Perception of Affordance during Short-Term Exposure to Weightlessness in Parabolic Flight.
We investigated the role of the visual eye-height (VEH) in the perception of affordance during short-term exposure to weightlessness. Sixteen participants were tested during parabolic flight (0g) and on the ground (1g). Participants looked at a laptop showing a room in which a doorway-like aperture was presented. They were asked to adjust the opening of the virtual doorway until it was perceived to be just wide enough to pass through (i.e., the critical aperture). We manipulated VEH by raising the level of the floor in the visual room by 25 cm. The results showed effects of VEH and of gravity on the perceived critical aperture. When VEH was reduced (i.e., when the floor was raised), the critical aperture diminished, suggesting that widths relative to the body were perceived to be larger. The critical aperture was also lower in 0g, for a given VEH, suggesting that participants perceived apertures to be wider or themselves to be smaller in weightlessness, as compared to normal gravity. However, weightlessness also had an effect on the subjective level of the eyes projected into the visual scene. Thus, setting the critical aperture as a fixed percentage of the subjective visual eye-height remains a viable hypothesis to explain how human observers judge visual scenes in terms of potential for action or "affordances".
PSITEC-Psychologie: Interactions Temps Émotions, EA 4072, Univ. Lille, F-59000, Lille, France.
Aurore
A
Bourrelly
CNPP-Centre de Neurophysique, Physiologie et Pathologie, UMR 8119, CNRS, Univ. Paris Descartes, F-75270, Paris, France.|Tecnalia Health Research Laboratories, E-20009, San Sebastian, Spain.|IKERBASQUE Research Foundation, E-48013, Bilbao, Spain.
Joseph
J
McIntyre
Decatlhon SportsLab, F-59650, Villeneuve d'Ascq, France.
Cédric
C
Morio
INSERM CIC-IT 807, F-5900, Lille, France.
Pascal
P
Despretz
PSITEC-Psychologie: Interactions Temps Émotions, EA 4072, Univ. Lille, F-59000, Lille, France.
Marion
M
Luyat
D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D013997:Time Factors; D014796:Visual Perception; D014893:Weightlessness