TY - JOUR
T1 - Fitts's Law violation and motor imagery
T2 - are imagined movements truthful or lawful?
AU - Radulescu, Petre V.
AU - Adam, Jos J.
AU - Fischer, Martin H.
AU - Pratt, Jay
PY - 2010/3
Y1 - 2010/3
N2 - Fitts's Law for the timing of targeted movements states that, when target width is held constant, movement time (MT) will increase as the travelled distance increases. Even imagined movements, mentally simulated actions without actual actions, obey Fitts's Law. Recently, a violation of Fitts's Law has been reported; when targets occur in a structured array, MT to the farthest target is shorter than that predicted by Fitts's Law. We conducted two experiments to determine if the violation also occurs for imagined movements. Results showed a close correspondence between real and imaginary MTs across target locations, including the Fitts's violation for the farthest target. We conclude that the violation of Fitts's Law occurs in motor imagery and that the locus of the violation is in the planning stage of action.
AB - Fitts's Law for the timing of targeted movements states that, when target width is held constant, movement time (MT) will increase as the travelled distance increases. Even imagined movements, mentally simulated actions without actual actions, obey Fitts's Law. Recently, a violation of Fitts's Law has been reported; when targets occur in a structured array, MT to the farthest target is shorter than that predicted by Fitts's Law. We conducted two experiments to determine if the violation also occurs for imagined movements. Results showed a close correspondence between real and imaginary MTs across target locations, including the Fitts's violation for the farthest target. We conclude that the violation of Fitts's Law occurs in motor imagery and that the locus of the violation is in the planning stage of action.
U2 - 10.1007/s00221-009-2072-2
DO - 10.1007/s00221-009-2072-2
M3 - Article
C2 - 19904529
SN - 0014-4819
VL - 201
SP - 607
EP - 611
JO - Experimental Brain Research
JF - Experimental Brain Research
IS - 3
ER -