A comparison of two-dimensional and one-dimensional tracking performance in normal subjects

A study comparing the function of the normal sensory-motor system in 1-dimensional (1D) and 2-dimensional (2D) environments was undertaken. Performances on a PC-based 2D eye-aim random pursuit tracking task and a 1D version of that task were compared. Sixteen normal subjects (8 men and 8 women) participated in the study. The subjects" tracking performance was found to deteriorate when they changed from the 1D to the 2D task. The subjects' performance on a 2D task with the same average velocity and displacement as the 1D task was degraded, primarily because of the increase in the dimensionality of the task. An older age group had a marginally greater degradation in performance on going from a 1D to a 2D task than a younger age group No significant differences in performance or degradations in performance were found between the men and women.