Progressive locomotor recalibration during blind walking

Blind walking has become a common measure of perceived target location. This article addresses the possibility that blind walking might vary systematically within an experimental session as participants accrue exposure to nonvisual locomotion. Such variations could complicate the interpretation of blind walking as a measure of perceived location. We measured walked distance, velocity, and pace length in indoor and outdoor environments (1.5-16.0 m target distances). Walked distance increased over 37 trials by approximately 9.33% of the target distance; velocity (and to a lesser extent, pace length) also increased, primarily in the first few trials. In addition, participants exhibited more unintentional forward drift in a blindfolded marching-in-place task after exposure to nonvisual walking. The results suggest that participants not only gain confidence as blind-walking exposure increases, but also adapt to nonvisual walking in a way that biases responses toward progressively longer walked distances.