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Stimulus-response compatability for moving stimuli: perception of affordances or directional coding?
R W Proctor1, T Van Zandt, C H Lu
1Department of Psychological Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907-1364.
Journal of Experimental Psychology. Human Perception and Performance
|February 1, 1993
Summary
The destination compatibility effect, where responses are faster towards a stimulus's perceived destination, is not due to catching affordances. Instead, it relies on the spatial coding of relative direction.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Human-Computer Interaction
- Perception
Background:
- The destination compatibility effect suggests faster responses to stimuli moving towards a target.
- Previous interpretations linked this effect to 'catching affordances' of stimulus motion.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the catching-affordance account of the destination compatibility effect.
- To compare the catching-affordance account with a spatial coding of relative direction account.
Main Methods:
- Investigated the destination compatibility effect using keypress responses, not joystick movements.
- Tested stimuli that expanded, contracted, or only changed location.
- Examined effects of relative versus absolute response locations.
- Used static arrow stimuli to designate destinations.
Main Results:
- The destination compatibility effect occurred with keypress responses and various stimulus movements.
- The effect depended on the relative, not absolute, location of responses.
- A similar compatibility effect was observed with static arrow stimuli.
Conclusions:
- Results contradict the catching-affordance account.
- The findings support an explanation based on the spatial coding of relative direction.
- This suggests that response compatibility is driven by relative spatial coding, not action affordances.