l-15

orientation, H. E. Ross. bstrac.

t'ovnent and Uotor Skills

in Divers.

The orientation of divers undr water is disturbed by sevral factors. Visual factors inctude: optical disorti.on caused by refraction at the facenask in vatr; lolr visibility; war.er novement; absent or nisleading visual Iandrnarks; a;d. loss of vj.sion. uditory factors includ distortion Feripheral of angul.ar localisation and poor di.stanc 1ocalisation. Vestibular factors include alternobaric vertigo, narcosis and High Pressure Nervous Syndron. Tactife-kinasthtic factors incl.ud! reducd tactil stinutation; reduced awarness of lihb position; rducd kno\,rledg of achivd Loconotion; d.istorted sense of body and object \^'eight; and a disruption of motor skil1s. Introduction. The divr operats in a hostile environnent which dprives and distorts his senses in various ways. The physiotogicI and technical factors affcting manrs survival under *ater have been well describd j.n nlany nanuals. Much 1ss attention has been paid to sensory and notor factors, though ections exist i n s o r n b o o k s ( . 9 . W o o d s a n d L y t h g o e , 1 9 7 1 t R o s s , 1 9 7 4 ; Shilling et aI., 1976; Drew et al., 1-976), and a felv are largely_devoted to th topic (.g. dolfson and Berghage, 1.974; Krnney, 1985). This rviw concntrates nainly on \irork since 19?4, though earlir works ar nentioned wher they are of special relevanc or ale not well known. The altred physical and sensory nvironnht can give rise to nisprceptions of bodily orintation and rnovernent. There are nany _contributing factors, affecting the visual, auditory, vesibular and tacti le-kinaesthetic sysCns - all ot wni interact in controlfing posture and novnent. Visual
.lhli -.I

factors.
hi c+^'l. i ^h

j.n watr. The unprotcted huhan eye is extremty long-sighted polrer of the corna is lost, beause the densiThe rfractiv ty of th corna is sinilar to that of rdatr. This results in a loss of focussing power of about 45 diopters (Kinny 1985). Norrnal focussing is restord if a facernask is worn, allowing the eye to operate in air, Ho\.rever, thi6 introducs a distoition alue to rfraction of light at the air/glass/watr interfac: the rays are refractd away frorn the norrnal when passj"ng froin th denser lrater into the less dense air. This causes an angular enfargement of about 4/3, and a reduction in the inage distanc to about 3/4 of th physical distance. It also causs curvature distorlion, th deviation increasing towards the

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periphery of a flat facemask in aecordanc lrith the sine Iaw of refraction. Thse distortions affct the perceived size and prceived distance of objects, and their angular orintation when not in th centre of the field of view. Non-central objects appear rnore displaced towards the peri.phery than they j-s that an inexperienced diver tnds to real.Iy are. The result rnisrach for objects he underreaches for all objects, and reaches too far to the left for obiects on he lef and too far to th right for objcts on th right. For th sarne !ason he rnay perceive th orientation of his had Lrith respct to a non-central object as having too larg a deviation. This could affect the direction in vhich a diver swirns, if h is attempting to navigat at an angle to a tandnark. Refraction also causes a distortion of slop. divr swimning along the seabed wifl s a flat surface rising torn'ards hin in the distance. This should di.stort a diverrs DrcDtion of the - but thre appear to be no xperiments on tru horizontat this hatter. Sinilarly a diver looking up will se th surface as tilting down in the distanc. l'los divers show sone dgree of inrndj.ate adaptation to ths distortions, follL'd by slour subsequent adaptation and by opposite aftereffects on return to Iand (se revielrs by Welchr 1978; Kinney, L985). daptation probably involves an appropriate change in the galn of the vestibulo-ocular (VOR), reflex as has ben shown for hagnifying Ienses in air (cauthier and
l<Olf,InSOn19l51-

Low visibility and Distance Prcption. visibility is huch poorer in rater than in air, ven in th clearest lrater. Th fin particles in the water scatter anl absorb the Iight, the effect varying vith the r^'avelength. Bfue Iight is scattered and red absorbed, giving c]ar nrater a blue cast. dditionally there rnay b yllowish vegetable nattr and other natrial in rivers and coastal- water, producing a gren appearance; or red rnaterial in a peat loch, giving a dark reddish brown appearance. These effects systenatically alter the perceived colours of objcts, dpending on their depth and on their hori.zontal and vrtical distance fron th viwr. Changes in colour do not in themsIves affecl a dj.verts sens of orientation. Hovrever, th narkd loss in colour and brightnss contrast vhen viewing objcts horizontafl-y tnakes then appear too far away in the distanc. This is sinilar to viewing objects in a fog on land - an effect known as aerial perspectiv (see Ross 1975). The increase in prceivd distance j.s the opposite of th ffct caused by th distortion of the fcenask. Th result of these cotnbind distorlions is that objcts appar too near at short distancs and too far at lonqi distances, the changeover point j-ncreasing rfith th clarity of the water. ft can vary fron about on ntr in rnurky vater to about 20 n i.n the clearest uater. It might b thought tht stereoscopic inforrnation would override aeriaf perspective and ensure that objects are seen at their optical distance. Howevr, srereopsis is frequenlly overridden by conflicting infornation. stereopsis is particularly poor in !,/ater, being reducd by a factor of thre or nore cornpared to air. I,hi1e facenask nagnification should

117

ihprove steroacuity, in practice it is dgraded by such factors as low luninance contrast, the ihpoverished visual scn, Ioss of pripheral vision, and perhaps inappropriate aqcommodation (see Kinny, 1985) . other cus that nornally assi.st distance perception in air are txtur gradints and notion para1lax. Txture gradienls ar absent or tnuch reduced in host underwatr scens. It is claind that motion parallax contributes little under water, perhaps because rfraction distorts the nornaf rlation bt$ren had or ye novenents and novrnent of the rtj.na1 inag (Frris, 19?4), Sped Prcptj.on, Distortions of percivd siz and disCanc contribut to distortions of the prceivd speed of objcts. percived velocity is prtly determind by the perceived distance travlfd over perceived tirn. civen consistent tilll sirnates. objcts travlling across the line of sight should appear to travl further in the sane tih, and thus faster than in air. Objcts travelling at close distances afong the lin of sight, to!,rards or away frorn the divr, should appar to travl a strorter distanc and thus nore slovrly than in air. Sbeed distoreions in the predictd directins were found b'y noss and Rejnlan (19?2), t greater dj.stancs, where percived distancs increase due to aerial prspctive, an increase in perceivd speeal vould b predictd. However, this has not ben testd. subjects partially adapt to thes distortions after several ninutes of vearing a facenask in vater, and shov ngative (reversed errors) in air. afterffects Factors ffecting tunbient Vision. Whnthe diver descends sufficiently dep his visual acuity suffrs due to the rduction in the liqht 1evel throuqh absorption by the particles in the waterl In clear ocea water in good daylight, photopic vision (illunination greatr than about 3cd/n, ) rnay continu to dpths of abou 1O0-3OOm; rnesopic and then scoopic conditions (illunination less than 10-3 cd,/n') hold at greater depths, sone useful vision continuing to about 5OO-l-OOon.Th thoretical depth Iinit is hard to catculae, as it depends on the attenuating properties of the water at diffrent wavelengths and on th critical wavelenqths for the scotopic ye (Kinny, 1985) . In turbid water or overcast conditions th chahge to scotopic vision is of course reached at nuch shallower depths. Low illuhrination affects visual acuity, the lurninanc contrast neded for object dtction rising froh about 2? in photopic conditions to 10? in nesopic condiLiohs and 3Og in scotopic conditions. Ho!,revr, th reducd illunination has less ffect on divr orientation, sinc the anbint orienting systen operates satisfactorily at Inesopic leveLs. Peripheral vision contributs to ambient orintation, bu! the field of view is seriousl-y reduced by the divr's facenask. It j-s possible to us a large vrap-around nask, but these are not popular due to the difficulty of cleari-ng the large air space and to the increased optical distortion in the priphery. For nost facernasks in water the useful horizontal fiId of view is

118

rduced to about 80-85 degres, conpard to 180-190 dgres in air without a \ask (I(inny, 1985). This leads to a reduction in sensitivity to priphral movnent, and a deterioration in stereoacuity and depth percption. The anbient orienting systen is particularfy snsitiv to optic flow and to vertical and horizontal lines, all of which 1ay be nisleading under vratr. Waves and currenis rnav Droduce straning of particles and pl.ants past a diver, inauciirg the sensation that he is noving in th opposite direction (vection) . The underlvater topography is usualty ]acking in good visual indicators of the vrtical and horizontaL. The sabed nay slope, plants nay grow out of cliffs at an anqle to the vertical, and nan-nade objects such as shiprrrecks tend to tie at an ang1e. The visual infornation available for orientation is thus nuch irnpaird under watr. uatitory factors.

uditory Loss and Diretional Sensi.tivity. uditory information norrnally contributel to spatiat orientation. Howver, th density of water causes ]oses and distortions for the auditory systen, just as it does for the visual systrn. The hunan ear functions poorty in vater, probably operating by bone conduction rather than by the rn-iddle ear: ther is a loss of sensitivity of about 30:60 decibls conpared to air, th differnce increasing with the frequenqy (Hollin and Feinstein, 1976). There is al,so a losa of directional sensitivity, the minihurn discrirninable anql-e beinq much greater than in air at aII angles. Discrininatio; is bes for broad-band noise and for 1or1r frequencis, and ihproveE! vJith head hovenents and with training (Gotrs, t-972; HoLlien and Finstein, 19?6). Man can localize pulsed nhit noise undr vater to an accuracy of about 9-1.0 degrees undr the best cnditions. Though this perfornance is poorer than in air (which has a naxirnum accuracy of about t degreel , it Is conparable to that of narine marnals. The Ioss of sensitivity is partly due to the loss of one of the maj.n binaural cues - the j-ntensity differnce bewen the two ars. This occurs bcuse the hea in water is acoustically transparent, the dnsity of the had and vatr being siniIar. Th head no longer casts a sound shadon, so tha the intnsity of sound at the tl^ro ears renains sinilar rqardless of the angle of incidence. The other main binaura] cu, the thporal diffrnce betveen th two ears, is al.so affcted. The speed of transnission of sound in air is 335 li,/s, but this increases to 1437 t/s in frsh !,rater and about 15Ob rn sea watr - an increase by a factor of 4.0-4.5. This leducs th nteraural ternporaf difference to about a quartr of th air valu, effectivly shrinking the diver's had to about the size of a golf ball in air. It is perhaps renarkable that hurnans retain any local-ization ability in watr. Distoftion of Auditory Local i zation. uditory localization is distorted as wl1 as rduced. Th reductlon in the interaural tnporal diffrence causes sounds to be distorted towards the ndian plane. sound source at 90

119

degres to th right or left in vatr should b equivalent to one at 17 degrees to the front or back in air. This thortically leaves a large auditory lacuna (equivaLnt to a tblind spot') to ach side of the headr conpressing the apparent fild to a cone of 34 degres to th front and back. auditory Becaus of the dj,stortion, a diver in darkness or zero visibipointing Iity towards a sound source points too clos to the n e d i a n p l a n e ( W e l 1 s a n d R o s s , 1 9 8 0 ). ( T h i s i s t h o p p o s i t e o f of the optical distortion, the effct so such experirrnts nust be perforned blindfold). diver honing in on an invisibl sound sourc located to one sid usually svirns in a wide loop bfore raching th source. Leggiere et at (1970) attrj.buted this effect to a 'randornwalk', vhil Wlls and Ross (1980) clai.ned it vas due to mdia1 bi.as. There is sone evidnce that divers rnay partlally adapt to the medial distortion, showing an afterffct array from the median plane j-mndiatly on returning to air (Wel.ls and Ross, 1980). There is also poor distance localization, due to a reducti.on or distortion of host of th auditory distance cues. There ls a tendency to local-j-zation lrithin the had, haking it vry difficult to locate the source of a noise such as an explosion or a boat I s ngin. Veetibular facors.

divrrs vestibular systen can, in principl, function nornally as in air. Neutral buoyancy does not sirnulate zero gravity: th otoliths continue to respond to gravity even whn th divrrs body is f]oating. However, the vestibular systen (pressure vertigo), is suscptible to alternobaric vrtigo and to sevral other effects relatd to breathing gases at prssur (see reviews by Knndy, 1974; Farmr, 1982). ltrnobaric Vrtiqo. vrtigo can be brought on by a failur to quatise the pressure btwen the middl ar and th outer environtnent. Overpressur of the rniddle ar j.s probabty nore important ttran undrp!ssure. High pressure air trapped in th rniddl ar sohhoi, stirnulats the vestibular systn, causing sensations of rotation, tunbling or tilting. Such incidents occur nore frequently on the ascent nearer th surface, wher prssur changes ale nore rapid and high prssur air is more lj.kely to becorn trapped j.n the niddle ear. Ingelstdt t al (1974) conilucted prssure charnber studis which showed a connection btween vesti,bular nystagmus and asyrnrntrical quilibration of niddte ear pressures during ascents fron shallow depths. Ross (1976) noted that th hrost cornrnon reports froh divers wre of incidents in a had-upright positlon, involving the sensaton of slf-rotation tovards the overprssurd ear, accompanied by fast rotation of the visual world in th san dirction. This is consistent lrith lhe fast phase of nystagmus being towrds the overpressured ear, and th slow phase (trAcking component) ih the opposite di"rction. It is not known whther th direction leverses !,/hen the head is invr!ed, as might be predicted by analogy with other types of vertigo. The effects are sirnilar to that of calorj.c nyslag-

120

rnus, vhj.ch coufd be inplicated if an outr ear bfocked \,/ith wax-or covered by a hood suddenly clars, aflo\,ring access of cold watr to the ear dmn. Rupture of the ear drm (caused by failur to equalise the pressuie on descent) nas sinritar !!cts. Howver, these 1atter two catgories ar rare, and most incidents appar to b cass of alfrnobaric vertigo. Th sensation- o f. bodi l y rotati-on is usually iiinq ""a". warer, probabty because of a 1ack of any tcti).e ontradicti_ on. fh sensation can be inhibited or rduced by clingrng to a fixed objecr. rhis observation ii-antasous to : :I ::_:!l:. z:ero-gravlry. experinents which shor^,that the sensation of Doorry rotatton caused bv a 'rrotating done (rotation -ii"iir" of the ,"'hole visual field) can e reduced uf proviaing ".,". to the astronaut's feet (young et af, isee). Effects of Gass at prssure. Vestibular dconpression sj.ckness, or rvestibular bendsr, may o9."1 ascnding fron rlative1y deep dives (deepr than 9l - vith synptoms.of uisteadiness, about 100 ir;i;"=", _n) ',Isobaric vertigor nay nausea.and voniting. also occur when .":le ls. no change in total atmosphric pressure, but the sublecE braths a dtfferent gas or gas hixture irom th surrounding atrnosphere. In neither cse is he mecninism clearly understood (Shilling et al, 19?6) The High pressure Nervous Synalrone (gpNS) has ben studid in . afect lubjects breal.hins "yn.i.t,.,. qu= I?::..::_."i1 lr-may. r n l x r u r e s a t d e p t h s b l o w b o u t 2 O Om . T h e y n y = i f f e . . r u u . e a and-vertigo, together !,ith disturban... oi uiiun"-na o c u l o r n o t o r s y s t e n ( T r k , I 9 8 2 ) . A n i n c r e a s e i " = i " " " r rtrru ^"" velocity of th VoR has been oserved ut ".rV iriq-p.;;;;;" gses, thoush rhe cause is uncler J-^ir"*un .t :ld.:^:i:.d Brarthwaite et al (19?4) cfairnd that the dizzinss was rlot accohpanied by sustained nystagmus, and ai o f H P N S not origi_ nate froh the vestj-butar end organl Fainer'(see ii."., rsazl suggested that it vas due to a decrease in th normal - cereb1._ 1ar inhibitory rodulacion of the vestibu:.u. n".-iil f"ading to equal increases in the tft. and rignt "e-iiuuia.-!tn"uyr. Gauther (1976) noted synnecrrcal rncreases rn the lft and riqht VOR durinq HPNS. Nitrogn. narcosis lay also play a part in disorientataon. lay. be through general depression f the central nervous This sysEeh, or through.rnore specific ffcts on th vestibular sysrern. lncreass in body sway hav been found in pressure cnanDer studres by Adolfson et aI (1972), Adoftson et al.

es r. r (1e7e). doifsont ar lrei+l touna I l ? l o ) i l d r o nbreathing

::?.^:::]:"!: - co$pressed air at prssures up to 10 A |A. snowd tncreasd bod y s w a y o n a R o m b e r gr a i l s b a l a n c e . tes!,,partLcularly $rith their yes closed. The authors found n o v r q D c o f v e s t l b u l a r c h a n g e s , a n d a s s u h e d t h e C N Sw a s involved. Howver, Harnifton et al (19g6) aia in vstilutar changes in subjects who breathed a rnixture ot zi nitrous oxide - a situation norlally equivalnt to nitrogen narcosis whn breathing air under pressure. The subjects howed an rncrease ol about 502 in the velocity of the slov phase of the

L2L

vOR. This suggess that th vestibular end organs, or the central- pathlrays controlling nystagus, or both, ar affectd by nitrous oxide. The diffrence btven this and earlier studis hlay ]le in th fact that dolfson et al (1,9?O) hasured the nunber of beats and the phase differenc bebvreen stimulus and rspons, whil tlanilton t aI (1986) measured th velocity of the slow phase conponent relative to the slinulus velocity. Prhaps th later measure is nore sensitive co narcosls. ,lhile th current evidence suggsts that gases at pressure nay affect sone aspcts of vestibular control, it does not suggst that they cause a true rotary vertigo sinutar to tha of alternobaric vertigo. facti 1e-Rinasthetic Factors antt coblined Senses.

Buoyancy and Motor skil Is. The upthrust of the water counteracts th forc of gravity, nakj,ng objects fighter o! rnore buoyant by an ahount that varies with thir votum (1 g per cnr). The hunan body is positively buoyant j.n sea vater, and nornally neutral or slight buoyant in fresh vatr. Scuba diver adjusts his wei.ght to be as near nutrally buoyant as possibl-e, though his buoyancy ineviably varies vith dpth and the amount of air Ieft in his cyLinder. Nutral buoyancy sinulates zero gravi.ty to sone exLent, though gravity continues to act on the conponents of the equilj.brium systen. However, th viscosity of the water neans that extra ffort is rquird to nove the \datr aside. Movernent in water thus entaiis different forces from novmnt in air, but whether th force is gratr or ls vali-es with the direction of riovennt. There is reduced tacCile stinufation due to th nuhbinq of the skin through cold, or to its protction nith a thick rubber suit. This, and othr factors such as lack of anchorag, lead to reiluced naniputatory abitity. detrioration has been sho/n n nany rniscellanous 'standard tests' of skills (dolfson and Berghage, I974t Shilling et al, 1976). A gratr undrstanding of th componnts of skills has bn gaind through studies with a rnore theoretical basis. One such conponent is the effective reduction in weight of th diverrs arr and other objects, r,rhich leads to systematic mispercptions of weight and rnass (see Ross, 1981; cassman, 1986). fhre is some degree of initial hass constancy, foltowd by subsequent adaptation and by an aftereffct in air lrhen objects feL too heavy. The ability to distinguish between th wights of objects also dteriorates, partly due to maladaptatj-on and position partly to coLd and other factors. anat force estitnates (see Adolfson and Brghage, t-974) ; subrnerged ar also affected subject tend to ailn too high, take longer to locate and prss push-button swi.tches, and hake incorrect forc estinates. Othr hotor skil1s deteriorat, such as the abitity to tap accurately btwen targt ara (ferr, 1973, 1978; Hancock and Milner, 1982). Errors in such tasks hay b due partly to the ncreased force required to nov the arn against viscous drag, partly to naladaptation lo the altred force and buoyancy effects, and partly to visual distortion of th target areas

when looking into water. systematic sries of exprinents neded to distinguish btwen thse variables.

is

Postur and Knowldge of the VerticaL. The free swirnning divr has little stimulation on th soles of his fet, and a reduced loadj.ng on the gravity-resisting joints. This loss of information should lead to a reducaion of awareness of linb position, as it does under zero gravity (Watt et al, 1985). Howvr, th question does not appeai to have been investigated. There is no doubt that knowl-edge of the gravitationaL vertical is reduced under water, du to impoverj.shed visual and sonesthetic infornation. Invstigators have used rnany differnt nethods and hav come up with lridly varied stinates of angular errors, ranging froro 4-180 degres (See Ross, 1971i dolfson and Berghag, 1974; Shilling et aI, 1975). Many rnvstj.gators strappd their btindfold subjects to chairs or tilt tabls in a pool, tilted thn, and thn rquired then to point to th verticat or readjust their body to the vertical. Th Inan error estinats wer about 7 degrees in the upright position and about 3O dgrees vhen inverted; and the errors ncrased vith the length of exposur to a given tilt angl. such errors are considrably larger than fo! the quivalnt tests in air. Ross et al (1969) appar o have been th only j-nvsiqators to test free swirnning Scuba divrs in the sea. Thy ased -surnersaults, thir subjects to disorient themselvs by turning and.then to align their lrunk, extend thir arm nd point with their finger to the gravitational vertical. They did this eithr upright or invrted, and either with vision or blindfold. the- divers were photographed bsj.de a plurb line by tvo photographers al 90 degrees to each other. re angular dviations wer neasureil fron th photographs, and th naxinurn deviation caLculated. The rnean errors for pointinq with the f i n g e r r , r h nf u l l y s i g h t d w r e 8 . 1 d g r e e s u p r i g h i a n d 2 4 . 1 deqrees j"nvered; and when blindfold they lrere l-6.8 and 29,6 dgrees rspect ivIy. The typical direction of rror in the upright position was pitch forlrard, but the dirction vas no-re varitte when inverted. vell-balanced inverted diver has lhe head slidh+r' dorsiftexed, in " "i^iiai posili.on to .n lnviia ;;;;;;i "" land (Cl.nnt and Rezette, 1985), but few divers achieved this. Th.rrors in aligning th trunk were sonetirnes greater and sonetines less than that for the finger. When uprigh, both trunk and fingr nornally show a pitch forward er;or, but. pointing errors when inverted they nay show differnt errors. could be du to uncertainty over arn and finger position in relation to th trunk, in addition to uncrtainty of head/trunk orientation. Th diversr accuracy was, as expectd, greater \'j.th nomal visj-on than whn blindfold; but it sias poorer !'ith 'rrrhiteoutr visio4 Lhan whn blindfold. The lattr ffect was shovrn in a second exprirnen in which h diver !/ore a scratchd perspex plat over the facenask, to itnitat 'whiteout' or tov-visiLility conditions: the whitout nask gave grater errors than a

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blackout nask, particul,arly whn th divr ra'asuprigh, The effect may occur because attention to a valueless source of information interferes with lhe ability to us othr nore reliabf sources. Iternatively, it nay b that the subjct uses the nil visual input as evidence that he has not noved, An upright diver attmptlng to settte in a slight pitch forward posi.tj-on nay thus overshoot in the absence of visual feedback, resulting in an exaggrated rror. This interpretation is consistent with findings that stabilizd vision leads to greater pitch forward rror both on land (Vidal et al, 1982) and in zero gravity (cl-nent et at, 1995). As in previous studis, rrors were always greater in th invrtd posi.tion than upright. This nay be due to inexperience of th invrtd position, or to difficulties in baLancing in that postur; or it nay b because the vstibular system is 'blj.nd spot'). less efficint in that rang (the vestibular The contribution of th otoliths to orientation is known to b greatest in th head-upright position on land (e.g. Schn, 1975; Young t al, 19?5), and the contribution of the visual and sonesthetic systns is probably greatst when invrtd. Since the sonsthetc input is reducd undr water, the diverrs sense of orientation is particutarly inpaired when invrtd. Indeed, sone authors have found an underwater irnparnent for the subjctive vertical only in the 'head downl position (Schne, 1964; I,lad, 1"973). prior adaptation to an off-vrtical tilt affects th subjectiv vertical, but Lchner-st inleitnr and Schne (1980) found no obvious difference betv?en wet and dry conditiohs in this respect. Locomotj.on and Gographical orintation. Ther is inadequate fedback under watr about the effects of oners onn locornotion. The diver has difficulty in knowing hovr far he has swun, lrhat dpth h is at, and whether he has halntaind a straight line or not. Errors can occu! evn lrhen using navigational aids. ndersen (1968) studied course and dpth kping. H investigated navigation accuracy by lhe extent to r^'hich divrs using rnagnetic conpasss devi-ated from a cours ovr a range of 235 n at a dpth of 10-12 n. He found an avrage deviation of about 22 n, or 5.2 degrs, in compass heading. With practice this was reduced to about 16 m or 3.9 dqrees. Errors wer cohmonly du to an rror of arn positi-on - the faifur to hold the cohpas parall1 to the fongitudinal axis (direction of nolion) of the body, Another conrnon mistake was to look down instead of sighting ahad ovr the conpass, causing a t\porary loss of orintation. ndersen also studied depth-kping in divers using depth gauges. Subjcts vho were neutrally buoyant or 1 kg ngative tnded to swirn about 0.5 l too high at first, and then to sink to about I n too Iov. Subjects 3-4 kg negative slran slightly too Iow at first, the ertor then increasinq to about 1.5 rn too low . without vision or navigational aids the difficulties ar much g r e a t r . R o s s , D i c k i n s o n a n d J u p p ( 1 , 9 7 O )j . n v e s t i g a t e d t h i s !,/ith a 'triangle compltionr task, in !,7hich the subject swarn
blindfold round two sides F !riral h^ldrhd

gud1ine, and thn attnrpted to s$ri! unguided back to the starting post. The divers tendd to swim too far, and to turn through too srnall and ahgle conpard ldrith walking on Land. Both these tendencies wer confirrnd in further xperinents bv these authors. Blindfold divrs genrally swin in curved paths rathr than straighL t ,u r i a t e n d n c y a l s o f o u n d i n p e o p l e w a l k i n q i n f . d F -"

land.

straight line, nake 90 dgree turns to the left and right, and a 180 dgree turn. The ndian rror was 12 degres. Errors to th lft and right wre about quaI, and individual subjects were fairly consistent in thir dirction of rror lrhether thy vere waring Scuba tanks or not, and whether they lrere swinrning blindfol.d or sightd in low visibilitv watr about 2 n) . Errors were not correlated with hand or foL preference, or with the relative strength of the tgs. Luria (1979b) also found that errors wer not corrcted by using svinfins of unequal l"ength, or attaching a rudder to th Scuba tank. The bias is probably of central origin, perhaps due to an asynnetry of vestibular functioning or to an irnbalance in the finaesthtic senss. we normally see stationary oblects as sttionary, dspite howenent of th rtinal inage causd by our own ey, head or body novennts. It is somtines argued that vj-sual stability occurs because the brain cohpensates for th effects of such rnovennts. .Others argue that corrction is unnecessary, since object motion is sen only i,rhn objcts nove in relation to other objects. The contribution of active and passiv r,^.iw

(r-e?ea) had urinior d;;;;-";;;;'i't.".ii.r-l

movenntsto visual stabiliiy

Lennt-e (1969), by observing the apparen movnnt of aftrimags and of fixed lights vhen swirnhinq. A betaliqht a snall glowing light) was fi.xed in a blacke-out face mask, to provide a stihulus that was fixed in relation to the diver,s itead novenents. In addition, an aftrinage was obtained flon a flashgun, to provid a stinulus that was fixed in relation to eye novennts. when !^rearing lhe nask the outside worlil cannot be sn, so any apparent novennt of th betalight or afterirnage nust be due to correction for ye rnovenens or sel.f rnotion. Whn a diver noves activly (.g. turns a for\rard sornrsauft), he initialty ses the btalight and afterrmage jerk back in the opposite direction to hj.nself (upvards in this case). the afterinage rnoving a Io further tan the btalight. s he continus to nove in the sane direction the afterrnage and btalight gradually return to centre, and both appear to nove with hi-h. Th initial disptacenent of the betalight rnay be due to an unconpensated rf]ex eye rnovenent? but this is unlikely sinc th aflerinaq noves in the sarne dirction, and rnay appea! to hove right outside the visual field. While the initil effct is hard to exptai-n, th subsequent steady novehnt of the light and afterinage shov that th.visual stability systen colrects dequatIy for active bodily novennt,Th apparent movhent is seen only during active or intnded novhent, Slov passiv novement - sinXing, - has no effect. rising and drifting diver nay atternpt to s\,rim upsrards, but actually sink: h then ss the betaliqht as

""i i"".ir'i.-tv-n.!-ia

rising up with hin, even though lte nay know fron pressure changes in his ars that he is sinking. This obsrvation dernonsrates that rcognitiv! infornation about depth and hovement does not fed into the visual stability system. It sens that th diver qorrects for his intndd rather than his actual bodily novenent. civen the reduction in snsory fedback unClr watr, one rnight expect divers to undrstinate the distance they have travet}ed. Ross, Dickinson and Jupp (1970) found that when svirnrning horizontally along a rope on the seabd (depth about 15n) , inexprienced divers lended to slrin too far whn askd to reproduce distances of about 5-25 n. this was true both wit(about hout vlsion, and with vision in !,'ater of low visibi.li.ty 5 rn). Ross and Franklin (1976) asked sightd divrs to descend t a spcifid depth (without looking up) . t shallov dpths (lss than about 11 n) they s.!.ran too dp, thus underestinating thir tru dpthi but at greater depths they did not descnd dep nough, thus overestinating their depth. Ross, King and Snowdn (19?0) led diver to various depths btvrn 3 and 20 n and thn asked then o look up to the surface and nk a verbal judgenent of its distance: divrs initially underestihatd their depth, but their judgnents inprovd with practice. cassnan (l-985) found that \^'hen sightd di.vers followed a rop dor,rn the sloping bed of a quarry, thy tnded to estinate their depth as shallowe! than it was. The underestination incrased over the depth 3-15 m, and was grater for xperinced ttran novic divrs. Th conflict bet!n thse findings is probably due to th natur of th test (whthr a nurnerical- stinate fron a givn position, or a requirernnt to swirn to a stated depth or distance), and to the experience of prone to anxiety, and th subjects. Novics are particularly nost subjects prfer lo err on the side of safely when askd to swirn dep. nxiety nay have Iittle ffct on nunerical stinates, or on horizontal swinning at shallow dplhs. It is clear that lnor systernatic sludies are needed to uncover the variables affecting the estination of distance travelled. Rferences, Adolfson, J.. and Brghag, T.E. (1974), Prception and Prfornanc Undr Water. New York! Wiley. AdoLfson, J.4., Bjerver, K., Fluur, E. and coldbrg, L. (1970). Vestibular ractions duling hyperbaric conditions. Foersvarshedicin 6 : 243-238, Adolfson, J.A., Bjelver, K., Fluur, E. and Goldberg, L. (1.974). Balanc disturbance in nan at 10 ATA anbint air pressu r. Foersvarsmdicin 10: 14I -156.
l^^r'.^.
J i 1, uur ql E r 9

of increased ambient air pressures on standing steadiness in n a n . e r o s p a c eM e d . 4 3 : 5 2 0 - 5 2 4 . Andersen, B.G. (1988). Diver perfornance measu!lrent: Underwatr navigation, dpth naintenancer weight carrying capabilities. Hunan Factors Section, Efectric Boat Division, ceneral Dynahics, Groton, Conn. Rf. No. U-417-68-030.

Braithra,aite, I,I.R., Berghag, T.E. and Crothers. J.C. (19?4). Posural equilibrj.ul and vestibufar response at 49.5 TA. U n d e r s a B i ^ o r n e dR . es. 1:309-323. Clrnent, G. and Rztte, D. (1985). Motor behavior underlying the control of an upside-down vertical posture. Exp. Brain Res.59:478-484. C]nent, c., Vievj.lle, T., Lestj-nne, F. and Berthoz, . (1.985). Prlininary rsults of the ,equilibrium and vertigo' proc: experirnent performd during STS 51-c shuttle f1ight. 2nd Int. Conf. on Space Physiot. Toul.ouse, France, Nov. 2O22. (Es SP-237), L29-135. Drel1',E.., Lythqo, J.N. and Woods, J.D, (Eds.) (1976). Underwater Resealch. Londonl cadenic prss. Farner, J.C. Jr. (1-982). Otological and paranasal sinus problerns in diving. In: Th physiology and Medicine of Diving and Conprssed ir Work, ed. Bennett, p.B. and Eltiott, D.H. London: BailIir, Tindall and CassII. pp. 5O7-536. Ferrrs, S.H. (L974). Motion parallax and distance estirnation underwatr. Percpt. Mot. Skilts 3A1747-750. Gassman,N. (1.985). comparison of depth estination btveen novice and experienced sport divers. J. Sports Sciences -31. 3 r 2'7 G a s s h a n , N . ( 1 9 8 6 ) , F a c t o r s a f f e c t i n g t h e a p p a r e n t heaviness of objects under water. M.Sc. Thesis, Departnent of Psychol-ogy, University of Stirting. c a u t h i e r , c . r . , . ( 1 9 7 6 ) . I t e r a t i o n s o f t h e h u n a n vestibuloocular reflex in a sinulated dive at 62 . Undrsea Bioned. Res.3:L03-112.
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