Abstract
We examined how different characteristics of planned hand movements affect visual perception of distances in reachable space. Participants planned hand movements of certain amplitude. Before execution of the movement, certain visual distances had to be judged. Distances were judged as larger the larger the amplitude of the concurrently prepared hand movements was. On top of that, with constant movement amplitude, distances were judged as larger, the further away the start point of the planned movement was located from the body. These results indicate that distinct variables specified during motor planning, such as effector’s final position, are linked to the visual perception of environmental characteristics.
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Notes
Manipulating movement start position when movement amplitude is prescribed is essentially equivalent to manipulating the required end position. Yet, we prefer to describe this manipulation as one of start position, because this position is under full experimental control, whereas movement end positions depend on the way these movements are eventually carried out, and are thus less rigorously controlled.
Note, the lack of a significant effect of factor distance does not indicate that participants could not discriminate between the given target distances because the reported analyses were based on deviations of estimated magnitude from the real distance. When the magnitude of distance estimates was considered a distance effect was evident, F(3, 60) = 183. In our previous study (Kirsch and Kunde in press) we observed distance effects also in perceptual errors indicating an increase of an optical illusion with an increase in distance. In the present study, this effect was not observed probably due to a much smaller target range (11 vs. 41 mm).
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Acknowledgments
This research was supported by grant KI 1620/1-1 awarded to W. Kirsch by the German Research Council (DFG).
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Kirsch, W., Kunde, W. Moving further moves things further away in visual perception: position-based movement planning affects distance judgments. Exp Brain Res 226, 431–440 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-013-3455-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-013-3455-y