Target Fixing

[Kevin Kane]

Hey, check this out.

 

There is a lot to be said for keeping the wide view - now If any of you can open this, check it out!

 

http:www.michaelbach.de/ot/mot_mib/index.html

 

Kevin

[fastfreddie]

kevin, what are you looking for when you find this stuff?

weird, tho' i'm sure it's very 'explainable'.

now i'm thinking about the things i don't see when i ride.

[fastfreddie]

might we induce that target fixation blinds you to your surroundings?

 

 

how you been, kevin?

[Grounded]

WOW! You might say this is really eye opening.

 

Thanks for the post.

[Kevin Kane]

I have to admit that I watched this thing a dozen times, focusing on each individual light before I posted it because I couldn't believe it wasn't a trick. Once I realized it wasn't, my reaction was like yours Fred, what things I am missing when I ride???

Kevin

[stuman]

That is F@#$%ing wild! Just shows you how much info you have about the rest of the track when you fix on something.

[kenpokev]

The more I read on this little forum, the more I realize the relationship between riding and martial arts is quite parallel. Target fixation will get you knocked out, or at the minimum, your reaction time to movement is substantially compromised.

 

In the thoughtful article from "The Guru", the discussion centers around basics...again a tremendous parallel to the arts. Constant practice of basics produces smooth, seemingly effortless, powerful movements.

 

The master swordsman of old would refer to "Mushin" or "no mind" the relaxed, yet totally focused mindset, only gained by years of dilligent practice, courage and discipline.

 

Regards,

 

Kev

[GregGorman]

While it does show that target fixation is a real problem, it also shows a real positive side. My experience was that I had to do something, focus soley on the center dot, for the other dots to disappear. If I simply blinked, I could see all the dots again. So that tells me that simply blinking is an effective counter to target fixation.

 

Also while we have to target fixate to create the effect, it's not what's being present by this effect. What's being presented by the effect is motion induced blindness. In other words, the moving blue +'s take up most of your attention causing the non-moving dots to disappear from time to time. On motorcycles, we have to track the moving objects with much greater precision much more frequently than non-moving objects. And again, this presents us the solution to finding the non-moving objects, blink.

[AndyIbbott]

Heck!

 

It sure gave me a headache after 20 minutes!

 

Andy

[racer]

reminds me of the "blind spot" demonstrations we did in grade school science class...but it isn't the same thing.

[2bigalow]

That's frigin' COOL with a capital C!

[Keith Code]

One other thing you can do to keep them in your view longer is change your focal plane.

Try looking through the screen as though you were looking past it out into space and for

me I was able to maintain the yellow dots much longer.

 

Also, you would never be staring at any one thing for as long as it

usually takes for the yellow dots to disappear and your eyes, under most cornering situations,

would have moved many times. A simple medium speed 90 degree turn can have an elapsed

time of under 4 seconds from start to finish. Turn #11 at Laguna is an example.

 

Keith

[racer]

The more I read on this little forum, the more I realize the relationship between riding and martial arts is quite parallel. Target fixation will get you knocked out, or at the minimum, your reaction time to movement is substantially compromised.

 

In the thoughtful article from "The Guru", the discussion centers around basics...again a tremendous parallel to the arts. Constant practice of basics produces smooth, seemingly effortless, powerful movements.

 

The master swordsman of old would refer to "Mushin" or "no mind" the relaxed, yet totally focused mindset, only gained by years of dilligent practice, courage and discipline.

 

Regards,

 

Kev

 

 

Right? There are times I have difficulty differentiating between what I learned at CSS and what I learned in Kung Fu class.

 

Like, was that "focus on the middle distance" (not too near, not too far, relaxed eyes, wide view) something Keith said? Or was it something my Tai Chi teacher said?

 

r