Performance In Pointing Tasks Research Articles

Navigability of Residential Care Homes From Residents', Family Members', and Staff's Points of View: The Residential Care Home Navigability Scale.

Navigational skills display clear signs of decline with increasing age, especially in pathological aging. Therefore, navigability-the extent to which destinations can be reached with reasonable effort and time-should be considered in residential care home design. We aimed to develop a scale assessing environmental features (i.e., indoor visual differentiation, signage, and layout) for navigability in residential care homes: the Residential Care Home Navigability (RCHN) scale. To this end, we examined whether navigability and its factors were associated with a sense of direction within the residential care homes to different degrees for older adult residents, caregivers, and staff. The relationship between navigability and residential satisfaction was also considered. A sample of 523 participants (230 residents, 126 family caregivers, and 167 staff members) responded to the RCHN, assessed their sense of orientation and general satisfaction, and performed a pointing task. Results confirmed the RCHN scale's 3-level factor structure, good reliability, and validity. A subjective sense of direction, but not pointing task performance, was associated with navigability and its factors. In particular, visual differentiation is positively associated with a sense of direction regardless of group, whereas signage and layout contributed to a better experience of a sense of direction, especially among older residents. Navigability was not related to residents' satisfaction. Navigability supports perceived orientation in residential care homes, especially for older residents. Moreover, the RCHN is a reliable tool for the assessment of RCHN, with important implications for minimizing spatial disorientation through environmental interventions.

Event-related potentials accompanying performance of computer mouse pointing task in the long-term dry immersion model of microgravity

Ten healthy volunteers participated in the ground imitation of a microgravity condition. For three weeks they stayed in the water filled tub without bodily support in supine position while isolated by waterproof material (this procedure is known as dry immersion - DI). During this period, they performed computer mouse pointing task and corresponding brain activity was evaluated by means of EEG: movement related and cognitive event-related potentials as well as resting state electroencephalogram were registered). Pointing task was performed before DI and at the time after initial period of adaptation – at the 5th and 17th days of DI. No deterioration of pointing task performance was found. Movement related potentials were not changed as well as cognitive peak P3, and only N1 peak significantly decreased at the 17th day of DI. Occipital alpha EEG also became significantly more pronounced at the 17th day of DI. Dry immersion procedure is thought to reproduce space flight physiological effects quite well, due to the DI specific feature – support withdrawal. Thus, results obtained indicate that support withdrawal also affects brain functioning in a specific way: increased alpha EEG is accompanied by altered visual processing (as indexed by diminished N1). Although these alterations are not sufficient to disrupt well learned mouse pointing task.

Comparisons of Whole Body Vibration, Muscle Activity and Non-driving Task Performance between Different Seat Suspensions in an Autonomous Passenger Car Application

This study compared whole body vibration (WBV), muscle activity and non-driving task performance between different seat suspension settings in a simulated autonomous passenger car environment. To simulate autonomous vehicle environment, field-measured vibration profiles were recreated on a large-scale 6-degree-of-freedom motion platform. In a repeated-measures laboratory experiment, we measured whole body vibration, muscle activity (neck, shoulder and low back), participants non-driving task performance while participants performed non-driving tasks (pointing task with a laptop trackpad, keyboard typing, web-browsing, and reading) on three different suspension seats mounted on the motion platform: vertical (z-axis) electromagnetic active suspension, multi-axial (lateral (y-axis) and vertical (z-axis)) electromagnetic active suspension, and no suspension (industry standard suspension-less seat for passenger cars). The average weighted vibration [A(8)] and vibration dose value [VDV(8)] showed that the seat measured vibration on both the vertical [A(8) = 0.29 m/s2 and VDV(8) = 10.70 m/s1.75] and multi-axial suspension seats [A(8) = 0.29 m/s2 and VDV(8) = 10.22m/s1.75] were lower than no-suspension seat vibration [A(8) = 0.36 m/s2 and VDV(8) = 12.84 m/s1.75]. Despite the significant differences in WBV between the different suspensions there were no significant differences across three different suspension seats in typing performance (typing speed and accuracy: p’s > 0.83), pointing task performance (movement time and accuracy: p’s > 0.87), web-browsing (number of questions and webpages read: p = 0.42), and reading (number of words read: p = 0.30). The muscle activity in low back (erector spinae) and shoulder (trapezius) muscles also did not show any significant differences (p’s > 0.22). These laboratory study findings indicated that despite the significant reduction in WBV, neither vertical nor multi-axial active suspension seats improve non-driving task performance as compared to the no-suspension seat.

The Effects of Haptic Feedback and Visual Distraction on Pointing Task Performance

Previous research has not fully examined the effect of additional sensory feedback, particularly delivered through the haptic modality, in pointing task performance with visual distractions. This study examined the effect of haptic feedback and visual distraction on pointing task performance in a 3D virtual environment. Results indicate a strong positive effect of haptic feedback on performance in terms of task time and root mean square error of motion. Level of similarity between distractor objects and the target object significantly reduced performance, and subjective ratings indicated a sense of increased task difficulty as similarity increased. Participants produced the best performance in trials where distractor objects had a different color but the same shape as the target object and constant haptic assistive feedback was provided. Overall, this study provides insight toward the effect of object features and similarity and the effect of haptic feedback on pointing task performance.

HIV-Associated Episodic Memory Impairment: Evidence of a Possible Differential Deficit in Source Memory for Complex Visual Stimuli

HIV-Associated Episodic Memory Impairment: Evidence of a Possible Differential Deficit in Source Memory for Complex Visual Stimuli

Differences in pointing task performance between preschool children and adults using mice

Several experiments by psychologists and human factors researchers have shown that when young children execute pointing tasks, they perform at levels below older children and adults. However, these experiments have not provided user interface designers with an understanding of the severity or the nature of the difficulties young children have when using input devices. To address this need, we conducted a study to gain a better understanding of 4 and 5 year-old children's use of mice. We compared the performance of thirteen 4 year-olds, thirteen 5 year-olds and thirteen young adults in point-and-click tasks. Plots of the paths taken by the participants show severe differences between adults' and preschool children's ability to control the mouse. We were not surprised then to find age had a significant effect on accuracy, target reentry, and efficiency. We also found that target size had a significant effect on accuracy and target reentry. Measuring movement time at four different times (first entering target, last entering target, pressing button, releasing button) yielded the result that Fitts' law models children well only up to the time they first enter the target. Overall, we found that the difference between the performance of children and adults was large enough to warrant user interface interactions designed specifically for preschool children. The results additionally suggest that children need the most help once they get close to targets.

Active versus passive proprioceptive straight-ahead pointing in normal subjects

Eighty blindfolded healthy female subjects participated in an active and a passive straight-ahead pointing task to study the estimation of the subjective sagittal middle in the presence or absence of an active haptic exploration. Subjects were to point straight-ahead with their left or right index finger starting from different right- or left-sided locations, while performing either an active movement or with the hand being passively moved by the examiner. Results showed: (i) a significant effect of the hand used only on the active straight-ahead pointing task performance; (ii) a significant effect of the starting position both on the active and passive pointing performance; (iii) a significant correlation between the two protocols only in terms of spatial bias (algebraic error) but not in terms of precision (absolute errors). These results are discussed with regards to normal and neuropsychological studies of the egocentric frame of reference.

Subject ordered pointing task performance following severe traumatic brain injury in adults

The utility of a non-verbal, untimed subject ordered pointing task for identifying memory deficit in adult patients with TBI was tested. Using a cross-sectional design, the working memory performance of 70 adults with severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) and 45 uninjured adults was investigated on a computerized, self-paced, non-verbal subject ordered pointing task. Persons with severe TBI were impaired on measures of working memory relative to the control subjects. In addition, the task appeared to be sensitive to severity of injury as measured by the Glasgow Coma Scale, even withina truncated range of severity (GCS scores 3–8). It was concluded that the subject ordered pointing task is useful in identifying memory deficits in persons with brain injury.

Adult Age Differences in Self-Ordered Pointing Task Performance: Contributions From Working Memory, Executive Function and Speed of Information Processing

This study investigated adult age differences in, and predictors of, the performance of a test of executive function, the Self-Ordered Pointing Task (SOPT; Petrides Milner, 1982). Performance on the SOPT is thought to rely on high level working memory processes, therefore, measures reflecting the common operationalization of working memory, along with measures of executive function and speed of information processing, were investigated as predictors of SOPT performance. Younger (aged 1748 years) and older (aged 6588 years) adults completed a 16-item, 3-trial, modified version of Shimamura and Juricas (1994) version of the SOPT, and tests assessing working memory, executive function and speed. Results showed that younger adults made fewer errors on the SOPT. There was no age difference in the frequency of use of a clustering strategy. Contrary to expectations, working memory was not a good predictor of individual or age differences in SOPT performance. Instead, speed of processing, and to a lesser extent, measures of perseverations, made larger unique and overlapping contributions to the variance. The SOPT and its association, or dissociation, with other measures of working memory may be useful for research into the nature of working memory and executive function and the theoretical links between them.