Stefanucci Jeanine K, Proffitt Dennis R, Banton Tom, Epstein William
Department of Psychology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia 22904-4400, USA.
Percept Psychophys. 2005 Aug;67(6):1052-60. doi: 10.3758/bf03193631.
When walking effort is increased due to manipulations such as wearing heavy backpacks, people perceive hills to be steeper and distances to be farther (Bhalla & Proffitt, 1999; Proffitt, Stefanucci, Banton, & Epstein, 2003). On the basis of these findings, we expected people to overestimate distances on steep hills relative to the same distances on flat ground, because of the increased effort required to ascend or descend them. This hypothesis is in contrast to the belief that distances are specified solely by optical and oculomotor information related to the geometry of the environment. To test the hypothesis, we investigated distance estimation on hills and flat terrains in natural and virtual environments. We found that participants judged steep uphill and downhill distances to be farther than the same distances on flat terrain. These results are inconsistent with the idea that spatial layout is perceived solely in terms of geometry, lending partial support to an effort hypothesis.
当因背负沉重背包等行为导致行走难度增加时，人们会感觉山坡更陡峭，距离更远（巴拉 & 普罗菲特，1999年；普罗菲特、斯特凡努奇、班顿 & 爱泼斯坦，2003年）。基于这些发现，我们预计，相对于平坦地面上的相同距离，人们会高估陡峭山坡上的距离，因为上下山坡需要付出更多努力。这一假设与认为距离仅由与环境几何形状相关的视觉和动眼信息所确定的观点形成对比。为了验证这一假设，我们在自然环境和虚拟环境中研究了在山坡和平地上的距离估计。我们发现，参与者判断陡峭的上坡和下坡距离比平坦地形上的相同距离更远。这些结果与仅从几何角度感知空间布局的观点不一致，部分支持了努力假设。
