Professor Michael F. Land
Lecture Abstract
The Roles of Eye Movements in Everyday Life
Complex activities, such as cooking or carpentry, consist of a string of actions involving different objects, coordinated mainly by vision. Because the foveas of our eyes, with good resolution, only cover about one degree of visual field, our eyes must move about in order to acquire the information needed for the various tasks. What movement strategies do the eyes adopt? Are they proactive, seeking in advance the objects we are about to manipulate; or do they respond only when the motor system calls on them for information? In this talk I will show that eye movements lead motor actions by up to a second, and that the eye movement system is intimately involved with the details of every act. Making up to four movements a second the eyes direct the hands to objects, guide actions involving several objects, and check to determine when an action should end. The oculomotor system is a knowledgable and effective partner in all our activities, even though we have almost no subjective awareness of what it is doing .
Land, MF & Furneaux S (1997) The knowledge base of the oculomotor system. Phil Trans R Soc Lond B , 352: 1231-1239.
Land, MF (1998) The visual control of steering. In: Vision and Action, (eds Harris LR & Jenkin K) 163-180. Cambridge University Press.
Land, MF, Mennie N, & Rusted J (1999) The roles of vision and eye movements in the control of activities of daily living. Perception, 28: 1311-1328.
Land, MF & McLeod P (2000) From eye movements to actions: How batsmen hit the ball. Nature Neuroscience, 3: 1340-1345.
