Fitt's Law
- Submitted by: 071191d
- Views: 562
- Category: Science
- Date Submitted: 03/31/2010 03:19 PM
- Pages: 4
- Report this Essay
Introduction
Methods
Participants
A total of 53 subjects (33 females; 20 males) participated in the study. All participants were Kinesiology students at NS University with a mean age of 20.9 (females = 20.5; males = 21.4) with standard deviation of 0.60 for females and 1.8 for males.
Materials
A total of 6 tapping boards were used each equipped with a stylus and 2 metal targets. The targets on each tapping board were of different size and separation so that the targets progressively became more difficult for the subject to hit. Attached was a hit counter that counted each tap made by the stylus on the metal targets. A digital stopwatch was used for the purpose of keeping timeof each trial. Lastly a laptop computer was used for the recording of data.
Task & Procedure
Results
{draw:frame}
FIGURE 1. Subject’s movement time, index of difficulty and line of best fit.
TABLE 1. Mean index of difficulty (ID) and movement time (MT) for all 6 experimental conditions.
The results indicate that as the index of difficulty increased movement time consequently decreased.
Discussion
For the exception of 1 of the 3 related studies the literature appearsto agree with the findings of the present study. That is, as the index of difficulty increases,movement time speed decreases. Therefore, it can also be said that the independent variable (MT) does reliably affect the dependent variable (ID).
In Belkinand Eliot’s study the mean age of subjects was 8.75 years, ranging from ages 6 to 11. The age of the subject’s in the present study differed significantly with a mean of 20.9 years, ranging from ages 20 to 27. The amount of subject’s used in the study also differed greatly with Belkin and Eliot only using 16 compared to 53 in the present study. The two studies did however have some similarity in terms of participants, that is both males and females were used with a larger female population amongst the subjects. The tasks differed greatly between...
Methods
Participants
A total of 53 subjects (33 females; 20 males) participated in the study. All participants were Kinesiology students at NS University with a mean age of 20.9 (females = 20.5; males = 21.4) with standard deviation of 0.60 for females and 1.8 for males.
Materials
A total of 6 tapping boards were used each equipped with a stylus and 2 metal targets. The targets on each tapping board were of different size and separation so that the targets progressively became more difficult for the subject to hit. Attached was a hit counter that counted each tap made by the stylus on the metal targets. A digital stopwatch was used for the purpose of keeping timeof each trial. Lastly a laptop computer was used for the recording of data.
Task & Procedure
Results
{draw:frame}
FIGURE 1. Subject’s movement time, index of difficulty and line of best fit.
TABLE 1. Mean index of difficulty (ID) and movement time (MT) for all 6 experimental conditions.
The results indicate that as the index of difficulty increased movement time consequently decreased.
Discussion
For the exception of 1 of the 3 related studies the literature appearsto agree with the findings of the present study. That is, as the index of difficulty increases,movement time speed decreases. Therefore, it can also be said that the independent variable (MT) does reliably affect the dependent variable (ID).
In Belkinand Eliot’s study the mean age of subjects was 8.75 years, ranging from ages 6 to 11. The age of the subject’s in the present study differed significantly with a mean of 20.9 years, ranging from ages 20 to 27. The amount of subject’s used in the study also differed greatly with Belkin and Eliot only using 16 compared to 53 in the present study. The two studies did however have some similarity in terms of participants, that is both males and females were used with a larger female population amongst the subjects. The tasks differed greatly between...