Abstract
This study examined the links between attention, hand movements and eye movements when performed in different spatial areas. Participants performed a visual search task on a computer screen while preparing to press two keyboard keys sequentially with their index. Results showed that the planning of the manual sequence influenced the latency of the first saccade and the placement of the first fixation. In particular, even if the first fixation placement was influenced by the combination of both components of the prepared manual sequence in some trials, it was affected principally by the first component of the prepared manual sequence. Moreover, the probability that the first fixation placement did reflect a combination of both components of the manual sequence was correlated with the speed of the second component. This finding suggests that the preparation of the second component of the sequence influence simultaneous oculomotor behavior when motor control of the manual sequence relied on proactive motor planning. These results are discussed taking into account the current debate on the eye/hand coordination research.
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Notes
According to Jewell and Mccourt (2000), laterality of response hand may influence visuospatial performance during the preparation/execution of a manual response. We therefore counterbalanced response hand across participants.
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Acknowledgments
We thank all the people who accepted to participate to this experiment. We also thank Alexandra Harvey-Langton, Sara Spotorno, Mr. and Mme Cooper and Karen Platt for their precious advices. Finally we would like to thank the reviewers for the quality of their recommendations.
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Coutté, A., Olivier, G., Faure, S. et al. Preparation of forefinger’s sequence on keyboard orients ocular fixations on computer screen. Cogn Process 15, 415–422 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10339-014-0612-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10339-014-0612-6