SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL CHARACTERISTICS OF RAPID CURSOR-POSITIONING MOVEMENTS WITH ELECTROMECHANICAL MICE IN HUMAN-COMPUTER INTERACTION

This research examines how people make movements with pointing devices during human-computer interaction. It specifically concerns the perce ptual-motor processes that mediate the speed and accuracy of cursor po sitioning with electromechanical mice. In three experiments we investi gated the spatial and temporal characteristics of positioning movement s made with a mouse, analyzing subjects' speed and accuracy as a funct ion of the types of targets that the movements had to reach. Experimen t 1 required rapid and accurate horizontal movements to targets that w ere vertical ribbons located at various distances from the mouse's sta rting location. The targets for Experiments 2 and 3, respectively, wer e vertical lines having various heights and rectangular boxes having v arious heights and widths. Constraints on movement distance along the primary (that is, horizontal) line of motion had the greatest effects on total positioning times. However, constraints on movement distance along a secondary (vertical) line of motion also affected total positi oning times significantly. These effects may be localized in different phases of movement (e.g., movement execution and verification). The d uration of movement execution (i.e., physical motion) depends primaril y on the target distance, whereas the duration of movement verificatio n (i.e., check for endpoint accuracy) depends primarily on target heig ht and width. A useful account of movement execution is provided by st ochastic optimized-submovement models, which have significant implicat ions for designing mice and menu-driven displays.