When an observer moves through the environment, the continuous transformation of the optic array of the environment provides information about the spatial and temporal relationships between the observer and his surroundings. Lee (1976) proposed that when an observer is approaching a target object, an optical variable called tau can inform the observer about the "time-to-collision" which refers to the time that will elapse before the observer collides with the object. While several studies have shown that the tau strategy appears to control naturalistic visual motor behaviours, in very few studies of target-directed movement has tau been manipulated independently from other cues, such as distance information.
展开▼
