On the stimulus and response in pursuit tracking.

Abstract

Pursuit tracking in 1 dimension was studied in 1 experiment with intermittent glimpses of the display pointers. Tracking was most accurate when both pointers could be seen all the time. It was less accurate when the input pointer was invisible than when the response pointer was visible, and least accurate when neither pointer could be seen. Sudden discrete corrections of misalignment followed only a minority of the glimpses of the invisible pointer(s). In a 2d experiment, tracking a fast sinusoidal input for 5 sec. with the eyes closed was sometimes as accurate as normal tracking with the eyes open. This latter condition gave rise to a continuous cyclical response, which appeared to be adjusted only relatively infrequently to improve its match with the input.