Do redundant visual and auditory target variables facilitate control behavior?

Percept Mot Skills. 1989 Aug;69(1):275-82. doi: 10.2466/pms.1989.69.1.275.

Abstract

The compensatory tracking paradigm has been used extensively in pioneering work on Control Theory, a cybernetic model of behavior. In most studies subjects have been asked to control or maintain at a steady state a single variable or aspect of the stimulus display. The present study utilized three groups of subjects, comparing their performance effectiveness in controlling: (1) a visual stimulus (cursor) versus (2) an auditory stimulus (tone) versus (3) a combined, redundant-cue condition employing both cursor and tone. Freshman volunteers responded to a computer display using a joystick controller; their task was to keep stationary a stimulus that was subject to a smoothed, quasirandom disturbance. Contrary to predictions, subjects in the cursor-alone group performed more effectively than subjects in the combined cursor-tone group. While speculative interpretations are offered, further research is needed to clarify these results.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Adult
  • Attention*
  • Cues
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Memory*
  • Mental Recall*
  • Pattern Recognition, Visual
  • Pitch Perception*
  • Psychomotor Performance*
  • Visual Perception*