The influence of uncertainty and urgency on visuomotor decision making

Visuomotor decision making was investigated using a virtual shooting paradigm where subjects controlled a ‘gun’ with a computer mouse. Subjects had a limited amount of time to choose and fire at a target among two options that varied in size and motion complexity. Results show that internal estimates of motor performance, conditioned on visual information and urgency, are used in deciding between options in a timed visuomotor task. Subjects tended to split their time between deciding and aiming in a way that brought their performance close to models that maximized expected probability of a hit and minimized shooting error. In addition, urgency led to the use of a heuristic, namely shooting at the larger target, which simplified the decision process without having too detrimental an effect on the overall task goal; hitting a target on every trial. The present study provides a platform to find out how capacities are put to use in demanding active visuomotor task environments.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Ross, Nicholas M., 1986- (author)
• Kowler, Eileen (chair)
• Michel, Melchi (internal member)
• Singh, Manish (internal member)
• Verghese, Preeti (outside member)
• Rutgers University
• Graduate School - New Brunswick

• Psychology
• Visual perception--Physiological aspects
• Decision making
• Eye-hand coordination

Statement dc:rights

• The author owns the copyright to this work.

Language dc:language

eng

Identifier

rutgers-lib:45445
ETD_5753

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:example.org:rutgers-lib:45445