Deceleration Requirements and the Control of Pointing Movements

When a limb is moved from one position to a target object, the limb and the target frequently collide. Often, the goal of the movement is to strike the target with a particular magnitude of impact. For single-aiming movements, impact forces have been shown to increase systematically with both an increased movement amplitude and a decreased movement time, thus providing deceleration to the moving limb. Models of speed-accuracy trade-off, however, have neglected to account for the contribution of these impact forces in the control of accurate movements. The aim of this experiment was to examine the modifications in the control strategy as a function of the amount of impact force a subject is allowed to use in decelerating his or her limb. Results showed that the structure of the acceleration-time functions was dictated by the amount of impact force subjects were allowed to use in decelerating the limb. Movement endpoint variability decreased as more impact force was used. The experiment suggests that the impact with a target is an important contributor to the deceleration of the moving limb and a critical determinant of movement organization.