Consistent reproduction of movement sequences during acquisition of a pursuit tracking task

A pursuit tracking task is used as a vehicle to investigate the manner in which response consistency is affected by practice. Detailed examination of movement patterns shows that subjects can reproduce the mid-phase of a movement relatively consistently while the accelerative and decelerative phases of the movement remain highly variable. The findings are discussed with reference to Sparrow's 1983 concept of efficiency in conjunction with Norman and Shallice's 1980 model of automated action.