Date of Award
Summer 8-1-2021
Degree Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
School
Psychology
Committee Chair
Dr. Alen Hajnal
Committee Chair School
Psychology
Committee Member 2
Dr. Mark Huff
Committee Member 2 School
Psychology
Committee Member 3
Dr. Aaron Fath
Committee Member 3 School
Psychology
Committee Member 4
Dr. Richard Mohn
Committee Member 4 School
Education
Abstract
How does the relationship between an actor’s body proportions (eye-, shoulder-, and arm length) and environmental properties (object distance) affect the perception of whether an object is within reach? Experiment 1 demonstrated that participants are more accurate at judging their own eye height than shoulder height. Experiment 2 revealed that participants can accurately perceive the angular direction to a target object’s location. Interestingly, their pointing errors were significantly smaller when measured from the shoulder as a reference point than from the eye. In Experiment 3 we verified this finding using a functionally meaningful affordance task of reaching to a target object. The study tested whether participants rely on a particular complex variable that specifies the target object’s location in space. This variable may serve as an invariant informational pattern that determines what is reachable. In Experiment 3 it was shown that the invariant that includes arm length, body height, and angle of declination to the target successfully predicted affordance judgments, but only when measured from the shoulder as a reference point. Affordance judgments were more accurate using the shoulder than the eye as a reference. Implications for the embodied nature of affordance perception are carefully considered in light of the present evidence.
ORCID ID
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0288-6389
Copyright
Surber, 2021
Recommended Citation
Surber, Tyler, "How Well Do You Know Your Reach?" (2021). Dissertations. 1906.
https://aquila.usm.edu/dissertations/1906