Abstract
According to Fitts’ Law, the time to reach a target (movement time, MT) increases with distance. A violation of Fitts’ Law occurs when target positions are outlined before and during movement, as MTs are not different when reaching to the farthest and penultimate targets. One hypothesis posits that performers cognitively process the edges of a target array before the center, allowing for corrective movements to be completed more quickly when moving to edge targets compared to middle targets. The objective of this study was to test this hypothesis by displaying a target range rather than outlines of individual targets in an effort to identify the effects of array edges. Using a touch-screen laptop, participants (N = 24) were asked to reach to one of three targets which would appear within a presented range. Separately, targets were also presented without a range to determine if the display protocol could evoke Fitts’ Law. Movements were assessed with the touch screen and optical position measurement. A main effect was found for relative position within a range (touch: F2,44 = 15.4, p < 0.001, η2p = 0.412; position: F2,40 = 15.6, p < 0.001, η2p = 0.439). As hypothesised, MT to the farthest target in a range was not significantly different than MT to the middle target (touch: p = 0.638, position: p = 0.449). No violation was found when a target range was not presented (touch: p = 0.003, position: p = 0.001). Thus, a target range reproduces the Fitts’ Law violation previously documented with individually outlined targets, which supports and extends the discussed hypothesis.
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Data availability
The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council for providing grant funding which supported this study. The authors would also like to express their gratitude towards Matthew Debenham and Nique Bruce for contributing to participant recruitment and equipment sourcing, respectively.
Funding
This study was funded by two Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Discovery Grants [2017-06632] and [2020-06977].
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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by Quinn Malone. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Quinn Malone and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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This study was performed in line with the Declaration of Helsinki, except for registration in a database. Ethical approval was granted by the UBC Okanagan Behavioural Research Ethics Board (application H21-03098).
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Communicated by Melvyn A. Goodale.
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Malone, Q., McNeil, C.J., Passmore, S.R. et al. A violation of Fitts’ Law occurs when a target range is presented before and during movement. Exp Brain Res 241, 2451–2461 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-023-06687-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-023-06687-6