The effects of abrupt onset of 2-D and 3-D distractors on prehension movements

This article includes two experiments aimed at investigating how two-dimensional (2-D) and three-dimensional (3-D) distractors affect the kinematics of prehension and aiming movements in order to understand the attentional processes involved in visuomotor control. In Experiment 1, subjects grasped large targets in the presence of both large and small 3-D distractors and their corresponding 2-D photographs. The distractors appeared for either 10 sec or appeared simultaneously with the target presentation. It was found that reach and grasp kinematics were influenced primarily by the small, suddenly appearing 3-D distractors. In Experiment 2, the purpose was to examine the conclusion that competition between objects (target and distractor) is related to the behavioral goal of the task. Experiment 2 is a replication of Experiment 1, with the exception that pointing movements were made instead of grasping movements. Results show that both 3-D and 2-D distractors interfered with pointing kinematics, supporting the hypothesis that attentional mechanisms are related to the goal of the task.