The influence of action video game playing on eye movement behaviour during visual search in abstract,in-game and natural scenes

Action game playing has been associated with several improvements in visual attention tasks. However, it is not clear how such changes might influence the way we overtly select information from our visual world (i.e. eye movements). We examined whether action-video-game training changed eye movement behaviour in a series of visual search tasks including conjunctive search (relatively abstracted from natural behaviour), game-related search, and more naturalistic scene search. Forty nongamers were trained in either an action first-person shooter game or a card game (control) for 10 hours. As a further control, we recorded eye movements of 20 experienced action gamers on the same tasks. The results did not show any change in duration of fixations or saccade amplitude either from before to after the training or between all nongamers (pretraining) and experienced action gamers. However, we observed a change in search strategy, reflected by a reduction in the vertical distribution of fixations for the game-related search task in the action-game-trained group. This might suggest learning the likely distribution of targets. In other words, game training only skilled participants to search game images for targets important to the game, with no indication of transfer to the more natural scene search. Taken together, these results suggest no modification in overt allocation of attention. Either the skills that can be trained with action gaming are not powerful enough to influence information selection through eye movements, or action-game-learned skills are not used when deciding where to move the eyes.     

Augmented Feedback Presented in a Virtual Environment Accelerates Learning of a Difficult Motor Task

One can use a number of techniques (e.g., from videotaping to computer enhancement of the environment) to augment the feedback that a subject usually receives during training on a motor task. Although some forms of augmented feedback have been shown to enhance performance on isolated isometric tasks during training, when the feedback has been removed subjects have sometimes not been able to perform as well in the "real-world" task as controls. Indeed, for realistic, nonisometric motor tasks, improved skill acquisition because of augmented feedback has not been demonstrated. In the present experiments, subjects (Experiment 1, N = 42; Experiment 2, N = 21) performed with a system that was designed for teaching a difficult multijoint movement in a table tennis environment. The system was a fairly realistic computer animation of the environment and included paddles for the teacher and subject, as well as a virtual ball. Each subject attempted to learn a difficult shot by matching the pattern of movements of the expert teacher. Augmented feedback focused the attention of the subject on a minimum set of movement details that were most relevant to the task; feedback was presented in a form that required the least perceptual processing. Effectiveness of training was determined by measuring their performance in the real task. Subjects who received the virtual environment training performed significantly better than subjects who received a comparable amount of real-task practice or coaching. Kinematic analysis indicated that practice with the expert's trajectory served as a basis for performance on the real-world task and that the movements executed after training were subject-specific modifications of the expert's trajectory. Practice with this trajectory alone was not sufficient for transfer to the real task, however: When a critical component of the virtual environment was removed, subjects showed no transfer to the real task.     

Deficits in volitional oculomotor control align with language status in autism spectrum disorders

Eye‐tracking paradigms are increasingly used to investigate higher‐level social and cognitive processing in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, the integrity of the oculomotor system within ASD is unclear, with contradictory reports of aberrant eye‐movements on basic oculomotor tasks. The purpose of the current study was to determine whether reducing population heterogeneity and distinguishing neurocognitive phenotypes can clarify discrepancies in oculomotor behaviour evident in previous reports. Reflexive and volitional eye‐movement control was assessed in 73 children aged 8–14 years from four distinct groups: Autism Language Normal (ALN), Autism Language Impaired (ALI), non‐autistic Language Impaired (LI) and Typically Developing (TD). Eye‐movement control was measured using pro‐ and antisaccade tasks and a novel ‘search distracter’ task to measure distractibility. Reflexive eye‐movements were equivalent across groups, but deficits in volitional eye‐movement control were found that aligned with language status, and were not specific to ASD. More than 80% of ALI and LI children presented error rates at least 1.5 SDs below the TD mean in an antisaccade task. In the search distracter task, 35.29% of ALI children and 43.75% of LI children had error rates greater than 1.5 SDs compared with 17.64% of ALN children. A significant proportion of children with neurodevelopmental disorders involving language function have pronounced difficulties suppressing reflexive saccades and maintaining fixations in the presence of competing stimuli. We extend the putative link between ALI and LI populations to non‐language tasks, and highlight the need to account for co‐morbidity in understanding the ontogenesis of ASD.     

Performance gains from directed training do not transfer to untrained tasks

Given the increasing complexity of the tasks and skills needed in modern society, developing effective training strategies is of tremendous practical importance. Furthermore, training that improves performance of both trained and untrained tasks would be highly efficient. In the present study, we examined how directed training contributes to skill acquisition, and more importantly, to engendering transfer of training to untrained tasks. Participants learned a complex video game for 30 h (Space Fortress, Donchin, Fabiani, & Sanders, 1989) using one of two training regimens: Hybrid Variable-Priority Training (HVT), with a focus on improving specific skills and managing task priority, or Full Emphasis Training (FET) in which participants simply practiced the game to obtain the highest overall score. We compared game performance, retention of training gains, and transfer of training to untrained tasks as a function of the training regimen. Compared to FET, HVT learners reached higher levels of mastery on the game and HVT was particularly beneficial for initially poor performing participants. This benefit persisted seven months after training. However, contrary to expectation, both HVT and FET were unsuccessful in producing transfer to untrained tasks compared to a group that received limited game experience, suggesting that directed training and practice can produce task-specific improvements, but improvements do not necessarily transfer from trained to untrained tasks.     

A noted on the relationship between task requirements and the contextual interference effect

Typically, tasks used in past contextual interference experiments had movement, spatial pattern, or timing requirements. The possibility exists that the blocked/random manipulation of only one of these task characteristics contributes to the contextual interference effect. The purpose of the experiment reported here was to test the impact of separate movement and timing tasks on the superior learning of random trained groups. The task for all subjects in the movement condition was to release a start button and knock over a wooden barrier. There were three movement goals to be learned. Half of the subjects in this condition practiced the three movements in a blocked schedule and half practiced them in a random schedule. The subjects in the no-movement condition estimated the same three times by holding down the start button for the appropriate duration. Similarly, these subjects were divided into random and blocked practice groups. All subjects then performed a retention test. Results showed that for the movement condition, the blocked group performed with less error than the random group during acquisition. In retention, however, the random group performed with less error than the blocked group. conversely, for the no-movement condition, there were no differences between the two practice schedule groups during acquisition or during retention for any of the dependent measures. These results indicated that experimental tasks must have some type of movement requirement in order to facilitate learning through the use of random practice schedules.     

The role of eye movements in motor sequence learning

An experiment that utilized a 16-element movement sequence was designed to determine the impact of eye movements on sequence learning. The participants were randomly assigned to two experimental groups: a group that was permitted to use eye movements (FREE) and a second group (FIX) that was instructed to fixate on a marker during acquisition (ACQ). A retention test (RET) was designed to provide a measure of learning, and two transfer tests were designed to determine the extent to which eye movements influenced sequence learning. The results demonstrated that both groups decreased the response time to produce the sequence, but the participants in the FREE group performed the sequence more quickly than participants of the FIX group during the ACQ, RET and the two transfer tests. Furthermore, continuous visual control of response execution was reduced over the course of learning. The results of the transfer tests indicated that oculomotor information regarding the sequence can be stored in memory and enhances response production.     

A Note on the Relationship Between Task Requirements and the Contextual Interference Effect

Typically, tasks used in past contextual interference experiments had movement, spatial pattern, or timing requirements. The possibility exists that the blocked/random manipulation of only one of these task characteristics contributes to the contextual interference effect. The purpose of the experiment reported here was to test the impact of separate movement and timing tasks on the superior learning of random trained groups. The task for all subjects in the movement condition was to release a start button and knock over a wooden barrier. There were three movement time goals to be learned. Half of the subjects in this condition practiced the three movements in a blocked schedule and half practiced them in a random schedule. The subjects in the no-movement condition estimated the same three times by holding down the start button for the appropriate duration. Similarly, these subjects were divided into random and blocked practice groups. All subjects then performed a retention test. Results showed that for the movement condition, the blocked group performed with less error than the random group during acquisition. In retention, however, the random group performed with less error than the blocked group. Conversely, for the no-movement condition, there were no differences between the two practice schedule groups during acquisition or during retention for any of the dependent measures. These results indicate that experimental tasks must have some type of movement requirement in order to facilitate learning through the use of random practice schedules.     

Asymmetric transfer in a pursuit tracking task related to a change of strategy

Sixty male subjects were divided into three equal groups, one control and the other two experimental. The experimental groups were given two tracking tasks in different orders. The tasks were given by distributed practice. One tracking task consisted of far and near movements at short regular intervals, while the other was of irregular longer intervals. Transfer was positive from the regular task to the irregular task. The parts of the tracking course on which far and near movements were made were the same for both tasks, but the movement pattern of the right hand was different in each case. The strategy used for the regular task could not be applied to the irregular task. For this reason the asymmetric transfer occurred.     

How young adults with autism spectrum disorder watch and interpret pragmatically complex scenes

The aim of the current study was to investigate subtle characteristics of social perception and interpretation in high-functioning individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs), and to study the relation between watching and interpreting. As a novelty, we used an approach that combined moment-by-moment eye tracking and verbal assessment. Sixteen young adults with ASD and 16 neurotypical control participants watched a video depicting a complex communication situation while their eye movements were tracked. The participants also completed a verbal task with questions related to the pragmatic content of the video. We compared verbal task scores and eye movements between groups, and assessed correlations between task performance and eye movements. Individuals with ASD had more difficulty than the controls in interpreting the video, and during two short moments there were significant group differences in eye movements. Additionally, we found significant correlations between verbal task scores and moment-level eye movement in the ASD group, but not among the controls. We concluded that participants with ASD had slight difficulties in understanding the pragmatic content of the video stimulus and attending to social cues, and that the connection between pragmatic understanding and eye movements was more pronounced for participants with ASD than for neurotypical participants.     

Scrutinization, Spatial Attention, and the Spatial Programming of Saccadic Eye Movements

Results are presented from an experiment in which subjects' eye movements were recorded while they carried out two visual tasks with similar material. One task was chosen to require close visual scrutiny; the second was less visually demanding. The oculomotor behaviour in the two tasks differed in three ways. (1) When scrutinizing, there was a reduction in the area of visual space over which stimulation influences saccadic eye movements. (2) When moving their eyes to targets requiring scrutiny, subjects were more likely to make a corrective saccade. (3) The duration of fixations on targets requiring scrutiny was increased. The results are discussed in relation to current theories of visual attention and the control of saccadic eye movements.     

Potentiating ballistic limb movements through voluntary production of the stretch-shorten cycle.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of learning to produce voluntarily a basic biomechanical mechanism, the stretch-shorten cycle (SSC), on the acceleration of a ballistic arm movement. The task required an elbow flexion at maximal effort performed with the forearm resting upon a horizontal manipulandum. Subjects in three groups received either no augmented feedback, feedback concerning the velocity of the flexion, or a combination of feedback on velocity and feedback related to the rate of stretch of the SSC during 80 training trials. The training trials were preceded by a pretest and followed by a posttest without feedback. Analyses showed that the subjects receiving feedback concerning the SSC exhibited earlier and greater peak angular acceleration than the other groups. These findings provide evidence that acquiring the control of relevant, basic mechanisms like the SSC may be useful in facilitating tasks requiring limb movements of maximal effort.     

Interference effects between saccadic and key-press reaction times of volleyball players and nonathletes

To investigate the interference effect in volleyball players and nonathletes (ns=10) when they executed both saccadic and key-press reaction time (RT) tasks concurrently, the two groups responded to the onset of peripheral visual stimuli as quickly as possible in single and dual conditions. In the single condition, subjects responded with either saccadic eye or key-press movement. In the dual condition, they responded concurrently with both saccadic eye and key-press movements. In both groups, the key-press RT was longer in the dual condition than in the single condition. However, the amount of key-press RT delay was remarkably smaller for the volleyball players than for nonathletes. This suggests the motor command to initiate manual movement of volleyball players might be less interfered with by a concurrent oculomotor command to initiate saccadic eye movement when compared to that of nonathletes.     

视觉表象眼动的变化：知识还是技能表征的差异？

以表象看到一个运动员完成三级跳远项目为实验任务,对表象任务的信息通达水平、眼动注视点的活动位置和被试对三级跳远项目的知识水平和技能水平进行系统的操纵,通过2个实验探讨了视觉表象眼动的变化是基于知识学习表征差异还是技能训练表征差异的问题。实验1以没有三级跳远运动专业技能知识且对该运动的认知水平也较低的大学生为被试,结果表明,在完成高信息通达水平的表象任务时,注视点需要较短的持续时间,但眼跳距离会增大,眼跳频率会变低;实验2对表象任务的知识学习表征水平和技能训练表征水平进行操纵,分别以对实验任务进行过知识学习和专业技能训练的人为被试,结果表明,随着被试知识习得水平和技能水平表征能力的提高,不同表象任务信息通达水平间的眼动差异将消失,但知识学习和技能表征的差异在平均眼跳时间上有差异,技能训练型的被试其平均眼跳时间要短于知识学习型被试,达到临界水平显著,注视点平均持续时间和平均眼跳距离等均没有差异。     

Colour and spatial cueing in low-prevalence visual search

People are able to judge the current position of occluded moving objects. This operation is known as motion extrapolation. It has previously been suggested that motion extrapolation is independent of the oculomotor system. Here we revisited this question by measuring eye position while participants completed two types of motion extrapolation task. In one task, a moving visual target travelled rightwards, disappeared, then reappeared further along its trajectory. Participants discriminated correct reappearance times from incorrect (too early or too late) with a two-alternative forced-choice button press. In the second task, the target travelled rightwards behind a visible, rectangular occluder, and participants pressed a button at the time when they judged it should reappear. In both tasks, performance was significantly different under fixation as compared to free eye movement conditions. When eye movements were permitted, eye movements during occlusion were related to participants' judgements. Finally, even when participants were required to fixate, small changes in eye position around fixation (<2°) were influenced by occluded target motion. These results all indicate that overlapping systems control eye movements and judgements on motion extrapolation tasks. This has implications for understanding the mechanism underlying motion extrapolation.     

Do common systems control eye movements and motion extrapolation?

People are able to judge the current position of occluded moving objects. This operation is known as motion extrapolation. It has previously been suggested that motion extrapolation is independent of the oculomotor system. Here we revisited this question by measuring eye position while participants completed two types of motion extrapolation task. In one task, a moving visual target travelled rightwards, disappeared, then reappeared further along its trajectory. Participants discriminated correct reappearance times from incorrect (too early or too late) with a two-alternative forced-choice button press. In the second task, the target travelled rightwards behind a visible, rectangular occluder, and participants pressed a button at the time when they judged it should reappear. In both tasks, performance was significantly different under fixation as compared to free eye movement conditions. When eye movements were permitted, eye movements during occlusion were related to participants' judgements. Finally, even when participants were required to fixate, small changes in eye position around fixation (<2°) were influenced by occluded target motion. These results all indicate that overlapping systems control eye movements and judgements on motion extrapolation tasks. This has implications for understanding the mechanism underlying motion extrapolation.     

Effects of imagery training on cognitive performance and use of physiological measures as an assessment tool of mental effort

The effectiveness of motor imagery training on cognitive performance was examined and the physiological mechanisms involved in the contribution of mental practice to motor learning were considered. The subject's mental effort during motor imagery was assessed by using psychophysiological measures and particularly eye blink activity as an 'indirect' measurement of subjects' attention. An electronic flight simulation program (Multiple Attribute Task Battery--MATB) was used to assess performance. Twenty healthy volunteers participated in the study divided in two groups: the control group and the imagery-training group. The subjects of the imagery group were asked for additional imagery training. The subjects of the actual performing group were asked additionally to passively observe the task in order to have equal time of exposure to the task. Performance scores and physiological parameters such as heart rate, respiratory rate, eye blinking activity and muscular activity were recorded during all sessions. The results revealed significantly higher performance level of the imagery-training group than the control group. Heart rate and respiratory rate significantly increased during imagery sessions compared to rest. A slight electromyographic activity was observed during the imagination of movement. Our findings support the notion that mental practice improves motor performance in a task where spatiotemporal or dynamic control of the action is highly required. The effects of mental practice on motor performance could be explained by the existence of a top-down mechanism based on the activation of a central representation of the movements, since the vegetative activation during motor imagery seems to be centrally controlled.     

Video game practice optimizes executive control skills in dual-task and task switching situations

We examined the relation of action video game practice and the optimization of executive control skills that are needed to coordinate two different tasks. As action video games are similar to real life situations and complex in nature, and include numerous concurrent actions, they may generate an ideal environment for practicing these skills (Green & Bavelier, 2008). For two types of experimental paradigms, dual-task and task switching respectively; we obtained performance advantages for experienced video gamers compared to non-gamers in situations in which two different tasks were processed simultaneously or sequentially. This advantage was absent in single-task situations. These findings indicate optimized executive control skills in video gamers. Similar findings in non-gamers after 15 h of action video game practice when compared to non-gamers with practice on a puzzle game clarified the causal relation between video game practice and the optimization of executive control skills.     

Movement substructures change as a function of practice in children and adults

An experiment is reported in which participants at 6 (n = 20), 9 (n = 20), and 24 years (n = 20) of age either received or did not receive practice on a rapid aiming task using the arm and hand. The purpose of the experiment was to document the changes in movement substructures (in addition to movement time) as a function of practice. After receiving 10 baseline trials, subjects in the practice groups received 30 practice trials followed by 10 retention trials on each of 5 days, while subjects in the no-practice group had only baseline and retention trials. Retention-only trials were divided into primary (reflecting the ballistic controlled part of the movement) and secondary (reflecting corrective movement adjustments) submovements. In addition, jerk (the 3rd derivative of movement displacement) was calculated as an estimate of the smoothness of the movement. Participants increased the primary submovement as a function of practice; however, the increases were substantially larger in the children (25-30%) than in the adults (10%). Participants also decreased jerk as a function of practice and the decreases were greater in children than in adults. The results suggest that with practice the primary submovement is lengthened so that it ends nearer the target, especially in children. Associated with the primary submovement covering a larger percentage of the movement length and time, movements became smoother.     

Practice effects on motor control in healthy seniors and patients with mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease

This research was designed to test the hypothesis that motor practice can enhance the capabilities of motor control in healthy controls (NC) and patients with a diagnosis of probable Alzheimer's disease (AD) and mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and consequently results in better motor performance. Approximately half of the subjects in the NC (n = 31), AD (n = 28), and MCI (n = 29) either received or did not receive practice on a task of fast and accurate arm movement with a digitizer. Changes in movement time (MT), movement smoothness (jerk), and percentage of primary submovement (PPS) were recorded and compared among the three groups across six blocks of trials (baseline and five training sessions). For all subjects, practice improved motor functions as reflected by faster and smoother motor execution, as well as a greater proportion of programming control. Compared to unaffected matched controls, AD and MCI subjects exhibited a greater reduction in movement jerk due to practice. Movement time and PPS data revealed that motor practice appeared to reduce the use of "on-line" correction adopted by the AD or MCI patients while performing the aiming movements. Evidently, their arm movements were quicker, smoother, and temporally more consistent than their untrained peers. The findings of this study shed light on how MCI and AD may affect motor control mechanisms, and suggest possible therapeutic interventions aimed at improving motor functioning in these impaired individuals.     

Development of eye-movement control

Cognitive control of behavior continues to improve through adolescence in parallel with important brain maturational processes including synaptic pruning and myelination, which allow for efficient neuronal computations and the functional integration of widely distributed circuitries supporting top-down control of behavior. This is also a time when psychiatric disorders, such as schizophrenia and mood disorders, emerge reflecting a particularly vulnerability to impairments in development during adolescence. Oculomotor studies provide a unique neuroscientific approach to make precise associations between cognitive control and brain circuitry during development that can inform us of impaired systems in psychopathology. In this review, we first describe the development of pursuit, fixation, and visually-guided saccadic eye movements, which collectively indicate early maturation of basic sensorimotor processes supporting reflexive, exogenously-driven eye movements. We then describe the literature on the development of the cognitive control of eye movements as reflected in the ability to inhibit a prepotent eye movement in the antisaccade task, as well as making an eye movement guided by on-line spatial information in working memory in the oculomotor delayed response task. Results indicate that the ability to make eye movements in a voluntary fashion driven by endogenous plans shows a protracted development into adolescence. Characterizing the transition through adolescence to adult-level cognitive control of behavior can inform models aimed at understanding the neurodevelopmental basis of psychiatric disorders.