Doggone affordances: Canine perception of affordances for reaching.
Performing any behavior requires perceiving affordances-whether and how that behavior can be performed. Perception of affordances exhibits action scaling-choices about when to transition between two different modes of behavior reflect the fit between action capabilities and environmental properties. The boundary between distances that are perceived to be reachable with an arm-only reach and those that are perceived to be reachable with an arm-plus-torso reach occurs at farther distances for long-armed than for short-armed people, but at the same ratio of object-distance-to-arm length for both groups. To the extent that perception of affordances is supported by detection of invariant stimulation patterns, perception of a given affordance ought to exhibit action scaling regardless of species. We investigated the heights at which dogs chose to transition from reaching with the head only to rearing (i.e., reaching with the head plus torso). This transition occurred at a taller height for tall than for short dogs, but at the same ratio of shoulder-height-to-treat-height for both groups. The results demonstrate a similarity in perception of affordances across species and suggest that perception of affordances is supported by detection of lawfully structured stimulation patterns that may be invariant across species.
Department of Psychology, Illinois State University, Normal, IL, USA. jeffreywagman@illinoisstate.edu.
Jeffrey B
JB
Wagman
Department of Psychology, Illinois State University, Normal, IL, USA.
Matthew D
MD
Langley
Department of Psychology, Illinois State University, Normal, IL, USA.|School of Biological Sciences, Illinois State University, Normal, IL, USA.
Valeri
V
Farmer-Dougan
D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D003071:Cognition; D004285:Dogs / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D013028:Space Perception; D014796:Visual Perception
Animal cognition; Embodied cognition; Visual perception