Tool use influences perceived shape and perceived parallelism, which serve as indirect measures of perceived distance. 2011

Jessica K Witt
Department of Psychological Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA. jkwitt@purdue.edu

Targets presented just beyond arm's reach look closer when observers intend to touch them with a reach-extending tool rather than without the tool. This finding is one of several that suggest that a person's ability to act influences perceived distance to objects. However, some critics have argued that apparent action effects were actually due to effects on the judgments rather than on the perception. In other words, the target does not actually look closer, but participants report that it is. To help counter this argument, the current experiments used an indirect measure of perceived distance: Participants reported perceived shape or perceived parallelism. The results revealed that triangles looked shorter and lines looked more horizontal to participants who reached with a tool, and therefore could reach the targets, than they did to participants who reached without the tool. These results demonstrate convergence across multiple types of judgments, a finding that undermines alternative, judgment-based accounts and suggests that the ability to reach an object changes the perceived distance to the object.

UI MeSH Term Description Entries
D007600 Judgment The process of discovering or asserting an objective or intrinsic relation between two objects or concepts; a faculty or power that enables a person to make judgments; the process of bringing to light and asserting the implicit meaning of a concept; a critical evaluation of a person or situation. Judgement,Judgements,Judgments
D008297 Male Males
D009903 Optical Illusions An illusion of vision usually affecting spatial relations. Illusion, Optical,Illusions, Optical,Optical Illusion
D011597 Psychomotor Performance The coordination of a sensory or ideational (cognitive) process and a motor activity. Perceptual Motor Performance,Sensory Motor Performance,Visual Motor Coordination,Coordination, Visual Motor,Coordinations, Visual Motor,Motor Coordination, Visual,Motor Coordinations, Visual,Motor Performance, Perceptual,Motor Performance, Sensory,Motor Performances, Perceptual,Motor Performances, Sensory,Perceptual Motor Performances,Performance, Perceptual Motor,Performance, Psychomotor,Performance, Sensory Motor,Performances, Perceptual Motor,Performances, Psychomotor,Performances, Sensory Motor,Psychomotor Performances,Sensory Motor Performances,Visual Motor Coordinations
D012016 Reference Values The range or frequency distribution of a measurement in a population (of organisms, organs or things) that has not been selected for the presence of disease or abnormality. Normal Range,Normal Values,Reference Ranges,Normal Ranges,Normal Value,Range, Normal,Range, Reference,Ranges, Normal,Ranges, Reference,Reference Range,Reference Value,Value, Normal,Value, Reference,Values, Normal,Values, Reference
D004192 Discrimination, Psychological Differential response to different stimuli. Discrimination, Psychology,Psychological Discrimination
D004215 Distance Perception The act of knowing or the recognition of a distance by recollective thought, or by means of a sensory process which is under the influence of a set of prior experiences. Distance Discrimination,Discrimination, Distance,Discriminations, Distance,Perception, Distance
D005260 Female Females
D006801 Humans Members of the species Homo sapiens. Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D000704 Analysis of Variance A statistical technique that isolates and assesses the contributions of categorical independent variables to variation in the mean of a continuous dependent variable. ANOVA,Analysis, Variance,Variance Analysis,Analyses, Variance,Variance Analyses

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