A low-cost 2-D video system can accurately and reliably assess adaptive gait kinematics in healthy and low vision subjects.

3-D gait analysis is the gold standard but many healthcare clinics and research institutes would benefit from a system that is inexpensive and simple but just as accurate. The present study examines whether a low-cost 2-D motion capture system can accurately and reliably assess adaptive gait kinematics in subjects with central vision loss, older controls, and younger controls. Subjects were requested to walk up and step over a 10 cm high obstacle that was positioned in the middle of a 4.

The effects of temporal pressure on obstacle negotiation and gaze behaviour in young adults with simulated vision loss.

Individuals with vision loss adapt their locomotion and gaze behaviour to safely negotiate objects in temporally unconstrained situations. However, everyday activities are often performed under time-pressure. We investigated the effects of blur on anxiety, movement kinematics and gaze behaviour during the negotiation of a floor-based obstacle under three amounts of pressure: 1) no-pressure; 2) tonal-pressure: an intermittent tone was played at a constant frequency; 3) tonal + time pressure: the intermittent tone increased in frequency and participants had to walk 20% faster to reach the end of the lab.

Research Article.

In this study, we demonstrate the effects of anxiety and cognitive load on eye movement planning in an instrument flight task adhering to a single-sensor-single-indicator data visualisation design philosophy. The task was performed in neutral and anxiety conditions, while a low or high cognitive load, auditory n-back task was also performed. Cognitive load led to a reduction in the number of transitions between instruments, and impaired task performance.

Co-ordination of the upper and lower limbs for vestibular control of balance.

Key Points: When standing and holding an earth-fixed object, galvanic vestibular stimulation (GVS) can evoke upper limb responses to maintain balance. In the present study, we determined how these responses are affected by grip context (no contact, light grip and firm grip), as well as how they are co-ordinated with the lower limbs to maintain balance. When GVS was applied during firm grip, hand and ground reaction forces were generated.

The interaction between practice and performance pressure on the planning and control of fast target directed movement.

Pressure to perform often results in decrements to both outcome accuracy and the kinematics of motor skills. Furthermore, this pressure-performance relationship is moderated by the amount of accumulated practice or the experience of the performer. However, the interactive effects of performance pressure and practice on the underlying processes of motor skills are far from clear.

Action-specific effects in aviation: what determines judged runway size?

Several recent studies have shown that the performance of a skill that involves acting on a goal object can influence one's judgment of the size of that object. The present study investigated this effect in an aviation context. Novice pilots were asked to perform a series of visual approach and landing manoeuvres in a flight simulator.

Interactions between performance pressure, performance streaks, and attentional focus.

How is performance under pressure influenced by the history of events that precede it, and how does the pressure outcome influence the series of events that follow? A baseball batting simulation was used with college players to investigate these questions. In Experiment 1, the difficulty of the simulation was first adaptively adjusted to equate performance level. Batters next completed 20 at-bats used to classify them into one of three performance groups (normal, cold streak, or hot streak) followed by a one at-bat pressure condition.