Measuring Memory and Attention to Preview in Motion

ObjectiveUse perceptual-motor responses to perturbations to reveal the spatio-temporal detail of memory for the recent past and attention to preview when participants track a winding roadway.BackgroundMemory of the recently passed roadway can be inferred from feedback control models of the participants’ manual movement patterns. Similarly, attention to preview of the upcoming roadway can be inferred from feedforward control models of manual movement patterns.MethodPerturbation techniques were used to measure these memory and attention functions.ResultsIn a laboratory tracking task, the bandwidth of lateral roadway deviations was found to primarily influence memory for the past roadway rather than attention to preview. A secondary auditory/verbal/vocal memory task resulted in higher velocity error and acceleration error in the tracking task but did not affect attention to preview. Attention to preview was affected by the frequency pattern of sinusoidal perturbations of the roadway.ConclusionPerturbation techniques permit measurement of the spatio-temporal span of memory and attention to preview that affect tracking a winding roadway. They also provide new ways to explore goal-directed forgetting and spatially distributed attention in the context of movement. More generally, these techniques provide sensitive measures of individual differences in cognitive aspects of action.ApplicationModels of driving behavior and assessment of driving skill may benefit from more detailed spatio-temporal measurement of attention to preview.

• Record URL:
  https://doi.org/10.1177/0018720817695193
• Record URL:
  http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0018720817695193
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/00187208
• Supplemental Notes:
  • Reprinted by permission of Sage Publications, Ltd.
• Authors:
  • Jagacinski, Richard J
  • Hammond, Gordon M
  • Rizzi, Emanuele
• Publication Date: 2017-8

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Web
• Features: References;
• Pagination: pp 796-810
• Serial:
  • Human Factors
  • Volume: 59
  • Issue Number: 5
  • Publisher: Sage Publications, Incorporated
  • ISSN: 0018-7208
  • EISSN: 1547-8181
  • Serial URL: http://hfs.sagepub.com/

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Attention; Behavior; Drivers; Memory; Perception; Perturbations; Tracking systems
• Uncontrolled Terms: Spatiotemporal analysis
• Subject Areas: Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01642194
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Jul 27 2017 10:05AM