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Take part in our study examining how motor learning affects visual perception

We are investigating people's visual perception of length and whether this ability is changed after learning to compensate for a visual distortion.

Background information

Find out more about our study.

People are readily able to adapt their movements to compensate for small distortions in vision. In the past two decades, research has reported that this motor learning is also accompanied by temporary changes in the way people attend to or perceive simple objects. This effect has been heavily studied due to its potential for treating perceptual problems after stroke.

However, we have recently scrutinised the published studies and found this finding is not as clear or consistent as thought. In this study, we are using best-practice methods to provide a higher quality test of whether adaptation of movements affects visual perception.

Take part in our research

We’re recruiting for this study until March 2022.

What's involved in the study

The experiment will last 60 minutes.

At the start, you will be given a brief assessment of your eye preference and a short questionnaire about your handedness. You will then take part in the experiment, which consists of three different tasks. Some are repeated more than once.

In one task, you will be shown some straight lines, each of them divided into two sections by a vertical mark. You will be asked to indicate which side of the line is longer (or is shorter), by pressing a pedal under your left or right foot.

In another task, you will be shown a series of dots on the screen, and asked to make quick pointing movements to the dot, whilst wearing glasses that obscure your view of your hand.

In the third task, you will again be pointing at dots on the screen. You will be able to see your hand, but you will be wearing glasses that may distort your vision, in ways that you may or may not notice.

Eligibility

To be eligible to participate in this study, you must:

  • be right-handed
  • aged 18-40
  • have normal or corrected-to-normal vision

You should not take part in this study if you need glasses to read normal-sized text on a computer monitor. This is because it is not possible to wear your own glasses in addition to our research glasses.

People who wear contact lenses to read text on a computer monitor can take part.

What you'll get for taking part

Participants will be paid £7.

Confidentiality

All records will be treated as confidential, including personal contact details.

Data collection and retention will comply fully with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and will only be accessible to the lead researcher and their supervisor. This study has received ethical approval.1

Take part in this study

If you're interested in taking part, we'd love to hear from you.

This study has received approval from Psychology Research Ethics Committees of the University of Edinburgh (reference 198-1920/1) and the University of Bath (reference 20-018).