Search research articles

ABOUT JoVE

Overview Leadership Blog JoVE Help Center

AUTHORS

Publishing Process Editorial Board Scope & Policies Peer Review FAQ Submit

LIBRARIANS

Testimonials Subscriptions Access Resources Library Advisory Board FAQ

RESEARCH

JoVE Journal Methods Collections JoVE Encyclopedia of Experiments Archive

EDUCATION

JoVE Core JoVE Business JoVE Science Education JoVE Lab Manual Faculty Resource Center Faculty Site

Terms & Conditions of Use

Related Concept Videos

Depth Perception and Spatial Vision

Depth Perception and Spatial Vision

Depth perception is the ability to perceive objects three-dimensionally. It relies on two types of cues: binocular and monocular. Binocular cues depend on the combination of images from both eyes and how the eyes work together. Since the eyes are in slightly different positions, each eye captures a slightly different image. This disparity between images, known as binocular disparity, helps the brain interpret depth. When the brain compares these images, it determines the distance to an object.

Factors Affecting Perception

Factors Affecting Perception

Perception is influenced by perceptual set, context, motivation, and emotion. Perceptual set, or perceptual expectancy, refers to the tendency to perceive things in a particular way, influenced by previous experiences and expectations. This phenomenon affects the interpretation of stimuli, creating a set of mental tendencies and assumptions that impact sensory perceptions of sound, taste, touch, and sight.
An illustrative example of a perceptual set is the scenario where an airline pilot told...

Perception

Perception

Perception is a fundamental psychological process that enables individuals to organize, interpret, and consciously experience sensory information. This process is crucial for understanding and interacting with the world around us. It includes both bottom-up and top-down processing, each playing a distinct role in how we perceive our environment.
Bottom-up processing begins at the sensory level, where receptors detect external environmental stimuli. These could include the tactile sensation of...

Perceptual Constancy

Perceptual Constancy

Perceptual constancy is the ability to recognize that objects remain consistent and unchanged even when their appearance varies due to changes in sensory input. There are four main types of perceptual constancy: size constancy, shape constancy, color constancy, and brightness constancy.
Size constancy is the recognition that an object remains the same size, even when its image on the retina changes. For instance, a bus is perceived to be large enough to carry people, even if it looks tiny from...

Gestalt Principles of Perception

Gestalt Principles of Perception

Gestalt principles provide a framework for understanding how humans perceive objects as unified wholes within their context. These principles are essential in explaining the cognitive processes that make sense of complex visual stimuli by organizing them into coherent groups. One fundamental principle is proximity, which posits that objects located close to each other are perceived as a collective group. For instance, when dots are positioned near one another, the visual system interprets them...

Sensory Perception: Organization of the Somatosensory System

Sensory Perception: Organization of the Somatosensory System

The somatosensory system is the central and peripheral nervous system component that senses and processes touch, pressure, pain, temperature, and body position or proprioception. The process of sensation takes place at three levels:
The receptor level:
The receptor level is the first stage of sensation. It involves the detection of a stimulus by specialized sensory receptors. The stimulus must arrive within the receptor's receptive field. Next, the receptor converts the energy of the stimulus...

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by

Same author

Optimizing Risk Communication for Lynch Syndrome: Results of a Randomized Controlled Trial of Visual Arrays for Genetic Testing.

Cancers·2026

Same author

Overestimation of variability in ensembles of color value and size.

Attention, perception & psychophysics·2025

Same author

Narrative visualizations: Depicting accumulating risks and increasing trust in data.

Cognitive research: principles and implications·2025

Same author

Temporal dynamics of the Rubber Hand Illusion.

Scientific reports·2023

Same author

Variability of dot spread is overestimated.

Attention, perception & psychophysics·2022

Same author

Visual bias could impede diagnostic accuracy of breast cancer calcifications.

Journal of medical imaging (Bellingham, Wash.)·2022

Same journal

Human thermal sensitivity drifts at extreme temperatures.

Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance·2026

Same journal

Dynamic competition between selective attention and spatial prediction during visual search.

Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance·2026

Same journal

Encapsulation of the visual perception of social events from semantic priming.

Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance·2026

Same journal

Biasmapping: Idiosyncratic covert search in the vicinity of fixation.

Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance·2026

Same journal

What are you still waiting for? Fricative recognition shows encapsulated processing and is partially predicted by secondary cue reliance.

Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance·2026

Same journal

Eye movements reveal that drivers can predict the location of hazards in dynamic road scenes but gaze and awareness are dissociable.

Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance·2026

See all related articles

Search research articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 10, 2026

A Psychophysics Paradigm for the Collection and Analysis of Similarity Judgments

A Psychophysics Paradigm for the Collection and Analysis of Similarity Judgments

Published on: March 1, 2022

When and how are spatial perceptions scaled?

Jessica K Witt¹, Dennis R Proffitt, William Epstein

¹Department of Psychological Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA. jkwitt@purdue.edu

Journal of Experimental Psychology. Human Perception and Performance

|August 25, 2010

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Action-specific approaches explain how spatial perception is scaled for intended actions, challenging traditional views. This study confirms that action-specific influences affect distance perception, supporting this dynamic view of how we perceive space.

More Related Videos

Assessing Human Spatial Navigation in a Virtual Space and its Sensitivity to Exercise

Assessing Human Spatial Navigation in a Virtual Space and its Sensitivity to Exercise

Published on: January 26, 2024

Three-Dimensional Mapping of the Rotation of Interactive Virtual Objects with Eye-Tracking Data

Three-Dimensional Mapping of the Rotation of Interactive Virtual Objects with Eye-Tracking Data

Published on: October 18, 2024

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Jun 10, 2026

A Psychophysics Paradigm for the Collection and Analysis of Similarity Judgments

A Psychophysics Paradigm for the Collection and Analysis of Similarity Judgments

Published on: March 1, 2022

Assessing Human Spatial Navigation in a Virtual Space and its Sensitivity to Exercise

Assessing Human Spatial Navigation in a Virtual Space and its Sensitivity to Exercise

Published on: January 26, 2024

Three-Dimensional Mapping of the Rotation of Interactive Virtual Objects with Eye-Tracking Data

Three-Dimensional Mapping of the Rotation of Interactive Virtual Objects with Eye-Tracking Data

Published on: October 18, 2024

Area of Science:

Cognitive Psychology
Visual Perception
Motor Control

Background:

Traditional perception theories posit general spatial representations in arbitrary units.
Action-specific approaches suggest spatial perception is scaled for intended actions.
Previous studies show apparent distance scales with walking effort, but traditional views attribute this to postperceptual processes.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the timing and mechanisms of action-specific influences on distance perception.
To differentiate between traditional and action-specific accounts of spatial perception.
To provide empirical evidence supporting the action-specific framework.

Main Methods:

Experimental manipulation of walking effort and its effect on perceived distance.
Analysis of optic flow and ocular-motor adjustments in relation to perceived spatial information.
Designing studies to isolate perceptual effects from postperceptual response biases.

Main Results:

Experimental evidence supports the action-specific account of perception.
Action-specific influences were found to directly impact distance perception.
The findings challenge the traditional view of perception as solely based on arbitrary units.

Conclusions:

Perception is dynamically influenced by the actor's intended actions.
Spatial perception is not independent of motor control and action planning.
The action-specific framework provides a more accurate model for understanding distance perception.