Perception of movement patterns: tracking of movement

The tracking of complex two-dimensional movement patterns was studied. Subjects were blindfolded, and their right hand moved around stencil patterns in the midsagittal plane, while the left hand concurrently reproduced the right-hand movement. The accuracy with which the left hand shadowed the criterion movements of the right hand was measured in shape and size. Right-hand movements were active or passive. Present tracking performance was contrasted with errors in recall reported by Bairstow and Laszlo (1978). Results showed that tracking performance was accurate. Active and passive criterion movements were tracked differently. Tracking was clearly superior to recall performance.