title: Perceiver as polar planimeter: Direct perception of jumping, reaching, and jump-reaching affordances for the self and others.
abstract: Runeson (Scandanavian Journal of Psychology 18:172-179, 1977) suggested that the polar planimeter might serve as an informative model system of perceptual mechanism. The key aspect of the polar planimeter is that it registers a higher order property of the environment without computational mediation on the basis of lower order properties, detecting task-specific information only. This aspect was posited as a hypothesis for the perception of jumping and reaching affordances for the self and another person. The findings supported this hypothesis. The perception of reaching while jumping significantly differed from an additive combination of jump-without-reaching and reach-without-jumping perception. The results are consistent with Gibson's (The senses considered as perceptual systems, Houghton Mifflin, Boston, MA; Gibson, The senses considered as perceptual systems, Houghton Mifflin, Boston, MA, 1966; The ecological approach to visual perception, Houghton Mifflin, Boston, MA; Gibson, The ecological approach to visual perception, Houghton Mifflin, Boston, MA, 1979) theory of information-that aspects of the environment are specified by patterns in energetic media.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Utah, 380 S 1530 E Beh S 502, Salt Lake City, UT, 84112, USA. brandonjthomas47@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Brandon J
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Thomas
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Center for Cognition, Action, and Perception, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, USA.
authors.forename: Matthew M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Hawkins
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Center for Cognition, Action, and Perception, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, USA.
authors.forename: Patrick
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Nalepka
mesh_terms: D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009068:Movement / Q000502:physiology*; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Action capabilities; Affordances; Context-sensitivity; Direct perception