The influence of object size on judgments of lateral separation

Date

2015-09-16

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Taylor and Francis Online

Abstract

The size of a previously experienced object has a significant effect on depth judgments in visually sparse environments. The present research explored whether familiar object size also significantly influences judgments of lateral separation. Experiment 1 required participants to detect changes in lateral separation using a one-shot change detection paradigm with a closer/same/farther forced-choice response. Participants accurately detected changes in lateral separation, although concurrent changes in object size significantly reduced the accuracy of their judgments such that increases (or decreases) in object size caused a relative underestimation (or overestimation) of separation. Experiment 2 replicated these results using a distance reproduction methodology. These results indicate that familiar object size exhibits a significant effect on judgments of lateral separation.

Description

Keywords

change detection, distance estimation, perception, spatial cognition

Citation

Thomson, Robert, Aryn Pyke, and Guy L. Lacroix. 2016. “The Influence of Object Size on Judgments of Lateral Separation.” Spatial Cognition & Computation 16 (1): 1–28. doi:10.1080/13875868.2015.1082564.