Scientists are baffled by people who invert their controllers
University Scientists have become stumped at why players use inverted analog sticks.
03rd Jan 2021 21:31
Images via Psyonix / Sony
Scientists are baffled by people who invert their controllers
University Scientists have become stumped at why players use inverted analog sticks.
03rd Jan 2021 21:31
Images via Psyonix / Sony
Inverted controls are subconsciously one of the most backwards forms of gaming, and you can use them without even noticing. Often, games will switch your Y-axis when controlling aircraft such as planes, helicopters, or in the instance of Rocket League, flying cars. This means when you go to look at the sky you will be actually pulling down on the analog stick, akin to a joystick in a real-life aircraft, yet counter-intuitive of every other form of gaming.
If you're like most, up means up and down means down, however, some gamers actually use inverted controls in every game, and it has scientists absolutely discombobulated. Dr Jennifer Corbett, co-head of the Visual Perception and Attention Lab at Brunel University London's Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience and her colleague Dr Jaap Munneke are one of few who have launched any research behind the bizarre phenomenon, and they're still scratching their heads.
Dr Jennifer Corbett told The Guardian that “From a cognitive perspective, players who don’t invert are ‘acting as’ the avatar, with movement/steering originating from between the avatar’s eyes, controlling the camera.
“Players who invert are ‘acting on’ the avatar, with the controls either behind or on top of the head controlling the avatar.”
Rocket League has inverted Y-Axis when players challenge for "Aerials", meaning their car 'rockets' through the air
After “running remote behavioural and psychophysical experiments” designed to examine how “an individual’s visual perceptual abilities may affect how they interact with both real and virtual environments”, the doctors found that one of the main reasons is familiarity.
“Most research focuses on how people pay attention to individual objects, but humans can’t really process more than a few details at once,” Corbett says. “There’s a gaping hole in our knowledge regarding how our visual perception is heavily dependent on the rest of this vast majority of sensory information. Being able to predict how a person will interact within a given environment or context can bring about monumental advancements in technology.”
This puzzle is far from solved though. According to Corbett, “safety-critical tasks like detecting weapons in baggage scans or tumours in X-rays.” could help develop this research and get to the bottom of why some folk are simply backwards.
About The Author
Jack Marsh
Jack is an Esports Journalist at GGRecon. Graduating from the University of Chester, with a BA Honours degree in Journalism, Jack is an avid esports enthusiast and specialises in Rocket League, Call of Duty, VALORANT, and trending gaming news.
