Learning to use visual information

This study explored the process underlying the learning of goal-directed displacement when the available information is constrained to visual information. Information from body senses (vestibular and proprioceptive) was removed by asking the participants to manipulate a joystick in order to move forward through successive virtual hallways and to cross pairs of oscillating doors. Participants' behavior was examined at 3 key periods of the learning process: (a) before training, (b) after 350 trials, and (c) after 750 trials. The results emphasize some perceptual-motor transformations comparable to the ones observed when learning active goal-directed locomotion. This study accentuates not only the relevance of visual information for the learning of goal-directed locomotion but also the mutual influence of perception and action on the produced changes.