Circadian Rhythms in Step-input Pursuit Tracking

Abstract

Subjects performed a stop-input pursuit tracking task at regular intervals over two clays. Performance varied with time of day in a manner and to an extent dependent upon the choice of index so that circadian rhythms for speed scores were in inverse phase with those for accuracy scores. Presence or absence of knowledge of results made no significant difference to the time of day effect but increased short term memory demands disturbed the movement time rhythm supporting the hypothesis that psychomotor and short term memory functions vary in inverse phase with time of day.