In a large rectangular room, 13 blindfolded women attempted to walk in
a straight line from one end of the room to a target centered at the
other end of the room. On 12 trials, the women walked forward, and on
12 trials they walked backward. On half the trials under each of these
conditions, they walked toward the north, and on the other half to th
e south. Performance errors were highly correlated for northward and s
outhward progression, an indication of good reliability for this veeri
ng task. Veering during forward progression was not significantly rela
ted to veering during backward progression. Individual consistency in
veering was demonstrated in several ways, and approximately half the p
articipants veered in the same direction on nearly all trials. These r
esults indicate that veering should be considered as an additional man
ifestation of lateral preferences in human motor behavior.