Abstract

Perceiving distance is at the heart of everyday actions like reaching for a cup of coffee. This action depends on at least the biomechanical restrictions of the actor (i.e., arm-length) and the physical distance between the cup and the actor. Environmental variables may also impact perceived distances for reaching. For a given perceptual judgment, these variables might be thought of as static, i.e., stable or unchanging. But the perception-action process involves the unfolding of dynamic variables such as exploratory movement. Four experiments were conducted to investigate the roles of two “static” environmental variables (surface luminance and surface texture discontinuity) and two “dynamic” exploratory-movement-related variables (mean head displacement and multifractality of head movement) in an object-reachableness task in virtual reality. We found that surface texture discontinuities and surface luminance can make objects appear more reachable, but not always. We also found that in more complex scenarios, the inclusion of the dynamic variables improved model fits over the static models. We suggest that movement is the driver of perception and, that in attempting to model a given perceptual process, the researcher must consider the underlying characteristics of variables tested and seek out variables related to the unfolding dynamics of the perception-action cycle.

摘要

感知距离是日常活动（例如喝杯咖啡）的核心。该动作至少取决于演员的生物力学限制（即，手臂的长度）以及杯子与演员之间的物理距离。环境变量也可能影响感知的到达距离。对于给定的感知判断，这些变量可能被认为是静态的，即稳定的或不变的。但是，感知－行动过程涉及诸如探索运动之类的动态变量的展开。进行了四个实验，以研究两个“静态”环境变量（表面亮度和表面纹理不连续性）和两个“动态”探索性运动相关变量（平均头部位移和头部运动的多重性）在对象可达性任务中的作用在虚拟现实中。我们发现表面纹理的不连续性和表面亮度可以使对象看起来更容易到达，但并非总是如此。我们还发现，在更复杂的场景中，动态变量的改进使模型适合静态模型。我们建议运动是感知的驱动力，并且，在尝试对给定的感知过程进行建模时，研究人员必须考虑所测试变量的潜在特征，并找出与感知－行动周期不断发展的动力学相关的变量。