Can perception of aperture passability be improved immediately after practice in actual passage? Dissociation between walking and wheelchair use

Abstract

Perception of the fit between a person's action capabilities and relevant environmental properties (i.e., affordances) is often fine tuned gradually through experience performing a behavior. However, the immediate effect of such practice on the improvement of affordance perception is unclear. The present study was designed to examine whether a critical factor in the immediate effect of such practice is the opportunity to detect very fine differences between possible and impossible behaviors [i.e., high-resolution (HR) practice]. Participants reported whether apertures of various widths were passable when walking while holding a 69-cm horizontal bar (Experiment 1) or when using a wheelchair (Experiment 2). When practicing passing through apertures, seven different aperture widths, including their minimum passable width (70 cm for both experiments) were presented around the affordance boundary with 1- or 5-cm increments for the HR or low-resolution (LR) conditions, respectively. Accuracy of perception of passability improved following both HR and LR practice when walking. In contrast, no improvement was observed in any condition when using a wheelchair. These findings suggest that the immediate effect of practice was mediated by the form of locomotion but not the resolution of the practice.

Exploratory behaviors and recalibration: What processes are shared between functionally similar affordances?

“…Twenty trials of practice squeezing through doorways facilitated recalibration by reducing errors to only 2.4 cm. Practice effects on recalibration have also been observed in participants walking through doorways while holding a bar horizontally and judging whether it is possible to fit through without turning (Yasuda et al, 2014). Although these studies indicate that practice facilitates recalibration, conditions with locomotor experience without practice, as in Stoffregen and colleagues (2009), were not tested.…”

“…This seems unlikely, as participants were unable to recalibrate when participants practiced walking through a single, large opening size but could recalibrate if practice involved doorways that provided information about both success and failure (Yasuda et al, 2014).…”

“…The range of affordances available to humans is vast. Accordingly, researchers have investigated a wide array of affordances, including fitting through doorways (Fath & Fajen, 2011;Higuchi et al, 2011;Petrucci, Horn, Rosengren, & Hsiao-Wecksler, 2016; Thomas & Riley, 2014;Warren & Whang, 1987;Yasuda, Wagman, & Higuchi, 2014), navigating under barriers (Franchak, Celano, & Adolph, 2012;Stoffregen, Yang, Giveans, Flanagan, & Bardy, 2009;Wagman & Malek, 2009;Yu, Bardy, & Stoffregen, 2011), sitting on seats (Mark, 1987;Mark, Baillet, Craver, Douglas, & Fox, 1990;Stoffregen, Yang, & Bardy, 2005), reaching (Thomas & Riley, 2014;Thomas, Wagman, Hawkins, Havens, & Riley, 2016), leaping and stepping (Cole, Chan, & Adolph, 2013;Day, Wagman, & Smith, 2015), throwing (Bingham, Schmidt, & Rosenblum, 1989;Zhu & Bingham, 2010), and catching (Oudejans, Michaels, Bakker, & Dolne, 1996). Such studies reveal great diversity in the types of information that support affordance perception.…”

“…Holding a horizontal bar that is wider than the shoulders necessitates a revised calibration between eye height and body size (Wagman & Taylor, 2005;Yasuda et al, 2014). Actors must recalibrate affordance perception by rescaling perceptual information to reflect new motor abilities.…”

Nesting in perception of affordances for stepping and leaping

“…Such an explanation is certainly plausible given that experimental findings that have shown that repeated experience perceiving affordances for a given behavior (or repeated practice performing the behavior itself) can be sufficient to bring perceptual boundaries for that behavior into closer correspondence with the behavioral boundary (e.g., Franchak & Adolph, 2014;Franchak, ver der Zalm, & Adolph, 2010;Mark, 1987;Stoffregen, Yang, Giveans, Flanagan, & Bardy, 2009;Yasuda, Wagman, & Higuchi, 2014).…”