Honors College Theses

Publication Date

5-14-2021

Major

Psychology (B.S.)

Document Type and Release Option

Thesis (open access)

Faculty Mentor

Ty Boyer

Abstract

Spatial cognition is how we navigate and perceive the space around us. Distance estimation is one of the elements of spatial cognition. A previous study was done to test if the presence of boundaries has an effect of distance estimation. In the present study, this same phenomenon was tested using an action-based task to examine how this affected distance estimation. Participants were asked to stand at the end of three runners and throw bean bags at a target on the other end of the runner. One runner had an open throwing path, another runner had a doorway in the throwing path, and the last runner had a board in the throwing path. Distances of the runners and the targets were all the same. The reported analyses contrasted the thrown distances across each of these stimulus conditions. The results found that there was no significant difference in distance thrown between each condition. The results also did not find any significant difference in the order in which they completed the conditions or between each individual toss. These inconclusive findings are in contrast with previous research and suggests a possible difference between explicit quantified distance estimation and how we perform distance relevant actions.

Download

Included in

Psychology Commons

Share

COinS