Between Haptic and Visual Perception of Standon-ability : Do Hills Look as Steep as they Feel ?

....................................................................................................................... ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................................................................................. iii DEDICATION ................................................................................................................... iv LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................... viii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ............................................................................................. ix CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................... 1 The Perception of Affordances ....................................................................................... 1 Equivalence in Perceptual Systems ................................................................................ 3 Perceiving the Affordance of Stand-on-ability ............................................................... 6 Embodied Cognition and Multiscale Interactions in Vision and Haptics ....................... 7 CHAPTER II METHOD ................................................................................................ 10 Participants .................................................................................................................... 10 Materials and Apparatus ............................................................................................... 10 Experimental Design ..................................................................................................... 12 Procedure ...................................................................................................................... 13 Perceptual Task ......................................................................................................... 13 Behavioral Task ........................................................................................................ 15 CHAPTER III RESULTS ............................................................................................... 17 Perceptual Task ............................................................................................................. 17 vi Probability Data ........................................................................................................ 17 Perceptual Boundaries (Individual Participant Data) ............................................... 18 Perceptual Boundaries (Aggregate Data).................................................................. 19 Two One-Sided Tests for Equivalence ..................................................................... 19 Signal Detection Data ............................................................................................... 21 Confidence Data........................................................................................................ 21 Matching Data ........................................................................................................... 24 Motion Tracking Data ................................................................................................... 24 Probability Data ........................................................................................................ 26 Confidence Data........................................................................................................ 27 Matching Data ........................................................................................................... 29 CHAPTER IV – DISCUSSION........................................................................................ 31 What Promotes Equivalence and What Does Not?....................................................... 31 Calibration Differences in Vision and Haptics ............................................................. 34 Multiscale Interactions in Affordance Perception ........................................................ 35 Probability Data ........................................................................................................ 38 Confidence Data........................................................................................................ 39 Matching Data ........................................................................................................... 41 Limitations and Future Directions ................................................................................ 41 Conclusions ................................................................................................................... 42 vii APPENDIX A – Footnotes ............................................................................................... 44 APPENDIX B – IRB Approval Letter .............................................................................. 46 REFERENCES ................................................................................................................. 47