Quickly tapping targets that are flashed during smooth pursuit reveals perceptual mislocalisations

In various studies subjects have been shown to misperceive the positions of targets that are flashed during pursuit eye movements. They mislocalise them in the direction of pursuit. Nevertheless, Hansen (1979) found that subjects accurately hit targets that are flashed during pursuit with a quick hammer blow. We examined whether this is because there is a fundamental difference between the information that determines our perceptual judgements of a target’s position and the information that is used to guide our hand to a similar target. Subjects were asked to quickly tap targets that were flashed during pursuit with their index finger. They systematically tapped ahead of the position of the flash, in accordance with the above-mentioned perceptual mislocalisations. Thus the lack of systematic errors in Hansen’s study is not a general property of fast motor responses.