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Short Research Article

Perceiving and Remembering Affordances for Others Are Continuous Processes

Published Online:January 14, 2019https://doi.org/10.1027/1618-3169/a000424

Abstract

Abstract. In information-based approaches, affordances are perceived by detecting information that specifies an animal–environment fit, not by combining perceptions of constituent lower-order properties. Given that detection of such information necessarily occurs over space and time, there is no clear distinction between perception and memory. Rather, perceiving and remembering are continuous processes. Whereas previous research has investigated the continuity of perceived and remembered affordances for the self, we did so with respect to perceived and remembered affordances for others. Participants reported remembered maximum reaching height and remembered anthropometric properties of another person. Remembered maximum reaching height was not reducible to a combination of remembered anthropometric properties. Moreover, remembered maximum reaching height scaled to the reaching ability of the other person and not to that of the perceiver. Both results are consistent with an information-based perspective on perceiving and remembering affordances and demonstrate a continuity between perceiving and remembering affordances for others.

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