September 2017
Volume 17, Issue 10
Open Access
Vision Sciences Society Annual Meeting Abstract  |   August 2017
Action-Specific Effects in Perception and their Mechanisms
Author Affiliations
  • Jessica Witt
    Department of Psychology, College of Natural Sciences, Colorado State University
  • Nathan Tenhundfeld
    Department of Psychology, College of Natural Sciences, Colorado State University
  • Marcos Janzen
    Department of Psychology, College of Natural Sciences, Colorado State University
  • Michael Tymoski
    Department of Psychology, College of Natural Sciences, Colorado State University
  • Ian Thornton
    Department of Cognitive Science, University of Malta
Journal of Vision August 2017, Vol.17, 237. doi:https://doi.org/10.1167/17.10.237
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      Jessica Witt, Nathan Tenhundfeld, Marcos Janzen, Michael Tymoski, Ian Thornton; Action-Specific Effects in Perception and their Mechanisms. Journal of Vision 2017;17(10):237. https://doi.org/10.1167/17.10.237.

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      © ARVO (1962-2015); The Authors (2016-present)

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Abstract

Spatial perception is influenced by the perceiver's ability to act. For example, distances appear farther when traversing them requires more energy, and balls appear to move faster when they are more difficult to block. Despite many demonstrations of action-specific effects across a wide range of scenarios, little is known about the mechanism underlying these effects. To explore these mechanisms, we leveraged individual differences with the idea that if a common mechanism underlies two tasks, outcomes on these tasks should be highly related. We found that the magnitude of the two action-specific effects described as examples did not correlate with each other (r = .15, p = .19). This suggests unique mechanisms underlying energetic-based and performance-based action-specific effects. Furthermore, the magnitude of each effect correlated with perceptual precision within the task (r = .31, r = .40, ps < .001) but not with perceptual precision in the other task (rs < .03). This pattern is consistent with a Bayesian mechanism such that when visual information is less reliable, the perceptual system places greater weight on other sources of information such as those from the motor system. In addition, performance on a biological motion perception task did not correlate with the magnitude of either action-specific effect (rs < .03). This lack of relationship suggests that the processes involved in connecting the motor system to the visual system to perceive biological motion are not the same processes that connects the motor and visual systems to perceive distance or speed. These data are the first to suggest different mechanisms underlying the different kinds of action-specific effects and to suggest multiple types of connections from the motor system to the visual system.

Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2017

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