two tasks, one major finding being the sliding movements were performed slower compared to parabolic tapping hand movements, which may have implications for designing interactive digital devices and assessment of eye-hand coordination.
菲茨任务是一种简单有效的运动能力评估方法，可以用于揭示手眼运动学同时记录时的细微运动控制方面。随着技术的进步，经典的菲茨反向敲击任务被修改为使用数字化仪和平板电脑屏幕，这些设备需要滑动而不是敲击手部动作，这可能依赖于不同的运动控制策略。鉴于数字设备和触摸屏幕的普及，这些设备通常需要执行滑动动作，因此比较反向滑动和敲击动作中涉及的基本运动控制和眼手协调非常重要，这是当前研究的目的。12 名年轻人在执行这两个任务时，记录了他们的手部和眼部运动。结果表明，在敲击任务（19.62±5.89bits/s）中，运动能力明显高于滑动任务（7.87±2.02bits/s）（p<0.0001，d=2.67）。检查手部运动学发现，在最低任务难度（ID 2.28：0.160s±0.026 与 0.129s±0.017；p<0.01）时，滑动任务中的减速间隔明显长于敲击任务，随着任务难度的增加而加剧（ID 6.97：0.355s±0.059 与 0.226s±0.020，p<0.0001），这表明在滑动任务中对手部运动更依赖视觉反馈。检查眼手协调的时间模式发现，在两个任务中，手部运动的启动往往先于眼部运动。总的来说，这项研究提供了对手部和眼部运动学的全面检查，展示了敲击和滑动运动之间运动控制的显著差异。研究结果还揭示了关于交互数字设备设计和眼手协调评估的反向敲击和滑动运动的时间模式的新见解，这与之前研究离散（而不是交互）目标指向的指向运动不同，在这些运动中，眼睛通常比手部提前约 100ms。总之，本研究揭示了这两个任务之间的显著差异，其中一个主要发现是，与抛物线敲击手部运动相比，滑动运动的速度较慢，这可能对设计交互式数字设备和评估眼手协调具有重要意义。
