Embodied perception of reachable space: how do we manage threatening objects?

• DOI: 10.1007/s10339-012-0470-z
• Publication Date: 2012-07-17T11:23:41Z
• Authors: Yann Coello; Jeremy Bourgeois; Tina Iachini
• Keywords: Male; Analysis of Variance; Functional Laterality; Judgment; Personal Space; Young Adult; 03 medical and health sciences; 0302 clinical medicine; Orientation; Space Perception; Dangerous Behavior; Humans; Female; Photic Stimulation; Psychomotor Performance

This study aimed at determining whether the size of reachable space is affected by the level of danger of some everyday manipulable objects. Two possibilities are examined: Dangerous objects affect the size of reachable space because of long-term semantic knowledge of their potential hurtful value or the on-line relation between objects' dangerous attributes and the body. The experimental paradigm combined the danger value (dangerous/not dangerous) and the orientation of objects (e.g. pointing away from/towards the perceiver). Reachability judgments measured the size of peripersonal space, and perception of objects' danger was estimated through questionnaires. Results revealed that, whatever the estimated level of objects' danger, the extent of peripersonal space was reduced when the threatening part of dangerous objects was oriented towards participants, not when oriented away. This suggests that the characteristics of the here and now body-objects interaction are crucial in affecting the boundary of peripersonal space.