Egocentric biases in comparative volume judgments of rooms

Abstract

The elongation of a figure or object can induce a perceptual bias regarding its area or volume estimation. This bias is notable in Piagetian experiments in which participants tend to consider elongated cylinders to contain more liquid than shorter cylinders of equal volume. We investigated whether similar perceptual biases could be found in volume judgments of surrounding indoor spaces and whether those judgments were viewpoint dependent. Participants compared a variety of computer-generated rectangular rooms with a square room in a psychophysical task. We found that the elongation bias in figures or objects was also present in volume comparison judgments of indoor spaces. Further, the direction of the bias (larger or smaller) depended on the observer's viewpoint. Similar results were obtained from a monoscopic computer display (Experiment 1) and stereoscopic head-mounted display with head tracking (Experiment 2). We used generalized linear mixed-effect models to model participants' volume judgments using a function of room depth and width. A good fit to the data was found when applying weight on the depth relative to the width, suggesting that participants' judgments were biased by egocentric properties of the space. We discuss how biases in comparative volume judgments of rooms might reflect the use of simplified strategies, such as anchoring on one salient dimension of the space.

Cultural differences in room size perception

“…Interestingly, similar biases were also found for larger spaces like rooms [1–3]. In a recent study [3], we tested German participants in comparative volume judgments of virtual rooms with constant height.…”

“…public transport and other indoor spaces). Biases in spatial perception, especially volume perception of indoor spaces, have mostly been studied in Western cultures [1–3]. The goal of this study is to understand whether culture can affect perception of indoor spaces such as room size perception.…”

“…The goal of this study is to understand whether culture can affect perception of indoor spaces such as room size perception. We especially want to see whether biases known to occur in volume estimations of rooms in Westerners from Germany [3] are also present for East Asian participants from South Korea.…”

“…In comparing objects or even rooms of different volume, all dimensions of the space need to be taken into consideration in order to make an accurate judgment about the size of the space. If one or more dimensions of the spatial volume are neglected by the perceiver in favour of one single salient dimension of the space (focusing on one aspect of the stimulus while ignoring contextual information), size judgments become ineluctably biased [3–5]. …”

“…In a recent study [3], we tested German participants in comparative volume judgments of virtual rooms with constant height. Participants had to compare the volume (the overall size) of a rectangular room varying in width-to-depth aspect ratio (later referred to as room rectangularity) to a constant square room displayed on a computer screen.…”