Philbeck John W, Gajewski Daniel A, Jaidzeka Sandra Mihelič, Wallin Courtney P
Department of Psychology, George Washington University, 2125 G Street, NW, Washington, DC, 20052, USA.
Atten Percept Psychophys. 2018 Feb;80(2):586-599. doi: 10.3758/s13414-017-1461-z.
Judgments of egocentric distances in well-lit natural environments can differ substantially in indoor versus outdoor contexts. Visual cues (e.g., linear perspective, texture gradients) no doubt play a strong role in context-dependent judgments when cues are abundant. Here we investigated a possible top-down influence on distance judgments that might play a unique role under conditions of perceptual uncertainty: assumptions or knowledge that one is indoors or outdoors. We presented targets in a large outdoor field and in an indoor classroom. To control visual distance and depth cues between the environments, we restricted the field of view by using a 14-deg aperture. Evidence of context effects depended on the response mode: Blindfolded-walking responses were systematically shorter indoors than outdoors, whereas verbal and size gesture judgments showed no context effects. These results suggest that top-down knowledge about the environmental context does not strongly influence visually perceived egocentric distance. However, this knowledge can operate as an output-level bias, such that blindfolded-walking responses are shorter when observers' top-down knowledge indicates that they are indoors and when the size of the room is uncertain.
在光线充足的自然环境中，对自我中心距离的判断在室内和室外环境中可能会有很大差异。当视觉线索（如线性透视、纹理梯度）丰富时，它们无疑在依赖于环境的判断中起着重要作用。在这里，我们研究了一种可能对距离判断产生的自上而下的影响，这种影响在感知不确定的情况下可能会发挥独特作用：即关于一个人在室内还是室外的假设或知识。我们在一个大型户外场地和一个室内教室中呈现目标。为了控制两个环境之间的视觉距离和深度线索，我们使用一个14度的孔径来限制视野。情境效应的证据取决于反应模式：蒙眼行走反应在室内比在室外系统性地更短，而言语和大小手势判断则没有显示出情境效应。这些结果表明，关于环境背景的自上而下的知识并不会强烈影响视觉感知的自我中心距离。然而，这种知识可以作为一种输出水平的偏差起作用，使得当观察者的自上而下的知识表明他们在室内且房间大小时不确定时，蒙眼行走反应会更短。
