Isotropic visual field effect on spatial orientation and egocentric localization

The aim of this paper is to demonstrate the presence of a similar visual field effect on both spatial orientation and egocentric localization. A first experiment explored an orientation task (Visually Perceived Vertical or VPV determination) and compared the effects of a frame inclined either in the midfrontal plane (in this condition subjects assessed roll VPV) or in the median plane (subjects assessed pitch VPV) or in both combined planes (subjects assessed both roll and pitch VPV). A second experiment compared the frame effects specified above to the frame effect observed in an egocentric localization task (Visually Perceived Eye Level judgment) performed with a frame slanted in the median plane. The results showed that angular frame variations from -15 to +15 deg result in the same psychometric function for both orientation and localization tasks. In each experiment, correlations showed that individual differences occur in relation to an overall sensitivity to the visual field. Individual sensitivity may be accounted for by a ratio of visual to graviceptive information which remains constant whatever the perception plane (midfrontal or median plane) and whatever the task (spatial orientation or localization).