Sutter, C. , Skottke, E. & Müsseler, J.
Work and Cognitive Psychology. RWTH Aachen University. Aachen, Germany.
Changes in perspective challenges information processing, as the actor is often not able to handle successfully the discrepancies between the tactile/proprioceptive feedback and the visual feedback on a projection screen. In this context the present experiments will show, how visibility and motor activity of an irrelevant effector distracts from performing one-hand movements. Participants responded to visual stimuli with a pre-determined response hand while the other, non-responding hand was either kept within view or outside the viewing angle. The non-responding hand was passive (Ex.1) or active (Ex.2). Stimuli and hand(s) were covered, but presented in front of them on a display with a nonegocentric perspective that either retained or reversed left-right relations. In Ex.1 we found a remarkable decrease of performance when visual feedback reversed left-right relations. This is in accordance with previous findings by Sutter and Müsseler (2010). However, even if the present task was simpler and the responding hand was pre-determined spatial transformation effects were in effect, and this was independent from seeing the non-responding hand or not. In contrast, when the non-responding hand was also active spatial transformation effects were cancelled out. It seems as if with increasing task complexity visual monitoring becomes more important.