Abstract
Judging distances is crucial when interacting with the environment. For short distances in action space (up to 30 m), both explicit verbal estimates and locomotor judgments are fairly accurate. For large distances, data have remained scarce. In two laboratory experiments, our observers judged distances to visual targets presented stereoscopically, either by giving a verbal estimate or by walking the distance to the target on a treadmill. While verbal judgments remained linearly scaled over the whole range of distances from 20 to 262 m, locomotor judgments fell short at distances above 100 m, indicating that observers overestimated the distance they had traveled and increasingly did so as a function of actual target distance. This pattern persisted when controlling for the potential confound of fatigue or reluctance to walk. We discuss different approaches to explain our findings and stress the importance of a differential use of distance cues. A model of leaky path integration showed a good fit with our locomotor data.
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Notes
Many participants in the verbal condition hinged their judgments on comparisons with earlier judgments of other distances, for instance with the practice trials or with situations in real life (50%; multiple responses were possible) and/or took other objects in the picture and the distances between these as points of references (35%). However, the majority of participants in the two locomotor conditions used step counting based on a mental egocentric judgment of distance (71%). Only some used reference points (26%), and some imagined themselves walking along the road (26%).
The explained variance in the locomotor condition was R² = .87 and R² = .71 in the nonstop-locomotor condition when using the best-fit parameters found in Lappe et al.’s study (k = 0.98, α = .0076). When adjusting the parameter k and α to our data, the fit could be increased to R² = .99 (k = 1.077, α = 0.003) in the locomotor condition and R² = .93 (k = 0.636, α = .008) in the nonstop-locomotor condition (graphs are not shown).
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Author H. H. was supported by a grant of the German Science Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft HE 2122/6-1).
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Bergmann, J., Krauß, E., Münch, A. et al. Locomotor and verbal distance judgments in action and vista space. Exp Brain Res 210, 13–23 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-011-2597-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-011-2597-z