The Influence Of Contact Modes On Distance Perception

Distance perception is one of the basic abilities of human beings. Humans are always facing two situations:one is to estimate the distance from the object to itself, and the other is to estimate the distance between two objects. With the prevalence of cognitive concept, more and more researchers begin to investigate the role of body movements in distance perception. In previous studies, it has been found that when an object is present at hand, or the object is placed out of the arms' reaching, it would appear to be different from the perception that is not at hand. This phenomenon is also called distance perception of spatial compression. However, previous studies did not relate to the perception of exocentric distance. Although judging distance is closer, the accuracy on the concept hasn't been researched. Is there the compression in the range of distances that are closer to the hand? Is there difference of the compression in the distinct distances that different touch methods lead to? So the study that the different distances and the different modes influence the compression would be discussed in the further research.In this paper, based on the previous research, it makes a further study on the compression performance of distance perception. This study is divided into two parts, one for the different contact conditions of the egocentric distance perception, and the other is exocentric distance perception in the different contact conditions. The first experiment, to judge the distance between the conditions that touch or not, is a 2(touch levels: touch, watch) ×5(distances: 10,15,20,25,30) experiment design. Experiment 2 uses 3(touch levels: approach, touch, watch) ×5(distances: 70,75,80,85,90) experiment design. The Experiment 3 is to judge exocentric distance, which is a 2(touch levels: touch,watch) ×5(distances: 10,15,20,25,30) experiment design. And, the experiment 4 uses 3(touch levels: approach, touch, watch) ×5(distances: 70,75,80,85,90) experiment design. The results suggest that when the object is 10-30 cm distances far from the hand, both hand contact or contact with the tool are not different from viewing condition. So the accuracy hasn't been improved. And when the object is placed beyond the reach of the arm to determine 70-90 cm, the difference is significant. Not only contact but also approach led to distance compression,and it is closer to the true value.Based on the above research and discussion, the following conclusions are drawn from this study:(1) In the judging of the egocentric distance, when the object placed nearby hands, there was no significant difference between touching and not touching. In the other words, it not cause the spatial compression and not affect the accuracy. When the object placed out of reach, approaching or touch by using tools are bring about the spatial compression and more accurate. But there was no significant difference between the approaching and touching.(2) In the judging of the exocentric distance, when the object placed nearby hands, there was also no significant difference between touching and not touching. Meanwhile, the object placed out of reach, approaching or touch by using tools are bring about the spatial compression and more accurate.(3) When the object is placed in the range beyond the arm, the contact is more likely to result in the spatial compression effect.(4) Distance perception is not a simple process of cognitive processing. It is embodiment. The body's action in distance perception has an important role.