Exploring the Limits of Peripheral Vision for the Control of Movement

The role played by peripheral visual information in the control of aiming movements is not fully understood, as is indicated by the conflicting results reported in the literature. In the present study, the authors tested and confirmed the hypothesis that the source of the conflict lies in the portion of the visual peripheral field that has been under scrutiny in the different studies. Participants (N = 60) moved a computer mouse from a fixed starting position to 1 of 3 targets under varied vision conditions. The portion of the peripheral visual field that best ensured directional accuracy of a sweeping movement was found to be located between 20° and 10° of visual angle, whereas the area found to favor directional accuracy of an aiming movement comprised 30° through 10° of visual angle.