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Jeffrey B Wagman1, Vincent T Cialdella1, Thomas A Stoffregen2

  • 11 Department of Psychology, Illinois State University, Normal, IL, USA.

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This study shows people can perceive how different actions and tools enable reaching higher goals. Judgments of maximum reaching height accurately reflected actual abilities across various means-ends relationships.

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Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Motor Control
  • Perception-Action

Background:

  • Affordances are behaviors available from the interaction between an organism and its environment.
  • Multiple affordances often exist simultaneously in any given situation.
  • Understanding how individuals perceive and utilize these affordances, especially in complex tasks, is crucial.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate whether participants can detect means-ends relations among affordances (higher-order affordances).
  • To examine the perception of affordances in the context of reaching to a maximum height.
  • To compare perceived affordances with actual reaching ability.

Main Methods:

  • Experiment 1: Manipulated higher-order goals (touch vs. grasp) and lower-order effectors (fingertips vs. tool).
  • Experiment 2: Varied lower-order starting postures (standing vs. kneeling).
  • Assessed perceived maximum reaching height and actual reaching performance in both experiments.

Main Results:

  • Perceived maximum reaching height accurately reflected the relationship between lower-order means (effectors, postures) and higher-order ends (goals).
  • Perceptual judgments closely corresponded to actual physical performance.
  • Participants demonstrated sensitivity to affordances across multiple levels of the means-ends hierarchy.

Conclusions:

  • Individuals can prospectively perceive higher-order affordances for reaching.
  • Perception of affordances integrates information about available actions, tools, and body postures relative to goals.
  • This suggests a sophisticated integration of perception and action planning across hierarchical levels.