Synchronizing Self and Object Movement: How Child and Adult Cyclists Intercept Moving Gaps in a Virtual Environment

Two experiments examined how 10- and 12-year-old children and adults intercept moving gaps while bicycling in an immersive virtual environment. Participants rode an actual bicycle along a virtual roadway. At 12 test intersections, participants attempted to pass through a gap between 2 moving, car-si...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance Vol. 36; no. 6; pp. 1535 - 1552
Main Authors Chihak, Benjamin J, Plumert, Jodie M, Ziemer, Christine J, Babu, Sabarish, Grechkin, Timofey, Cremer, James F, Kearney, Joseph K
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States American Psychological Association 01.12.2010
Subjects
Adults
Aging - psychology
Bicycling - psychology
Child
Children
Distance Perception
Female
Humans
Judgment
Kinesthesis
Male
Motion Perception
Object Manipulation
Orientation
Perceptual Motor Coordination
Physical Activities
Simulated Environment
Space Perception
Time Perception
User-Computer Interface
Young Adult
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Summary:Two experiments examined how 10- and 12-year-old children and adults intercept moving gaps while bicycling in an immersive virtual environment. Participants rode an actual bicycle along a virtual roadway. At 12 test intersections, participants attempted to pass through a gap between 2 moving, car-sized blocks without stopping. The blocks were timed such that it was sometimes necessary for participants to adjust their speed in order to pass through the gap. We manipulated available visual information by presenting the target blocks in isolation in Experiment 1 and in streams of blocks in Experiment 2. In both experiments, adults had more time to spare than did children. Both groups had more time to spare when they were required to slow down than when they were required to speed up. Participants' behavior revealed a multistage interception strategy that cannot be explained by the use of a monotonic control law such as the constant bearing angle strategy. The General Discussion section focuses on possible sources of changes in perception-action coupling over development and on task-specific constraints that could underlie the observed interception strategy. (Contains 9 figures.)
ISSN:0096-1523
1939-1277
DOI:10.1037/a0020560