Action strategies of individuals during aperture crossing in nonconfined space

Abstract

Walking through cluttered environments is a requirement of everyday locomotion, and individuals will walk toward open space and adjust their actions in order to prevent injury. When walking in a confined space, individuals require a shoulder rotation to pass through apertures smaller than 1.3 times their shoulder widths. The current study aimed to identify the action strategies employed by young adults to avoid contacting two obstacles placed in the travel path when walking in a nonconfined space. Participants (N = 12) walked along a 10-m path towards a goal while avoiding two vertical obstacles specifically placed to create an aperture (of 0.6 to 1.8 times the participants' shoulder widths) on opposite sides of the travel path midline. Results showed that participants walked around obstacles that were separated by less than 1.4 times their shoulder width (i.e., critical point). When participants deviated from their initial travel path, they did so by maintaining a consistent protective zone, regardless of the aperture width. The protective zone had dimensions of 3.80 m in the plane of progression and of 0.30 m between themselves and the obstacles at the time of crossing. This study demonstrates that individuals use body-scaled information to control actions in nonconfined space similar to that used in confined space.