The relation between task history and movement strategy

In the present study, we examine whether subjects hit identical moving targets differently when the task history is different. Twelve subjects each took part in four experimental sessions. Each session consisted of recurring targets that were the same in all sessions, randomly interleaved with context targets that differed per session. We compared the movements that subjects made towards the recurring targets. There were clear influences of the preceding target on the hitting movements within a session, and clear differences between movements towards the same targets between sessions, but the latter differences were not consistently related to the kind of sessions involved. This indicates that influences of task history are limited to the use of information from preceding trials rather than to changes in how information is used (movement strategy). (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.