Veering in women: inconsistency of forward and backward progression

In a large rectangular room, 13 blindfolded women attempted to walk in a straight line from one end of the room to a target centered at the other end of the room. On 12 trials, the women walked forward, and on 12 trials they walked backward. On half the trials under each of these conditions, they walked toward the north, and on the other half to the south. Performance errors were highly correlated for northward and southward progression, an indication of good reliability for this veering task. Veering during forward progression was not significantly related to veering during backward progression. Individual consistency in veering was demonstrated in several ways, and approximately half the participants veered in the same direction on nearly all trials. These results indicate that veering should be considered as an additional manifestation of lateral preferences in human motor behavior.