Abstract
Humans can perform a wide variety of action. These actions can also be imagined or perceived. The actions performed by the dominant hand are often completed more quickly and accurately than actions with non-dominant hand. The present study investigated if the Fitts’ relationship differs between the two hands when executing, imagining or perceiving an action. Because people perform actions more often with the dominant hand than the non-dominant hand, imagination and perception of dominant hand actions may be more accurate than non-dominant hand actions. Right-hand dominant participants were asked to first execute and then imagine reciprocal aiming movements between two targets of varying widths and amplitudes. Then, participants were presented with images of hands performing the reciprocal aiming movements at different apparent movement times (MT) and participants were asked to verbally state if movement observed was possible to perform at that MT. Preliminary analyses revealed that the Fitts’ relationship is consistent across both hands regardless of the execution or the imagination conditions. MTs are lower for the right-hand compared to the left-hand. Analysis of the perception task revealed similar findings – the shortest perceived possible MTs for the left-hand were longer than for the right-hand. Overall, Fitt’s relationship emerged in both left-and right-hand execution, imagination, and perception. The imagination and perception of these movements were consistent with execution, with the right-hand yielding shorter MTs compared to the left-hand.
