The effects of enhanced visual feedback on human synchronization

The execution of actions not only reposes on the spatial and temporal organization of the movements as such but also on their appropriate imbedding into the environmental spatio-temporal constraints. Actually, performance outcome appears to be strongly influenced by the strength of the perception-action coupling. The present experiment wants to examine to what degree this coupling strength affects the spatial and spatio-temporal characteristics of a synchronization task. In particular, the effects of: (i) enhanced visual feedback; and (ii) a modification in the spatial organization of the task were investigated. To do so, a task was designed in which horizontal arm movements had to be synchronized with a target light moving horizontally or vertically at a sinusoidal speed. Subjects performed six experimental conditions representing three synchronization modes (horizontal in-phase, horizontal anti-phase and orthogonal) and two feedback conditions (no feedback and feedback). The results for movement amplitude and relative phase revealed the operation of task specific effects. Apparently, the availability of feedback at the perception-action coupling level provoked the use of different strategies to cope with the constraints of this synchronization task. (C) 2003 Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd.