Pursuit Meter II, a Computer-Based Device for Testing Pursuit-Tracking Performance

Abstract

The Pursuit Meter II, a microcomputer-based device developed for the quantitative determination of human pursuit-tracking performance, is described. Computer-generated moving patterns are displayed on a high resolution color video monitor. For the subject the task is to attempt to superimpose a red line presented on the screen, the vertical location of which he controls with a steering device, over a blue line the computer generates as the problem. Both lines, each composed of 279 segments, are generated at the same rate, left to right on the monitor. The individual differences between the subject's response and the problem are summed and stored by the computer as an error score which correlates inversely to the subject's ability to perform the task. Three Pursuit Meter II problems were presented to 26 male college students. Our data demonstrated that different levels of performance to the problems resulted and that the Pursuit Meter II can be used to quantify human pursuit-tracking performance.