[Experimental study on the measurement of the perception of distance. (I)].
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Distance Perception↗
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Scalar perceptions of distance in simple binocular configurations.
Under reduced viewing, a single visual object tends to appear about 2 m away. Gogel (1972) found that the far point in a binocular configuration of two points of light also tended to appear about 2 m away, while the near point was displaced toward the observer. Attempts to replicate this latter result with points of light, as well as with a large rectangle for the nearer object, proved generally successful. Under some conditions, however, the far point was perceived to be closer to the observer when seen with the near point than when seen alone or with the rectangle. This unexpected result suggests caution in assuming that the far object in such a configuration will always remain at a stable perceived distance.
Distance Perception↗
Effects of room reflectance and background noise on perceived auditory distance.
Perceptions of egocentric auditory distance were investigated within an environment for which the reverberation time could be systematically varied without changes in the size or shape of the room. Two levels of wide-band background noise, differing by 20 dB, were used as a masking stimulus. Target sounds were presented from distances between 0.75 and 6.0 m and verbal reports of distance were collected from 288 listeners in two separate experiments. Changes in physical distance produced variation in reported distance in each configuration. Reported distance was generally proportional to real distance, but considerably underestimated when room reflectance was low. When room reflectance was high (T60 approximately 1.7 s for the range of frequencies used), initial reports of distance were often overestimates; upon repeated presentation, judgments in the high reflectance room became more nearly veridical. The effect of increasing the background noise level was to decrease the perceived distance. These findings are in accord with expectations based upon the importance of reverberation cue(s) to distance and upon previous analyses from this laboratory.
Acoustics↗
Perception of distance calls by budgerigars (Melopsittacus undulatus) and zebra finches (Poephila guttata): assessing species-specific advantages.
Budgerigars (Melopsittacus undulatus) and zebra finches (Poephila guttata) share a common functional class of vocalizations called distance calls. The perception of species-specific distance calls by both species was measured with a habituation-dishabituation operant paradigm. Changes in discrimination performance were noted as listening conditions were modified or stimulus properties were altered. Both species showed better performance for calls of their own species. For zebra finches this tendency increased slightly when a background noise was added to the testing environment. Shifting the frequency region of the calls affected the discrimination performance of male budgerigars but not females or zebra finches. Reversing the temporal order of the calls affected the perceptual advantage for conspecific vocalizations in zebra finches but not in budgerigars. These results highlight species differences in perceiving acoustic communication signals.
Animals↗
Determinants of personal space in young children: perception of distance cues.
Two methods of assessing personal space in young children were examined in a group of 24 boys and 24 girls, aged 3 to 6 yr. When sex of peer figures and affect attributed to them were varied, 3-yr.-olds made distance-cue judgements based on affect but failed to use affect cues in structuring personal space. However, 4- to 6-yr.-olds readily perceived and used distance to communicate the affective quality of peer relations. On both measures, perception of distance cues increased with age. Only girls also used sex of figures as a social cue in depicting appropriate distances.
Affect↗
The role of vergence in the perception of distance: a fair test of Bishop Berkeley's claim.
Binocular eye movements were measured while subjects perceived the wallpaper illusion in order to test the claim made by Bishop Berkeley in 1709 that we perceive the distance of nearby objects by evaluating the vergence angles of our eyes. Four subjects looked through a nearby fronto-parallel array of vertical rods (28-35 cm away) as they binocularly fixated a point about 1 meter away. The wallpaper illusion was perceived under these conditions, i.e. the rods appeared farther away than their physical location. We found that although binocular fixation at an appropriate distance was needed to begin perceiving the wallpaper illusion (at least for naive observers), once established, the illusion was quite robust in the sense that it was not affected by changing vergence. No connection between the apparent localization of the rods and vergence was observed. We conclude that it is unlikely that vergence, itself, is responsible for the perceived distance shift in the wallpaper illusion, making it unlikely that vergence contributes to the perception of distance as Bishop Berkeley suggested. We found this to be true even when vergence angles were relatively large (more than 2 deg), the region in which the control of vergence eye movements has been shown to be both fast and effective.
Adult↗
Haptic perception of object distance in a single-strand vibratory web.
Can humans, like other animals, perceive distance by mechanical vibrations transmitted in a solid medium? In seven experiments, subjects perceived the distances from the hand of occluded metal disks attached to a taut nylon strand. Mechanical waves were initiated at the hand by the subject or at the disk by the experimenter. The results of Experiments 1 and 2 showed that perceived distance was linearly dependent on object distance with or without practice. The results of Experiments 3 and 4 revealed an inverse dependency of perceived distance on strand tension. In Experiment 5, a constant difference in perceived distance between vertical and horizontal strand manipulations was found. The results of Experiments 6 and 7 showed that distance was perceptible when the mechanical wave was not initiated by the subject. The informational basis for this haptic spatial ability was sought in the dynamics expressed by the one-dimensional wave equation, specifically, in the constants relating strand forces to strand motions.
Adult↗
Distortions in definite distance and shape perception as measured by reaching without and with haptic feedback.
Psychophysical studies reveal distortions in perception of distance and shape. Are reaches calibrated to eliminate distortions? Participants reached to the front, side, or back of a target sphere. In Experiment 1, feedforward reaches yielded distortion and outward drift. In Experiment 2, haptic feedback corrected distortions and instability. In Experiment 3, feedforward reaches with only haptic experience of targets replicated the shape distortions but drifted inward. This showed that outward drift in Experiment 1 was visually driven. In Experiment 4, visually guided reaches were accurate when participants used binocular vision but when they used monocular vision, reaches were distorted. Haptic feedback corrected inaccuracy and instability of distance but did not correct monocular shape distortions. Dynamic binocular vision is representative and accurate and merits further study.
Adult↗
[Familial and assumed size as signal of distance and depth perception].
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Cues↗
Car backlight position and fog density bias observer-car distance estimates and time-to-collision judgments.
OBJECTIVE: A series of experiments assessed biases in perceived distance that occur while driving as a function of the backlight position of the car ahead and fog density. BACKGROUND: V. Cavallo, M. Colomb, and J. Doré (2001) have shown that smaller horizontal backlight separation and fog may result in increased estimates of the distance between an observer and a car of which only the backlights are visible. They also predicted that raising the height of the car backlights would lead to increasing distance estimates. METHOD: Distance perception was assessed in both static and dynamic computer-simulated scenarios in which the distance estimates were performed using a familiarized analog scale or using time-to-collision judgments for both pairs of backlights and single backlights. RESULTS: In a series of five experiments, the horizontal separation and fog density effects were replicated. In addition, distance estimates were consistently larger with higher than with lower vertical backlight positions. CONCLUSION: There is reason to believe that biases in distance perception may be augmented by car backlight positions and by low-visibility weather conditions. APPLICATION: Car designers should take backlight placement seriously. Speed-dependent car-to-car distance control systems seem desirable to counteract biases in distance perception.
Accidents, Traffic↗
Half-field asymmetry in visual perception of distance.
Distances were presented to the right and left halves of the visual field during steady fixation of a central point. Two methods of evaluation were used: direct scaling and the method of limits. A small but statistically significant difference was found between the estimates of distances presented to the left and to the right of the fixation point by direct scaling. No difference was found when the method of limits was used. The results are interpreted as evidence for the existence of functional asymmetry connected with the computation-and-speech ability of the hemispheres. No evidence for perception asymmetry could be found.
Adult↗
Value and the Weber constant in the perception of distance.
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Humans↗
Methadone maintenance: an assessment of potential fluctuations in behavior between doses.
Thirty methadone maintenance outpatients were measured 1 and 25 hours after ingestion of methadone on auditory threshold, distance perception, simple and differential reaction time, time perception, attention span, and short-term memory. The results revealed a small but statistically significant difference between the two tests for distance perception. In addition, treatment interacted with preparatory interval on differential reaction time and with sex on attention span.
Adolescent↗
Perception of distance in animal echolocation.
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Animals↗
The kinaesthetic perception of Euclidean distance: a study of the detour effect.
An experiment investigated the mechanisms by which humans estimate Euclidean distances on the basis of kinaesthetic cues. Blindfolded participants followed straight and curvilinear paths with a hand-held stylus (encoding phase). Then, with a straight movement, they estimated the Euclidean distance between the start- and end-points of the path (response phase). The experiment contrasted an On-axis condition, in which encoding and response movements were spatially aligned, and an Off-axis condition, in which they were displaced laterally. Performances were slightly more accurate in the On-axis condition than in the Off-axis condition. In both conditions, however, errors were consistently smaller when the path covered a larger surface. The results showed that small paths yielded an overestimation of the Euclidean distance, the relative errors increasing with the length of curvilinear paths. The findings are compared with results of other studies in which distances were estimated on the basis of haptic cues.
Arm↗
Does energy expenditure affect the perception of egocentric distance? A failure to replicate experiment 1 of Proffitt, Stefanucci, Banton, and Epstein (2003).
In a series of recent studies, Proffitt and his colleagues have reported that the perceived distance to a target is influenced by the energy expenditure associated with any action, such as walking or throwing, for spanning the distance to the target. In particular, Proffitt, Stefanucci, Banton, and Epstein (2003) reported that wearing a heavy backpack caused verbal reports of distance to increase. We conducted a study to determine whether three responses dependent on perceived distance (verbal report of distance, blind walking, and estimates of object size) are influenced by the backpack manipulation. In two experiments, one involving a between-participants design and the other involving a within-participants design, we found that none of the three responses were influenced by the wearing of a heavy backpack.
Adolescent↗
Visual perception of egocentric distance as assessed by triangulation.
Two triangulation methods for measuring perceived egocentric distance were examined. In the triangulation-by-pointing procedure, the observer views a target at some distance and, with eyes closed, attempts to point continuously at the target while traversing a path that passes by it. In the triangulation-by-walking procedure, the observer views a target and, with eyes closed, traverses a path that is oblique to the target; on command from the experimenter, the observer turns and walks toward the target. Two experiments using pointing and 3 using walking showed that perceived distance, averaged over observers, was accurate out to 15 m under full-cue conditions. For target distances between 15 and 25 m, the evidence indicates slight perceptual underestimation. Results also show that observers, on average, were accurate in imaginally updating the locations of previously viewed targets.
Adolescent↗