The Effects of Delayed and Displaced Visual Feedback on Motor Control

Abstract

Developments in television technology have made possible new approaches to the study of the role of visual feedback in motor control. In two experiments using a special videodisc recording and playback system, the effects of delaying for 66 msec a subject’s view of his own hand during a target-directed movement were investigated. The observed effects of such visually delayed feedback compared to spatially distorted feedback produced by prisms led to three major conclusions: (a) despite the behavioral similarity (overshooting) induced by the two kinds of altered feedback, the role of each in the visual motor control loop is different; (b) adaptation to and the aftereffect of the two kinds of altered feedback are based on different control mechanisms; (c) the processing and use of visual information in hand control requires less time than previous experiments have indicated.