Cognitive switching of visual-motor coordination tasks

Abstract

Mirror image drawing is a motor task using visual feedback. Converting this task into display path presentation and tablet pen position input extends it to arbitrary transformation tasks involving mirror images. Tests were conducted on subjects who had become proficient with two different transformation tasks in response to different color paths. By displaying two color paths in random orders, we studied whether a subject quickly switched visual-motor transformations using the path colors as cognitive cues by changing the color of the path twice without notification and switching to the identity transformation with notification when using the same path color the third time. The results show that a certain amount of practice is required for a subject to quickly switch transformations, that the task of switching transformations using colors as clues progresses rapidly in a step-like manner, and that the task of learning to suppress color-dependent transformations is required for switching from a learned color-dependent movement to the identity transformation. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.