Biology subjects

da Eira Silva, V.

Publications and source records attributed to da Eira Silva, V..

2 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2024

The interplay between motor cost and self-efficacy related to walking across terrain in gaze and walking decisions

Movement-related decisions, such as where to step and which path to take, happen throughout each day. Shifts in gaze serve to extract task-relevant information necessary to make these decisions. We are only beginning to appreciate the factors that affect this information-seeking gaze behaviour. Here, we aimed to determine how a persons belief in their ability to perform an action (i.e., self-efficacy) affected gaze and path choice when choosing between walking paths with different terrains and/or lengths (reflecting different energetic costs). We demonstrated that, when manipulated separately (i.e., paths had different lengths or different terrains), participants looked longer and more frequently and chose the paths with either less expected energetic cost or those for which they had a higher self-efficacy rating. When encountering environments where paths differed in both length and terrain, participants directed gaze progressively more to the longer path as the self-efficacy rating of this path increased and the disparity in rating with the shorter (less costly) path grew; they also chose the higher-rated path more frequently regardless of path length. These results provide evidence for a contribution of self-efficacy and energetic cost in guiding gaze and walking decisions. Interestingly, self-efficacy beliefs appear to play a more dominant role in both behaviours.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2023

Fork in the road: how self-confidence about terrain influences gaze behaviour and path choice

Decisions about where to move occur throughout the day and are essential to life. Different movements may present different challenges and affect the likelihood of achieving a goal. Certain choices may have unintended consequences, some of which may cause harm and bias the decision. Movement decisions rely on a person gathering necessary visual information via shifts in gaze. Here we sought to understand what influences this information-seeking gaze behaviour. We had participants choose between walking across one of two paths that consisted of images of terrain commonly found in either hiking or urban environments. We manipulated the number and type of terrain of each path. We recorded gaze behaviour during the approach to the two paths and had participants rate their self-confidence about walking across each type of terrain as though it was real. Participants did not direct gaze to the path with greater visual information, regardless of how we quantified information. Rather, we show that a persons self-confidence about their motor abilities predicts how they visually explore the environment with their eyes as well as their choice of action. The greater the self-confidence about walking across one path, the more they directed gaze to it, and the more likely they chose to walk across it. Overall, our results reveal a key role of a cognitive factor (self-confidence) in decision-making during a natural, movement-related behaviour.

neuroscience↗