Direct perception of action-scaled affordances: the shrinking gap problem.

The aim of this study was to investigate the perception of possibilities for action (i.e., affordances) that depend on one's movement capabilities, and more specifically, the passability of a shrinking gap between converging obstacles. We introduce a new optical invariant that specifies in intrinsic units the minimum locomotor speed needed to safely pass through a shrinking gap. Detecting this information during self-motion requires recovering the component of the obstacles' local optical expansion attributable to obstacle motion, independent of self-motion. In principle, recovering the obstacle motion component could involve either visual or non-visual self-motion information. We investigated the visual and non-visual contributions in two experiments in which subjects walked through a virtual environment and made judgments about whether it was possible to pass through a shrinking gap. On a small percentage of trials, visual and non-visual self-motion information were independently manipulated by varying the speed with which subjects moved through the virtual environment. Comparisons of judgments on such catch trials with judgments on normal trials revealed both visual and non-visual contributions to the detection of information about minimum walking speed.

[1]  Gilles Montagne,et al.  The learning of goal-directed locomotion: a perception-action perspective. , 2003, The Quarterly journal of experimental psychology. A, Human experimental psychology.

[2]  Krista M. Gigone,et al.  Perception of visual speed while moving. , 2005, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[3]  David M Jacobs,et al.  Lateral interception II: predicting hand movements. , 2006, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[4]  Mark Wexler,et al.  Depth perception by the active observer , 2005, Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

[5]  Claire F. Michaels,et al.  Lateral ball interception: hand movements during linear ball trajectories , 2006, Experimental Brain Research.

[6]  Aftab E Patla,et al.  Strategies used to walk through a moving aperture. , 2008, Gait & posture.

[7]  L. S. Mark,et al.  Eyeheight-scaled information about affordances: a study of sitting and stair climbing. , 1987, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[8]  P. McLeod,et al.  The generalized optic acceleration cancellation theory of catching. , 2006, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[9]  F. C. Bakker,et al.  The relevance of action in perceiving affordances: perception of catchableness of fly balls. , 1996, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[10]  William H. Warren,et al.  7 Action-Scaled Information for the Visual Control of Locomotion , 2006 .

[11]  G. Stelmach,et al.  Tutorials in Motor Behavior , 1980 .

[12]  John P. Wann,et al.  Why you should look where you are going , 2000, Nature Neuroscience.

[13]  Brett R. Fajen,et al.  Static and Dynamic Information about the Size and Passability of Apertures , 2010 .

[14]  D. Regan,et al.  Monocular discrimination of the direction of motion in depth , 1994, Vision Research.

[15]  Frank H Durgin,et al.  Enhanced Optic Flow Speed Discrimination While Walking: Contextual Tuning of Visual Coding , 2007, Perception.

[16]  Digby Elliott,et al.  Vision and motor control , 1992 .

[17]  A. Chardenon,et al.  The perceptual control of goal-directed locomotion: a common control architecture for interception and navigation? , 2004, Experimental Brain Research.

[18]  H. Wallach.  Perceiving a stable environment when one moves. , 1987, Annual review of psychology.

[19]  S. Rushton,et al.  The pop out of scene-relative object movement against retinal motion due to self-movement , 2007, Cognition.

[20]  G. DeAngelis,et al.  Neural correlates of multisensory cue integration in macaque MSTd , 2008, Nature Neuroscience.

[21]  W H Warren,et al.  Visual control of braking: a test of the tau hypothesis. , 1995, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[22]  S. Rushton,et al.  Optic Flow Processing for the Assessment of Object Movement during Ego Movement , 2009, Current Biology.

[23]  W. Warren.  Action modes and laws of control for the visual guidance of action , 1988 .

[24]  Brett R Fajen,et al.  Static and Dynamic Visual Information about the Size and Passability of an Aperture , 2011, Perception.

[25]  W. H. Warren,et al.  Behavioral dynamics of intercepting a moving target , 2007, Experimental Brain Research.

[26]  Brett R Fajen,et al.  Perceiving Possibilities for Action: On the Necessity of Calibration and Perceptual Learning for the Visual Guidance of Action , 2005, Perception.

[27]  Simon K Rushton,et al.  Perception of object trajectory: parsing retinal motion into self and object movement components. , 2007, Journal of vision.

[28]  David M Jacobs,et al.  Lateral interception I: operative optical variables, attunement, and calibration. , 2006, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[29]  Brett R Fajen,et al.  Calibration, information, and control strategies for braking to avoid a collision. , 2005, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[30]  Margaret A. Hagen,et al.  The Perception of Pictures , 1982 .

[31]  Hiroshi Ando,et al.  World-centered perception of 3D object motion during visually guided self-motion. , 2009, Journal of vision.

[32]  M. Grealy,et al.  Closing the Gap : The Scientific Writings of David N. Lee , 2007 .

[33]  F. Durgin.  CURRENT DIRECTIONS IN PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE When Walking Makes Perception Better , 2022 .

[34]  W. Warren,et al.  Visual guidance of walking through apertures: body-scaled information for affordances. , 1987, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[35]  David N. Lee,et al.  A Theory of Visual Control of Braking Based on Information about Time-to-Collision , 1976, Perception.

[36]  Brett R. Fajen,et al.  Controlling speed and direction during interception: an affordance-based approach , 2010, Experimental Brain Research.

[37]  Brett R. Fajen,et al.  Affordance-Based Control of Visually Guided Action , 2007 .

[38]  Michael E. Cinelli,et al.  Locomotion through apertures when wider space for locomotion is necessary: adaptation to artificially altered bodily states , 2006, Experimental Brain Research.

[39]  Geert J P Savelsbergh,et al.  Rate of Change of Angular Bearing as the Relevant Property in a Horizontal Interception Task During Locomotion , 2002, Journal of motor behavior.

[40]  Thomas A. Stoffregen,et al.  Affordances and Events: Theory and Research , 2000 .

[41]  Brett R. Fajen.  The scaling of information to action in visually guided braking. , 2005 .

[42]  Reinoud J Bootsma,et al.  Global and Local Contributions to the Optical Specification of Time to Contact: Observer Sensitivity to Composite Tau , 2002, Perception.

[43]  Laura F. Fox,et al.  Self-motion perception during locomotor recalibration: more than meets the eye. , 2005, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[44]  Brett R Fajen,et al.  Reconsidering the role of movement in perceiving action-scaled affordances. , 2011, Human movement science.

[45]  M K Kaiser,et al.  How baseball outfielders determine where to run to catch fly balls. , 1995, Science.

[46]  Wendy D. Zosh,et al.  Optic Flow Drives Human Visuo-Locomotor Adaptation , 2007, Current Biology.

[47]  S. Rushton,et al.  Moving observers, relative retinal motion and the detection of object movement , 2005, Current Biology.

[48]  David N. Lee.  16 Visuo-Motor Coordination in Space-Time , 1980 .

[49]  Jodie M Plumert,et al.  Children's perception of gap affordances: bicycling across traffic-filled intersections in an immersive virtual environment. , 2004, Child development.

[50]  Brett R Fajen,et al.  Visual Guidance of Intercepting a Moving Target on Foot , 2004, Perception.

[51]  C. E. Peper,et al.  Chapter 12 Predictive Visual Information Sources for the Regulation of Action with Special Emphasis on Catching and Hitting , 1992 .

[52]  Anne E. Garing,et al.  Calibration of human locomotion and models of perceptual-motor organization. , 1995, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.