Slightly perturbing the arm influences choices between multiple targets

Abstract

We constantly make choices about how to interact with objects in the environment. Do we immediately consider changes in our posture when making such choices? To find out, we examined whether motion in the background, which is known to influence the trajectory of goal-directed hand movements, influences participants’ choices when suddenly faced with two options. The participants’ task was to tap on as many sequentially presented targets as possible within 90 seconds. Sometime after a new target appeared, it split into two targets and participants had to choose which of them to hit. Shortly before the split, the background moved in a way that was expected to result in the finger shifting slightly towards one of the two new targets. We examined whether such shifts influenced the choice between the two targets. The moving background influenced the finger movements in the expected manner: participants moved in the direction of the background motion. It also influenced the choice that participants made between the two targets: participants more frequently chose the target in the direction of the background motion. There was a positive correlation across participants between the magnitude of the response to background motion and the bias to choose the target in the direction of such motion. Thus, people consider sudden changes in their posture when choosing between different movement options.