title: Action and motivation: measuring perception or strategies?
abstract: It has been suggested that when judging the distance to a desirable object, motivated distortions of perceived distance occur, and that these distortions can be measured by actions, such as throwing a beanbag. The results of two new experiments suggest that reported variations in beanbag performance may instead depend on instructional effects, such as ones that emphasize proximity rather than accuracy. When the goal was to be closest to the target, underthrowing was observed, whether the target was intrinsically valuable or not. When the goal was to hit the target, however, throwing performance was unbiased.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, PA 19081, USA. fdurgin1@swarthmore.edu
authors.forename: Frank H
authors.initials: FH
authors.lastname: Durgin
authors.forename: Dinah
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: DeWald
authors.forename: Stephanie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lechich
authors.forename: Zhi
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Zachary
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Ontiveros
mesh_terms: D004215:Distance Perception; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis