To invert or not to invert? The question of whether to flip the Y-axis in games is often answered with recollections of childhood habits and/or varyingly smug declarations of which joystick setting is ‘better’. Now, though, a cognitive research study posits that our control preferences are less about whether or not we played GoldenEye after school and more about the innate quirks of our brains.
As reported by Keith Stuart at The Guardian, Dr Jennifer Corbett and Dr Jaap Munneke’s paper ‘Why axis inversion? Optimizing interactions between users, interfaces, and visual displays in 3D environments’ details their experiments into control inversion choices. After answering a questionnaire about whether and why they think they use invert controls or not, participants were tasked to, as Corbett puts it, “mentally rotate random shapes, take on the perspective of an ‘avatar’ object in a picture, determine which way something was tilted in differently tilted backgrounds, and overcome the typical ‘Simon effect’ where it’s harder to respond when a target is on the opposite v the same side of the screen as the response button.”
These experiments, the study claims, indicated that none of the participants’ stated reasons for rejecting or embracing inversion “had anything to do” with their actual choice. “It turns out,” Corbett says, “the most predictive out of all the factors we measured was how quickly gamers could mentally rotate things and overcome the Simon effect. The faster they were, the less likely they were to invert. People who said they sometimes inverted were by far the slowest on these tasks.”
Or, as Stuart puts it, “It’s much more likely that you invert or don’t invert due to how your brain perceives objects in 3D space.” And the speed factor doesn’t mean that electing to invert is a skill issue either, as the study adds that while non-inverters would flip their images at a faster pace, they’d make more mistakes than the cautious inverters, resulting in an overall equal accuracy rate.
I suspect my C grade in GCSE Biology isn’t quite enough to let me give a learned interpretation of these findings, but it sure sounds like the desire to invert is based mainly on unconscious brainworkings – hardly sure footing for any “No, MY way is better” reasoning. Though on a personal level it’s nice to know, as someone who’s always inverted the Y axis on thumbstick controls but can’t remember a reason why, that I don’t actually need a reason. It’s just how I perceive objects in 3D space, guys. I shall continue to go around gaming trade shows, flipping the sticks at all the demo booths and forgetting to reset them, thus leaving a trail of harmless inconveniences like a hallway full of slightly tilted paintings. And it’ll all be fine, because it was basically an accident of birth.
Then again, the study doesn’t entirely reject the impact of learned behaviour, and in fact suggests we try practicing the opposite of our control preference – just in case we’ve convinced ourselves to stick with a method that isn’t a cognitive match.
“Non-inverters should give inversion a try – and inverters should give non-inversion another shot,” Corbett argues. “You might even want to force yourself to stick with it for a few hours. People have learned one way. That doesn’t mean they won’t learn another way even better.
“A good example is being left-handed. Until the mid-20th century, left-handed children were forced to write with their right hand, causing some people to have lifelong handwriting difficulties and learning problems. Many older adults still don’t realise they’re naturally left-handed and could write/draw much better if they switched back.”
Sometimes, when I’m running a quick test of something on the Steam Deck, I leave the Y-axis uninverted just because I can’t be bothered to delve into the menus to change it. Does that count?
