Iachini Tina, Ruotolo Francesco, Vinciguerra Michela, Ruggiero Gennaro
Laboratory of Cognitive Science and Immersive Virtual Reality, CS-IVR, Department of Psychology, University of Campania "Luigi Vanvitelli", Italy.
Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Cognition. 2017 Sep;166:107-117. doi: 10.1016/j.cognition.2017.03.024. Epub 2017 May 26.
Being able to predict potential collisions is a necessary survival prerequisite for all moving species. Temporal and spatial information is fundamental for this purpose. However, it is not clear yet if the peripersonal (i.e. near) and extrapersonal (i.e. far) distance between our body and the moving objects affects the way in which we can predict possible collisions. In order to assess this, we manipulated independently velocity and path of two balls moving one towards the other in such a way as to collide or not in peripersonal and extrapersonal space. In two experiments, participants had to judge if these balls were to collide or not. The results consistently showed a lower discrimination capacity and a more liberal tendency to predict collisions when the moving balls were in peripersonal space and their velocity was different rather than equal. This did not happen in extrapersonal space. Therefore, peripersonal space was particularly affected by temporal information. The possible link between the motor and anticipatory adaptive function of peripersonal space and collision prediction mechanisms is discussed.
能够预测潜在碰撞是所有移动物种生存的必要前提。为此，时间和空间信息至关重要。然而，我们身体与移动物体之间的个人周边（即近处）和个人外部（即远处）距离是否会影响我们预测可能碰撞的方式，目前尚不清楚。为了评估这一点，我们独立操纵两个相互靠近移动的球的速度和路径，使其在个人周边空间和个人外部空间发生碰撞或不发生碰撞。在两个实验中，参与者必须判断这些球是否会碰撞。结果一致表明，当移动的球处于个人周边空间且速度不同而非相等时，辨别能力较低，预测碰撞的倾向更为宽松。在个人外部空间则没有出现这种情况。因此，个人周边空间特别受时间信息的影响。本文讨论了个人周边空间的运动和预期适应功能与碰撞预测机制之间可能存在的联系。
