Where's the Floor?

Harris, Laurence R.; Jenkin, Michael; Jenkin, Heather L.; Dyde, Richard T.; Oman, Charles M.

doi:10.1163/187847510x490826

Cited by 6 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 8 publications

(9 reference statements)

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“…A public domain photography of the interior of the Harmony ISS module 1 was used as visual context for all tasks (see Figure 1, panel B). This photograph was chosen because it provides photo-realistic orientation visual cues, in the form of a structural rectangular frame (a chief factor in determining the orientation of the visual context; see Harris et al, 2010, 2011), which are nonetheless invariant when the picture is flipped either horizontally or vertically (allowing an experimental control of eventual salient visual features that might serve as a landmark for the spatial localization task; see Hubbard & Ruppel, 1999). Furthermore, this scene provides a reasonable analogue of the visual cues available in microgravity environments, supporting tentative links between our results and applied settings for human factors considerations.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Visual space orientation and representational gravity: Contextual orientation visual cues modulate the perceptual extrapolation of motion.

Freitas¹,

Teixeira²

2021

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Perfor

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The perceived offset of a moving target is usually displaced forward, in the direction of motion (representational momentum), and downward, in the direction of gravity (representational gravity). In what refers to the latter, the meaning of "downward in the direction of gravity" is ill-defined, for it is known that the perceived direction of gravity ("downward") results from the interaction of vestibular signals, sensitive to the gravito-inertial vector, an aprioristic tendency to assume that it aligns with the body's main axis (idiotropic vector) and visual cues. The present work aims to disclose what effects visual cues have on representational gravity. Participants performed a spatial localization task as well as a subjective visual vertical (SVV) and an oriented character recognition task (OCHART), with stimuli superimposed on a realistic background either aligned with earth's vertical or tilted rightward or leftward. Outcomes disclosed significant and lawful effects of the orientation of the visual context on spatial localization judgements. Specifically, forward displacement along the target's motion direction was bigger for targets moving along the "horizontal" direction implied by the background scene. These trends were furthermore found to be correlated, at an individual level, with the magnitude of SVV, but not with the perceptual upright (as measured with OCHART). These findings show that features of the spatial localization judgements specifically index the visually induced spatial orientation, thus offering the prospect to expand available tools for inquiries concerning human spatial orientation, besides clarifying the multisensorial nature and significantly expanding the notion of representational gravity. Public Significance StatementThis study reveals that the orientation of the visual context affects the spatial localization of moving targets, in accordance with the hypothesized role of an internal model of gravity. The found outcomes, besides adding to the current knowledge on the visual representation of gravity and human spatial orientation, offer tentative prospects for clinical assessment tools and human factors insights.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Visual space orientation and representational gravity: Contextual orientation visual cues modulate the perceptual extrapolation of motion.

Freitas¹,

Teixeira²

2021

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Perfor

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“…In conclusion, the present study successfully extended the previous finding that the orientation of Representational Horizon, indexed by the second harmonic component underlying the patterns of spatial localisation of a moving target, is biased by visual orientation cues (Freitas & De Sá Teixeira, 2021 ). Specifically, this biasing was found to be reliably induced by a variety of natural scenes, further emphasising the link between dynamic representations of motion (Freyd, 1987 ; Hubbard, 2005 , 2010 , 2015 ), internal models (De Sá Teixeira & Hecht, 2014 ; De Sá Teixeira et al, 2013 , 2019a , b ; Lacquaniti et al, 2013 ; McIntyre et al, 2001 ), and spatial orientation (Haji-Khamneh & Harris, 2010 ; Harris et al, 2011 ; Howard & Templeton, 1973 ; Jenkin et al, 2010 , 2011 ; MacNeilage et al, 2008 ; Mittelstaedt, 1986 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The second harmonic’s orientation was found to be biased towards the horizon implied by the visual context—that is, targets moving along the horizontal line implied by the background scene (irrespective of its misalignment with the actual horizontal) led to increased M-displacements. This trend was further found to be correlated, at an individual level, with measures of subjective visual vertical (SVV) made with the same visual context, strengthening the relevance of visual spatial orientation (Haji-Khamneh & Harris, 2010 ; Harris et al, 2011 ; Howard & Templeton, 1973 ; Jenkin et al, 2010 , 2011 ; MacNeilage et al, 2008 ; Oman, 2007 ) for the perception of dynamic events (see also Moscatelli & Lacquaniti, 2011 ).…”

mentioning

confidence: 82%

Representational horizon and visual space orientation: An investigation into the role of visual contextual cues on spatial mislocalisations

De Sá Teixeira,

Freitas,

Silva

et al. 2023

Atten Percept Psychophys

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The perceived offset position of a moving target has been found to be displaced forward, in the direction of motion (Representational Momentum; RM), downward, in the direction of gravity (Representational Gravity; RG), and, recently, further displaced along the horizon implied by the visual context (Representational Horizon; RH). The latter, while still underexplored, offers the prospect to clarify the role of visual contextual cues in spatial orientation and in the perception of dynamic events. As such, the present work sets forth to ascertain the robustness of Representational Horizon across varying types of visual contexts, particularly between interior and exterior scenes, and to clarify to what degree it reflects a perceptual or response phenomenon. To that end, participants were shown targets, moving along one out of several possible trajectories, overlaid on a randomly chosen background depicting either an interior or exterior scene rotated −22.5º, 0º, or 22.5º in relation to the actual vertical. Upon the vanishing of the target, participants were required to indicate its last seen location with a computer mouse. For half the participants, the background vanished with the target while for the remaining it was kept visible until a response was provided. Spatial localisations were subjected to a discrete Fourier decomposition procedure to obtain independent estimates of RM, RG, and RH. Outcomes showed that RH’s direction was biased towards the horizon implied by the visual context, but solely for exterior scenes, and irrespective of its presence or absence during the spatial localisation response, supporting its perceptual/representational nature.

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“…One possible explanation for the horizon effect is the aspect ratio of the room. Harris, Jenkin, Jenkin, Dyde, and Oman (2010) reported that when participants chose a surface to stand on among the surrounding walls of a tilted room, the choice probability of each surface depended on the retinal area of each wall. As the room in the present study was rectangular, the floor and ceiling occupied larger retinal areas than the walls, and so might have been more relevant as the supporting surface than the walls, thus serving as implicit horizon cues.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Postural adjustment as a function of scene orientation

Fujimoto

Ashida

2022

Journal of Vision

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Visual orientation plays an important role in postural control, but the specific characteristics of postural response to orientation remain unknown. In this study, we investigated the relationship between postural response and the subjective visual vertical (SVV) as a function of scene orientation. We presented a virtual room including everyday objects through a head-mounted display and measured head tilt around the naso-occipital axis. The room orientation varied from 165° counterclockwise to 180° clockwise around the center of display in 15° increments. In a separate session, we also conducted a rod adjustment task to record the participant's SVV in the tilted room. We applied a weighted vector sum model to head tilt and SVV error and obtained the weight of three visual cues to orientation: frame, horizon, and polarity. We found significant contributions for all visual cues to head tilt and SVV error. For SVV error, frame cues made the largest contribution, whereas polarity contribution made the smallest. For head tilt, there was no clear difference across visual cue types, although the order of contribution was similar to the SVV. These findings suggest that multiple visual cues to orientation are involved in postural control and imply different representations of vertical orientation across postural control and perception.

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Where's the Floor?

Cited by 6 publications

References 8 publications

Visual space orientation and representational gravity: Contextual orientation visual cues modulate the perceptual extrapolation of motion.

Visual space orientation and representational gravity: Contextual orientation visual cues modulate the perceptual extrapolation of motion.

Representational horizon and visual space orientation: An investigation into the role of visual contextual cues on spatial mislocalisations

Postural adjustment as a function of scene orientation

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