A Note on the Information-Theoretic Basis for Fitts’ Law

Abstract

Fitts’ law is an information-theoretic view of human motor behavior developed from Shannon’s Theorem 17, a fundamental theorem of communications systems. Using data from Fitts’ original experiments, we demonstrate that Fitts’ choice of an equation that deviates slightly from the underlying principle is perhaps unfounded, and that the relationship is improved by using an exact adaptation of Shannon’s equation.