Hand-eye coordination is about more than catching a ball or hitting a home run. It is, at its most basic level, the process that allows you to pick up a pen, write, clap your hands or drive a car. Infants begin developing the skill as early as four months of age. Deficiency or special ability in hand-eye coordination is detectable in children and adults through the use of some basic experiments.
Processes
Two distinct physical processes contribute to effective hand-eye coordination: motor movement and visual interpretation. Most hand movements require the input from visual stimulation, according to the Encyclopedia of Children's Health. Impaired vision or movement disorders like hypertonia, a rigidity of the muscles, can delay or prevent the development of proper hand-eye coordination.
Pursuit Rotor
A pursuit rotor is nothing more than a circular metal plate marked with a spot near the edge. The plate is powered by a motor that can speed up or slow down at any time without warning you of the change. The object is to hold a stylus on the spot as it rotates and varies its speed. A sensor in the turntable records the amount of time you maintain contact and compares that with the amount of time you lose track of the spot in a given period.
Mirror Tracing
Mirrors disrupt hand-eye coordination because the image in a mirror is reversed and the movements you see are the exact opposite of what your brain is expecting to see. In the mirror tracing experiment, you are given a simple shape and asked to trace its outline on a piece of paper. However, a direct view of your hand and the paper is blocked. Instead, you must trace the design using only a reflection of your hand for reference.
Maze
Astronauts new to the micro-gravity of space almost universally undergo a sudden reduction in hand-eye coordination, but return to normal function within about 96 hours, according to data compiled by the Canadian Space Agency, or CSA. A simple maze test, during which astronauts try to trace a line through a maze without deviating from the borders, reveals the phenomenon. Astronauts who performed the maze and other pointing and reaching tests while strapped into place performed better overall than those who completed the tests while floating weightlessly, according to CSA researcher and York University professor Barry Fowler.
