Active control enhances anticipatory motion extrapolation during multiple object tracking M P Leenders, A Koning, R van Lier |
|---|
Donders Institute, Radboud University Nijmegen, Netherlands
|
| We have used a new, interactive variant of the multiple-object tracking (MOT) task combined with a probe-detection task to study the distribution of attention across a display with several moving targets. Recently, it has been found that probes (small, transient dots) presented ahead of to-be-tracked targets are detected better than probes in the wake of such targets, although imminent changes in direction, such as upcoming bounces, are not taken into account [Atsma, Koning, and van Lier, 2012, Journal of Vision, 12(13):1, 1 – 11]. Here, we investigated this further by creating a ‘pong-like’ MOT-task, in which half of the participants actively moved a pong-paddle around in order to hit the targets; the other participants observed recorded trials of participants in the active condition. By comparing probe-detection rates of active participants with that of the passive observers, we found that when participants actively changed the direction of targets by acting upon them, attention was also deployed along a post-bounce path. In the passive condition there was an advantage for linear extrapolation even when the targets bounced against the paddle. We conclude that active control enhances anticipatory motion extrapolation. |
| Up Home |
|---|