Visual context and the control of movements through video display

The aim of this experiment was to test the influence of target context on a daptation to scale perturbations introduced by a video display. Participant s performed pointing movements without direct vision of their moving hand, although they could see their movements on a video display. Their perceived movements could be reduced, enlarged, or displayed at their actual size. T hree target contexts were compared: dark surround, illuminated frame, and f amiliar object. Movements were executed with or without vision of hand disp lacement. Results showed that target context enhanced an allocentric coding of the movement, which improved movement execution. However, the effect of target context changed whether or not the displacement of the hand was ava ilable. Overall, the results suggest that target context allowed the extrac tion of dynamic information about movements, which is used to program and c ontrol movements. This suggests that target context could be used efficient ly to improve spatial accuracy and speed in teleoperation learning. Potenti al applications include the reduction of difficulties encountered during te leoperation learning through the introduction of visual context.