When Is the Ball Going to Hit the Ground? Duration Estimates, Eye Movements, and Mental Imagery of Object Motion

Performance in 2 versions of a computer-animated task was compared. Participants either indicated the time of arrival of a target that rolled off a horizontal surface and fell--hidden from view--onto a landing point (production task) or judged flight time on a rating scale (judgment task). As predic...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance Vol. 30; no. 3; pp. 431 - 443
Main Authors Huber, Susanne, Krist, Horst
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States American Psychological Association 01.06.2004
Subjects
Adult
Comparative Analysis
Computer Simulation
Eye Movements
Eye Movements - physiology
Female
Fixation, Ocular
Humans
Imagery
Imagination
Judgment
Male
Models, Psychological
Motion
Motion Perception
Task Analysis
Time Factors
Visual Perception
Online AccessGet more information

Cover

More Information
Summary:Performance in 2 versions of a computer-animated task was compared. Participants either indicated the time of arrival of a target that rolled off a horizontal surface and fell--hidden from view--onto a landing point (production task) or judged flight time on a rating scale (judgment task). As predicted, performance was significantly better in the production task (Experiment 1), in which imagery of object motion probably replaced reasoning processes. Participants who exhibited eye movements suggesting mental tracking performed particularly well in the production task (Experimenl 2). There was, however, no decrement in performance when participants were asked to fixate the point where the target disappeared. For motion duration estimations, eye movements seem to be only a by-product of mental tracking.
ISSN:0096-1523
DOI:10.1037/0096-1523.30.3.431