Abstract
Skillful behavior requires the anticipation of future action requirements. This is particularly true during high-speed locomotor steering where solely detecting and correcting current error is insufficient to produce smooth and accurate trajectories. Anticipating future steering requirements could be supported using “model-free” prospective signals from the scene ahead or might rely instead on model-based predictive control solutions. The present study generated conditions whereby the future steering trajectory was specified using a breadcrumb trail of waypoints, placed at regular intervals on the ground to create a predictable course (a repeated series of identical “S-bends”). The steering trajectories and gaze behavior relative to each waypoint were recorded for each participant (N = 16). To investigate the extent to which drivers predicted the location of future waypoints, “gaps” were included (20% of waypoints) whereby the next waypoint in the sequence did not appear. Gap location was varied relative to the S-bend inflection point to manipulate the chances that the next waypoint indicated a change in direction of the bend. Gaze patterns did indeed change according to gap location, suggesting that participants were sensitive to the underlying structure of the course and were predicting the future waypoint locations. The results demonstrate that gaze and steering both rely upon anticipation of the future path consistent with some form of internal model.
Highlights
Anticipatory behaviors in humans can be observed in almost all skilled-action contexts, be it the timing of a ball catch or driving down a winding road at speed
The information sampled via active gaze behaviors could be supplied by a number of features from across the visual field: Optic flow, retinal flow, and tangent points (Tau Lee, 1976; Raviv & Herman, 1991; Land & Lee, 1994) have all been analyzed as potential sources
We have observed that gazing behavior shifts toward WPalt in the MISS condition as CURV-SEG increases. To see if this at least seemingly predictive gaze behavior has any effect on steering, we investigated the correlation between gaze position near the inflection point at each run and what their future trajectory was
Summary
Over the past 25 years, studies examining the control of steering have demonstrated that there is tight linkage between the information available from the environment, where drivers look (Land & Lee, 1994), and what kinds of eye movement strategies are used to retrieve that information (Lappi et al, 2020; for review, see Lappi, 2014; Lappi & Mole, 2018). The information sampled via active gaze behaviors could be supplied by a number of features from across the visual field: Optic flow (from the apparent motion of textured surfaces; Gibson, 1986), retinal flow (optic flow altered by eye-movements; Cutting et al, 1992; Wilkie & Wann, 2003a; Matthis et al, 2021), and tangent points (Tau Lee, 1976; Raviv & Herman, 1991; Land & Lee, 1994) have all been analyzed as potential sources (for review, see Cutting, 1986; Regan & Gray, 2000; Wann & Land, 2000). It has been shown that in many everyday locomotor contexts, such as driving (Lappi et al, 2013, 2020), bicycling Vansteenkiste et al, 2014), and walking (Grasso et al, 1998; Matthis et al, 2018), gaze appears to land
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