Models for the Extrapolation of Target Motion for Manual Interception

Intercepting a moving target requires a prediction of the target's future motion. This extrapolation could be achieved using sensed parameters of the target motion, e.g., its position and velocity. However, the accuracy of the prediction would be improved if subjects were also able to incorporate the statistical properties of the target's motion, accumulated as they watched the target move. The present experiments were designed to test for this possibility. Subjects intercepted a target moving on the screen of a computer monitor by sliding their extended finger along the monitor's surface. Along any of the six possible target paths, target speed could be governed by one of three possible rules: constant speed, a power law relation between speed and curvature, or the trajectory resulting from a sum of sinusoids. A go signal was given to initiate interception and was always presented when the target had the same speed, irrespective of the law of motion. The dependence of the initial direction of finger motion on the target's law of motion was examined. This direction did not depend on the speed profile of the target, contrary to the hypothesis. However, finger direction could be well predicted by assuming that target location was extrapolated using target velocity and that the amount of extrapolation depended on the distance from the finger to the target. Subsequent analysis showed that the same model of target motion was also used for on-line, visually mediated corrections of finger movement when the motion was initially misdirected.