Action-specific influences on distance perception: A role for motor simulation.

Witt, Jessica K.; Proffítt, Dennis R.

doi:10.1037/a0010781

Cited by 201 publications

(290 citation statements)

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“…Before proceeding, we note that although we have followed previous research in referring to the differences in spatial memory between manual and visual conditions as interaction-driven compression (e.g., Bloesch et al, 2012;Davoli et al, 2012;Witt & Proffitt, 2008;Witt et al, 2005), it is conceptually possible that noninteractive study instead leads to a relative expansion of space in memory. While the scaled maps of Experiment 1 did not allow us to directly address this possibility, we can address this alternative account in Experiment 2.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, athletes who are playing well recall larger goals and slower ball dynamics (e.g., Witt & Dorsch, 2009;Witt & Sugovic, 2010), people in chronic pain perceive farther distances between objects , and people with stronger grip strength judge their hands to be larger (Linkenauger, Witt, Bakdash, Stefanucci, & Proffitt, 2009). Interactions with objects also carry with them distortions of perceived space: An object that is out of arm's reach looks closer to a person who can interact with it using a tool (e.g., Davoli, Brockmole, & Witt, 2012;Witt & Proffitt, 2008;Witt, Proffitt, & Epstein, 2005). Collectively, results like these have given rise to the actionspecific account of perception (Witt, 2011), which posits that optical information is scaled relative to an observer's ability to act on objects in the visual field, whether that ability is derived from native skill or tool use.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…A variety of methodological paradigms have shown that interacting with objects causes observers to underestimate body-to-object distances when making real-time judgments about the distance of single objects from a fixed point of observation (Bloesch, Davoli, Roth, Brockmole, & Abrams, 2012;Davoli et al, 2012;Witt & Proffitt, 2008;Witt et al, 2005). Following interaction with an object, observers also underestimate their remembered body-to-object distance .…”

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Interacting with objects compresses environmental representations in spatial memory

2012

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People perceive individual objects as being closer when they have the ability to interact with the objects than when they do not. We asked how interaction with multiple objects impacts representations of the environment. Participants studied multiple-object layouts, by manually exploring or simply observing each object, and then drew a scaled version of the environment (Exp. 1) or reconstructed a copy of the environment and its boundaries (Exp. 2) from memory. The participants who interacted with multiple objects remembered these objects as being closer together and reconstructed smaller environment boundaries than did the participants who looked without touching. These findings provide evidence that action-based perceptual distortions endure in memory over a moving observer's multiple interactions, compressing not only representations between touched objects, but also untouched environmental boundaries.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Interacting with objects compresses environmental representations in spatial memory

2012

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“…Action prediction may rely on processes that are less motor-based when one's own motor representations are constrained by action execution. Likewise, perception biases associated with motor simulations (e.g., judging objects as nearer to the body than they actually are) have been shown to disappear when participants concurrently performed actions requiring the same effector as reaching for the object (Witt & Proffitt, 2008).…”

Section: Motor Influences On Action Prediction Performancementioning

confidence: 99%

Motor execution affects action prediction

Springer

Brandstädter

Liepelt

et al. 2011

Brain and Cognition

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a b s t r a c tPrevious studies provided evidence of the claim that the prediction of occluded action involves real-time simulation. We report two experiments that aimed to study how real-time simulation is affected by simultaneous action execution under conditions of full, partial or no overlap between observed and executed actions. This overlap was analysed by comparing the body sides and the movement kinematics involved in the observed and the executed action. While performing actions, participants observed point-light (PL) actions that were interrupted by an occluder, followed by a test pose. The task was to judge whether the test pose depicted a continuation of the occluded action in the same depth angle. Using a paradigm proposed by Graf et al., we independently manipulated the duration of the occluder and the temporal advance of the test pose relative to occlusion onset (occluder time and pose time, respectively). This paradigm allows the assessment of real-time simulation, based on prediction performance across different occluder time/pose time combinations (i.e., improved task performance with decreasing time distance between occluder time and pose time is taken to reflect real-time simulation). The PL actor could be perceived as from the front or back, as indicated by task instructions. In Experiment 1 (front view instructions), evidence of action simulation was obtained for partial overlap (i.e., observed and performed action corresponded either in body side or movement kinematics), but not for full or no overlap conditions. The same pattern was obtained in Experiment 2 (back view instructions), ruling out a spatial compatibility explanation for the real-time pattern observed. Our results suggest that motor processes affect action prediction and real-time simulation. The strength of their impact varies as a function of the overlap between observed and executed actions.

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“…In our lab, we have found that, within near space, distances are scaled to an aspect of morphology-the extent of the actor's reach (Linkenauger, Witt, Bakdash, Stefanucci, & Proffitt, in press;Linkenauger, Witt, Stefanucci, Bakdash, & Proffitt, in press;Witt & Proffitt, 2008;Witt, Proffitt, & Epstein, 2005). For large environments, such as fields and hills, spatial layout has been shown to be scaled by "how much walking" would be required to traverse it.…”

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confidence: 99%