Some Effects of Exposure to Optical Disarrangement on Adaptation to Optical Rearrangement

Although optical rearrangement has been extensively investigated, disarrangement has received far less attention. It is quite possible that the response of the perceptual system to the latter state, which entails a decorrelation of the normal relationship between vision and motor behavior, will lead to a better understanding of the nature of visual spatial localization.

Two studies are described in which exposure (and adaptation) to prism-displaced vision is preceded by a period of exposure to disarrangement. In the first study, concurrent exposure with a target was used. No increase in localization variability resulted from preexposure to disarrangement. However, it was found that this experience retarded the subsequent adaptation to rearrangement, relative to a condition of preexposure to normal viewing. It is argued that this result supports the existence of a cross-correlator comparator mechanism in sensorimotor coordination.

The second study was similar to the first except that there was no target-error information available during disarrangement or rearrangement. The pattern of results for the second study was different from those of the first study; this suggests that there might be important differences in the manner in which information regarding intermodality discordance and target-error is processed by the comparator.