Abstract
In pointing at visual targets without sight of the hand, large errors occur. There is a tendency to overreach targets, and this tendency is much greater (about 25 em) when convergence is the only cue to distance than when there are many cues (2–11 cm). Angular errors of up to 10 deg also occur. These tend to be to the side opposite the sighting eye, when the favored hand is used. The variance of the pointing response with convergence alone is reduced by approximately half with the introduction of several spatial cues. These results are interpreted as indicating that, for a target within the reach of the arm and with convergence alone as a cue, the depth signal produced by the visual system corresponds to a greater distance than that produced when many cues are available. The results are also consistent with the hypothesis that perceived direction tends to approximate direction from the sighting eye.
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This work was begun when the first author was a research fellow of the National Eye Institute (EY-43979) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It was completed at the University of California. Santa Barbara. under USPHS Grant EY-00666 from the National Eye Institute. Support for the research of Richard Held was received under National Institute of Mental Health Grant MH-07642 and National Aeomautics and Space Administration Grant NGR 22-009-308.
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Foley, J.M., Held, R. Visually directed pointing as a function of target distance, direction, and available cues. Perception & Psychophysics 12, 263–268 (1972). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03207201
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03207201