Manipulations of the style of locomotion affects both kinesthetic and visual perception of distance traversed

The capacity of humans and animals to successfully navigate the world around them is supported by a process known as path integration. Path integration concerns the use of sensory information during locomotion to perceive distances traveled and angles turned by the body during locomotion. In our research we investigated the contributions of visual and kinesthetic information to perception of the distances traversed as a person are moves through the world. Kinesthetic information concerns the information derived from the movements of the body. Previous research has shown that when kinesthetic information is the primary source of information for path integration (i.e. participants are blindfolded), information about the distance depends upon the way in which the legs are coordinated (e.g. skipping vs. running). Specifically, in distance matching tasks, in which participants traverse a distance in an initial “study phase”, and then attempt to travel a matching distance in a “test phase”, systematic biases in test phase reports are observed to result from the manipulation gait patterns in the study phase. In our study we investigated the contributions of both visual and kinesthetic information in path integration. We analyzed whether the coordination of the legs would be influenced by the availability of visual information during the task. Although a main effect of vision was observed, the presence or absence of vision did not attenuate the systematic bias resulting from the manipulation of the manner in which the limbs were coordinated. More research is needed to understand this finding