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Related Experiment Videos

Intermittency in human manual tracking tasks.

R C Miall1, D J Weir, J F Stein

  • 1University Laboratory of Physiology, Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PT, UK. rcm@physiol.ac.ox.uk

Journal of Motor Behavior
|March 1, 1993
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

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Human manual tracking is an intermittent servo-controller, confirmed by experiments. Intermittency arises from feedback to memorized waveforms and a positional error deadzone, not just visual feedback or explicit timing mechanisms.

Area of Science:

  • Human motor control
  • Control systems engineering
  • Human-computer interaction

Background:

  • Human manual tracking exhibits intermittent control, similar to sampled negative-feedback systems.
  • The precise mechanisms underlying this intermittency, whether visual feedback or internal processes, require further investigation.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the mechanisms of intermittency in human manual tracking.
  • To differentiate between visual feedback control and other potential causes of intermittent tracking behavior.
  • To test Craik's (1947) hypothesis regarding refractory periods and error deadzones.

Main Methods:

  • Manual tracking tasks were performed with and without visual feedback of joystick position.
  • Subjects tracked remembered (virtual) targets using internal representations.

Related Experiment Videos

  • Analysis focused on response smoothness, signal power, and starting error characteristics.

    • Main Results:

    • Eliminating visual feedback resulted in smoother tracking and reduced low-frequency response power.
    • Intermittency persisted even without visual target feedback, suggesting reliance on internal feedback.
    • Tracking behavior indicated a small positional error deadzone and a refractory period of approximately 170 ms at higher target speeds.

    Conclusions:

    • Tracking intermittency is not solely due to visual feedback but can arise from feedback to memorized waveforms.
    • A control system model incorporating a positional error deadzone can explain intermittent tracking initiation.
    • The observed refractory period can be accounted for by the error deadzone and feedback loop, without explicit sampling mechanisms.