Vision tends to dominate as a source of sensory information in the control of coordinated, volun- tary movement. This tendency is well illustrated by situations in which vision and proprioceptive feed- back provide conflicting information, as in the moving room experiment. Research with manual aiming tasks has shown that the motor control sys- tem requires a minimum amount of time to use visual feedback to modify an ongoing movement. We have examined the role vision plays in the con- trol of movement by discussing a variety of motor skills and describing how visual information is important for performing these skills: manual aim-ing skills, prehension, handwriting, locomotor skills, jumping from heights, catching a ba hitting a baseball and a table tennis ball. One o consistent roles for vision in these skills is to pro vide context information prior to the initiation o movement to enable the motor control syst Eo preset limb and body movement in accordance with the characteristics of initial limb and body position and the characteristics of the performance environment. For skills requiring accurate limb movement, vision provides error correction infor mation to ensure that an individual makes the movement accurately.
accordance with the characteristics of initial limb and body position and the characteristics of the performance environment. For skills requiring accurate limb movement, vision provides error correction infor mation to ensure that an individual makes the movement accurately.