Exploring environments by hand or foot: time-based heuristics for encoding distance in movement space

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Cognitive Science
• Human Perception

Background:

• Understanding spatial perception and distance estimation is crucial for cognitive science.
• Movement exploration significantly influences spatial judgments.
• Previous research has explored factors affecting distance perception, but the interplay of exploration method and pathway characteristics requires further investigation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how manipulatory (by hand) and ambulatory (by foot) exploration affect distance perception.
• To determine the influence of pathway length and exploration speed on length distortion.
• To identify the heuristics used in estimating both travelled and inferred straight-line distances.

Main Methods:

• Blindfolded participants explored pathways using either hand manipulation or walking.
• Estimates of pathway distance and inferred straight-line distance were collected.
• Exploration occurred at three different speeds.

Main Results:

• Substantial length distortion was observed in both exploration types, with longer pathways being overestimated.
• For hand exploration, slower speeds increased distortion, but spatial extent was more critical than duration.
• For foot exploration, no duration effects were found, indicating time-independent heuristics.

Conclusions:

• Length distortion is a general phenomenon in movement space, driven primarily by spatial factors, not temporal ones.
• Observers utilize distinct heuristics: a footstep metric for travelled distance and spatial imaging for inferred distance.
• These findings advance our understanding of how movement influences spatial cognition and distance estimation.