Adapting to virtual environments: Visual-motor skill acquisition versus perceptual recalibration

Virtual environment (VE) technology exposes users to a variety of intersensory and sensory-motor discordances to which they must adapt for optimal performance. Our research has distinguished two types of adaptation: Visual-motor skill acquisition and perceptual recalibration. The first involves learning a new way to coordinate hand and eye, while the second is an automatic, restricted process of perceptual learning. We conclude that an understanding of the controlling conditions and defining characteristics of these two adaptive mechanisms allows one to predict which is the more likely to occur with a given VE and how best to train its users.