Our performance in catching or intercepting a moving object is asymmetrically accurate in the vertical (up and down) directions.
In the Open Access Journal of Vision, a study concludes that humans are better at estimating the descent of objects versus their ascent. These findings play out regardless of gravity.
It’s an interesting finding on the human ability to determine the position of a moving object as it relates to catching, hitting, or intercepting at any given moment. The study suggests that humans gained this ability due to our experiences on Earth and how our senses perceive things.
What follows is the abstract.
Abstract
Humans can accurately estimate and track object motion, even if it accelerates. Research shows that humans exhibit superior estimation and tracking performance for descending (falling) than ascending (rising) objects. Previous studies presented ascending and descending targets along the gravitational and body axes in an upright posture. Thus, it is unclear whether humans rely on congruent information between the direction of the target motion and gravity or the direction of the target motion and longitudinal body axes. Two experiments were conducted to explore these possibilities. In Experiment 1, participants estimated the arrival time at a goal for both upward and downward motion of targets along the longitudinal body axis in the upright (both axes of target motion and gravity congruent) and supine (both axes incongruent) postures. In Experiment 2, smooth pursuit eye movements were assessed while tracking both targets in the same postures. Arrival time estimation and smooth pursuit eye movement performance were consistently more accurate for downward target motion than for upward motion, irrespective of posture. These findings suggest that the visual experience of seeing an object moving along an observer’s leg side in everyday life may influence the ability to accurately estimate and track the descending object’s motion.
