object fixation

[mizzbananie]

i learned about object fixation when i was taking scooter lessons.. it's when you actually head directly towards the object that you're trying to avoid. i see the kids do it at soccer quite often.. trying to avoid the opponent, they throw the ball directly to her.

anyway.. on my way home from work, near the bottom of a fierce hill is a pothole with an arrow pointing directly at it painted on the road. i can't avoid it without driving too far into traffic or too close to the curb. each and every day i nearly fall victim to object fixation while trying to avoid that stupid hole.

does this ever happen to you?

[shootingstar]

Does this transfer to any biking experiences of yours?

[Tuckervill]

I used to have a serious problem, when driving, of object fixation on road kill. I hate looking at it, but it's almost like i HAVE to. And then I would experience all those sad emotions about the little animal.

So, I decided that when I saw some in the distance, instead of looking at it the whole time, I would put my hand up and block the line between it and my eyes. After doing that all the way from Arkansas to Portland, OR, I finally learned to just avert my eyes.

If you can avoid the pothole without looking at it, just know it's coming, take note of it way far away from it, and then do anything to look away or interrupt your gaze. You CAN just *decide* not to look at it. It helps if you decide in advance.

Karen

[Zen]

I've heard about this before. It often happens to disabled cars parked along the highway.
It's a fascinating phenomenon.

I have no insight, but someone totaled my car that I had to leave on the highway. Not recently tho. I'm over it.

[RolliePollie]

I really had a problem with this during my first year of cycling. Didn't matter what it was...a rock, a pinecone, a piece of garbage...if I tried to avoid it, I'd run over it. Every time. My cyclist friend said I had a bad case of Object Fixation. Luckily, I'm now enjoying my third season of cycling and I am proud to say I have developed the ability to avoid objects and hazards in the road (most of the time ).

[witeowl]

Yeah, this seems to be a common human trait. The good news is that you can use it to your benefit at other times. If you're ever in a skid in your car or otherwise feel like you're losing control, look at where you want to go. It actually helps you get there.

Is the arrow pointing to the hole from the side or from the front? If it's from the side, I'd suggest that you fixate on the middle of the arrow, but if it's from the front, well...

Maybe you should bring a can of spray paint the next time you go and draw yourself a nice dashed line (or a happy face) in the middle of your narrow-but-safe path. That way you can fixate on that and that'll guide you through safely. Or at least, that would be the theory.

[OakLeaf]

Here's a little piece about target fixation I read a few years ago. I liked it so well that I made a copy, and glad I did, because the site where I originally read it is gone. It's a lot easier to let your attention drift on a bicycle - or I should say, the need for constant focus is more apparent on a motorcycle - but the same principles apply.

If you're target fixating on something on the road, you're looking down too much. Pick your eyes up 10 degrees and look 10-12 seconds into your future path.

I limped over to the side of the road and sat down to wait
for the State Patrol. My bike was a twisted lump and my knee
was swelling to the size of my head. I picked up a chunk of
asphalt and started pounding it on the ground. I was so angry
with myself that it was an effort not to pound it into my head.
Mainly, I resisted because it seemed like an awful waste to give
myself a concussion ten minutes after using up a top of the line
Shoei.

I thought I knew what I'd done wrong. I wasn't in the turn too
hot, I wasn't wide. I just target fixated on the mini-van in the
oncoming lane, panicked, stood my bike up when I should've
gassed it, and rode right into him. A couple of weeks later,
someone asked me what I'd learned from the crash. Nothing I
didn't already know, I said. It wasn't until my knee healed up
and I got my new bike that the learning process began.

When I rode my new Yamaha out of the dealership, I had to
work just to see more than five bike lengths in front of me. It
seems that in that single freeze-frame moment of target
fixation, my vision had tunneled down to the size of a mini-van at
thirty feet, and stayed there. As I rode more and more miles
pushing myself to widen my eyes, I realized that the problem
that caused me to crash had started long before that day. My
eyes had been getting lazy. My vision was too narrow. The
second that mini-van swung into view, it was already occupying
way too much of the frame.

I should've been aware of my entire field of vision, with
something like 25% of my attention devoted to the part of the
road I wanted to go toward, 5% my husband riding ahead of
me, 5% fixed hazards like potholes or oil slicks, 10% minivan,
and the remainder a potential source of both moving hazards
and escape routes. Instead, I was mainly just seeing the road
up to where it turned out of view. In a right-hander, that meant
that anything in the oncoming lane would actually take up more
of my attention than anything else. My eyes saw the minivan
and not much else, my brain decided I was going to hit it, and
my body did just what it should when a collision is unavoidable. I
slowed down. And caused the crash.

Words like "Zen" and "centering" come easily to most riders
when we talk about maintaining our focus. That's natural,
because when your life depends on constant, instantaneous
kinetic response to sensory information, that's about as
integrated as most people's minds and bodies ever get. So when
the topic of centering came up on an email list I subscribe to, it
surprised me to learn that some motorcyclists' heads explode
when they hear that word. But spontaneous human combustion
aside, it made me realize that for people who don't regularly
practice meditation without wheels, it's easier to check ourselves
for something more concrete-like whether our minds are aware
of everything our eyes are taking in. I call it "seeing with my
whole eyes." And I check myself for it as often as I check my
mirrors.

When a company talks about "vision," they mean the ability to
see all the possibilities they can take advantage of, and the
preparedness to adapt smoothly to whatever happens next. For
me, vision is what exuberant, safe motorcycling is all about.

[indigoiis]

I get it when riding behind my husband.

[GLC1968]

I used to have a problem with this when mountain biking - I kept hitting trees because I kept fixating on them (when trying to avoid them!).

I started trying to use this trait to avoid them by fixating on the opening between the trees instead of on the tree. It really make a huge difference. I do this now when I'm on the road, too. Yesterday, I was able to navigate a patch of large rocks/gravel on the road by aiming for the pathways between the rocks (and NOT looking at the rocks at all).

[witeowl]

I get it when riding behind my husband.

So do I. Your hubby's cute.

(I kid.... I kid....)

[badger]

I became intimately aware of this phenomena when I was learning to snowboard. Your body basically follows the direction of your head, and if you look at something, your body seems to just go in that direction.

I remember coming so close to hitting children or other learners on the hill because I really wanted to avoid them but inevitably headed their way so I'd have to crash myself to avoid them.

sometimes when I'm driving long distances I'm afraid I'll do just that when I see things along the road.

[ny biker]

I used to do mountain bike rides with Trips for Kids, and we always told them: Look where you want to go! Look to your future!

Of course it took a long time for me to actually follow that advice. Like GLC1968 I tended to look at the tree instead of the path next it.

[7rider]

anyway.. on my way home from work, near the bottom of a fierce hill is a pothole with an arrow pointing directly at it painted on the road. i can't avoid it without driving too far into traffic or too close to the curb. each and every day i nearly fall victim to object fixation while trying to avoid that stupid hole.

does this ever happen to you?

Every day? Who painted the arrow? How long has the hole (or the arrow) been in the road? I'd recommend calling your local public works department and telling them about an unsafe pothole that needs to be fixed, pronto.

That said, yup....object fixation is common. I know it well from mountain biking and skiing. See an obstacle = hit an obstacle.

[shootingstar]

Methinks I'm annoyingly accurate on object fixation ...on little things on pavement ahead.

ie. looking at a stone to avoid..and my wheel goes over it. Sometimes these are the size of a tiny pea.

I've become a cycling robot.

[OakLeaf]

Really, the soft focus or "seeing with my whole eyes" discussed in the article I posted, really does help. Not only in avoiding target fixation, but avoiding tunnel vision, which is really the same thing as the author found out.