We investigated visuo-manual pursuit tracking in 10 adult subjects. The main features of the experiments were as follows: (a) The targets to be pursued were planar trajectories. (b) Targets were based on actual human hand movements. A set of five different movements (scribbles) were rear-projected on a digitizing table. (c) Targets were presented both as originally recorded (Condition N) and after a numerical manipulation that made the tangential velocity constant (Condition T). Individual performances were analyzed to characterize both the features common to all subjects and the idiosyncratic differences. The main results of the study were as follows: (a) Performances are extremely consistent across repetitions. (b) The single most characteristic descriptor is the instantaneous delay between target and pursuit. (c) The operating strategy is significantly modified in Condition T. (d) A simple formal scheme based on the notion of a delayed velocity feed-back accounts quite accurately for the experimental results. This is in contrast with most classical models of pursuit tracking.
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Viviani et al. (1987) studied this question.