No abstract

Individuals use visual information to guide their avoidance behaviours. More specifically, individuals may directly perceive the time prior to colliding with an approaching obstacle (i.e., time to contact, TTC) to determine when to avoid. In addition, individuals use body-scaled information to control their movements. These avoidance behaviours differ when avoiding a human obstacle compared to an inanimate object. As such, the purpose of this experiment was to examine the avoidance behaviours of individuals during a head-on collision course with an approaching person. Young adults (N = 20, [Formula: see text] = 22.25 ± 1.5 years, 10 males) were instructed to walk along a 10 m path towards a goal located along the midline. A female confederate positioned along the midline walked towards the participants to one of the four predetermined final positions: (1) along the midline in the participants' starting position; (2) stopped along the midline 2.5 m from her starting position; (3) to the left of the participants' starting position; and (4) to the right of the participants' starting position. Results revealed when the path of the confederate was certain, individuals used a greater TTC to determine when to change their path in comparison with when the path of the confederate was uncertain. Males were found to avoid significantly earlier (i.e., larger TTC) than females. However, following a change in path, sex did not impact the avoidance behaviours of the groups, but rather, the environment was the regulating factor.

No abstract

The current study investigated whether path selection of athletes specifically trained to fit through gaps is affected by the location of human obstacle and the form of locomotion. Female rugby players were instructed to walk, walk with the ball, or run with the ball along a path toward a goal while avoiding three obstacles (three vertical poles or two vertical poles and a confederate) placed halfway along the path, creating two equal apertures of 80 cm. Regardless of the form of locomotion, rugby players chose paths furthest from the confederate, suggesting that confederate location affects path selection. Furthermore, medial-lateral spatial requirements were more variable when participants were walking without the ball than while moving with the ball. Avoidance behaviors, but not path selection, appear to be impacted and minimized during sport-specific movements.

No abstract