Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 27, 2026

Creating Objects and Object Categories for Studying Perception and Perceptual Learning
Published on: November 2, 2012
Bodies and other visual objects: the dialectics of reaching toward objects
Rob Ellis1, Dan Swabey, John Bridgeman
1School of Psychology, University of Plymouth, Drake Circus, Plymouth PL4 7AA, UK. rellis@plymouth.ac.uk
Abstract:
Participants viewed video clips of a left or right-handed reach toward an object that was orientated with a handle to the left or right. They were required to classify the object by making a left or right-handed key-press and ignore the reach. These responses were, never-the-less, affected by the observed reach in ways which largely reflected the opportunities for complementary actions in the viewed scenes, given the simultaneous constraints of the object orientation combined with the direction and hand of reach. These influences are claimed to reflect the interdependency of the action possibilities that arise from a set of objects and agents in three-dimensional space that together determine behaviour.
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