Kinetic potential influences visual and remote haptic perception of affordances for standing on an inclined surface

摘要

The ability of a perceiver-actor to perform a particular behaviour depends on their ability to generate and control the muscular forces required to perform that behaviour. If all intended behaviour is to be successful, perception must be relative to this ability. We investigated whether perceiver-actors were sensitive to low changes in their mass distribution influenced their ability to stand on an inclined surface. Participants reported whether they would be able to stand oil ail inclined surface while wearing a weighted backpack on their back, while wearing a weighted backpack oil their front, and while not wearing a weighted backpack. In addition, participants performed this task by either viewing the surface or exploring it with a hand-held rod (while blindfolded). The results showed that perception of affordances for standing Oil the inclined surface depended oil how the backpack influenced the ability of the participant to stand on the surface. Specifically, perceptual boundaries occurred at steeper inclinations when participants wore the backpack oil their front than when they wore it on their back. Moreover, this pattern occurred regardless of the perceptual modality by which the participants explored the inclined surface.