PREDICTING THE WHERE AND RESOLVING THE WHAT OF A MOVING TARGET - A DICHOTOMY OF ABILITIES

Anticipation timing (AT) and dynamic visual acuity (DVA) were assessed in a group of college students (n = 60) under a range of velocity and duration conditions. Subjects participated in two identical sessions 1 week apart. Consistently with previous work, DVA performance worsene d as velocity increased and as target duration decreased; and there wa s a significant improvement from the first to the second session. In c ontrast, AT performance improved as velocity increased, whereas no imp rovement from the first to the second session was indicated; but incre asing duration again benefited performance. Correlational analyses com paring DVA and AT did not reveal any systematic relationship between t he two visual tasks. A follow-up study with different instructions on the AT task revealed the same pattern of AT performance, suggesting th e generalizability of the obtained stimulus relationships for the AT t ask. The importance of the often-overlooked role of stimulus variables on the AT task is discussed.