The impact of a mode of visual presentation of a complex trajectory on reaction time scores in delayed response task

Abstract

The impact of static vs. dynamic modes of trajectory presentation on reaction time scores was studied. A total 15 young adults (20 – 30 years old) took part in the experiment. The subjects were asked to memorize planar trajectories (open polygonal chains consisting of 6 segments) and reproduce them upon receiving go signal after a given delay. The trajectories were shown once only as a static drawing or incrementally (one segment at a time). It was shown that both the presentation mode (static vs. incremental) and retention interval have a significant impact on time characteristics of trajectory reproduction, namely latent time, average movement time, and the vertex dwelling time. The results suggest that the character of internal representation of the series of movements may be different depending on the trajectory presentation mode. The presentation mode seems to determine the initial character of the internal representation that is being slowly transformed into some abstract modality-free representation.