Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Experiment Videos

Selective reaching: evidence for multiple frames of reference.

Ron F Keulen1, Jos J Adam, Martin H Fischer

  • 1Department of Movement Sciences, Maastricht University, The Netherlands. ron.keulen@bw.unimaas.nl

Journal of Experimental Psychology. Human Perception and Performance
|June 22, 2002
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Related Concept Videos

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Manual pointing bias reflects spatial organization of number knowledge.

Scientific reports·2026
Same author

Motion-numerical compatibility affects magnitude classification.

Scientific reports·2026
Same author

Rethinking the roles of language and task for spatial-numerical associations: Commentary on Hochman et al. (2025).

Journal of experimental psychology. General·2026
Same author

The left-digit bias in two-dimensional manual pointing.

Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition·2026
Same author

Tracing life-mind continuity in pivotal traits - world models and isomorphism.

The Behavioral and brain sciences·2025
Same author

Lexical priming of space depends on how deeply you think about it.

Scientific reports·2025

The brain uses environment-centered and action-centered reference frames for reaching. Task demands, like target-distractor distance, determine which frame of reference is dominant.

Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Neuroscience
  • Human Motor Control
  • Spatial Cognition

Background:

  • The brain's ability to represent spatial information is crucial for goal-directed movements.
  • Understanding how different frames of reference are utilized is key to deciphering motor control mechanisms.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the role of environment-centered and action-centered reference frames in selective reaching tasks.
  • To determine how task demands influence the dominant frame of reference used by the brain.

Main Methods:

  • Participants performed selective reaching movements towards a target, with or without a distractor.
  • Target-distractor distance was varied to manipulate interference.
  • Reaction time, movement time, and movement endpoint accuracy were measured.

Related Experiment Videos

Main Results:

  • Small target-distractor distances favored an environment-centered frame, encoding targets in external space.
  • Large target-distractor distances favored an action-centered frame, encoding targets relative to the effector's starting position.
  • Distractor interference varied based on the dominant frame of reference.

Conclusions:

  • The brain flexibly employs multiple frames of reference for spatial representation.
  • The selection of a dominant frame of reference is contingent upon task-specific demands and spatial configurations.