Abstract
Recent findings suggest that the functional separation between vision-for-action and vision-for-perception does not generalize to situations in which 2D objects are used as targets. For example, unlike as in real, 3D grasping, trajectories during 2D grasping adhere to the psychophysical principle of Weber's law, implying atypical, relative processing of object's size. A potential account for this failure in selectivity during 2D grasping is that typical interactions with virtual objects on touchscreens involve unique gestures other than grasping, in which the virtual objects are dynamically controlled. Here, we explored whether typical, active visuomotor interactions with virtual objects on touchscreen could enable analytic processing. In Experiment 1, we focused on "swiping" gestures, in which participants were asked to touch the edges of the virtual object and to slide it across the screen. In the dynamic condition, the target object followed the location of the fingers. In the static condition, the target object remained in the center of the screen. In both conditions, movement trajectories showed a similar pattern of adherence to Weber's law. In Experiment 2, we examined another typical type of a visuomotor interaction with virtual objects, in which participants were asked to increase the size of the virtual object using "spreading" gestures. One again, movement trajectories adhered to Weber's law. Taken together, the results suggest that active interactions with virtual objects on touchscreen are not subserved by the typical, analytic processing style that characterizes typical 3D grasping, and are intruded by irrelevant perceptual information.
Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2018