Self-Motion Perception during Locomotor Recalibration: More than Meets the Eye

• Published in: Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance Vol. 31; no. 3; pp. 398 - 419
• Main Authors: Durgin, Frank H, Pelah, Adar, Fox, Laura F, Lewis, Jed, Kane, Rachel, Walley, Katherine A
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Psychological Association 01.06.2005
• Subjects: Adaptation, Psychological; Adjustment (to Environment); Analysis of Variance; College Students; Cues; Experiments; Feedback; Human Body; Humans; Kinesthesis; Locomotion; Motion; Motion Perception; Psychological Theory; Psychomotor Performance; Running; Task Analysis; Transfer (Psychology); Visual Perception; Walking
• ISSN: 0096-1523
• DOI: 10.1037/0096-1523.31.3.398

Do locomotor after effects depend specifically on visual feedback? In 7 experiments, 116 college students were tested, with closed eyes, at stationary running or at walking to a previewed target after adaptation, with closed eyes, to treadmill locomotion. Subjects showed faster inadvertent drift during stationary running and increased distance (overshoot) when walking to a target. Overshoot seemed to saturate (i.e., reach a ceiling) at 17% after as little as 1 minute of adaptation. Sidestepping at test reduced overshoot, suggesting motor specificity. But inadvertent drift effects were decreased if the eyes were open and the treadmill was drawn through the environment during adaptation, indicating that these effects involve self-motion perception. Differences in expression of inadvertent drift and of overshoot after adaptation to treadmill locomotion may have been due to different sets of ancillary cues available for the 2 tasks. Self-motion perception is multimodal.