Integration of physical and social constraints in visual perception of space – CONSTRAINTPERCEPT

One important challenge in psychology is to understand to what extent our visual perception of space relies on our body. Although this question is interesting in theoretical and applied respects, this project will focus on theoretical considerations. This question is controversial in psychology of perception since it is not largely accepted that visual perception is sensitive to body properties and social context. Our project is embedded in the economy of action account which posits that visual perception of space depends on the action we intend to perform and on factors functionally relevant to these intended actions. The objectives of the projects are to (1) improve the theoretical basis of this account, (2) to fill empirical lacks about its theoretical statements, and (3) to extend its rational to the integration of social factors in visual perception. We propose three tasks in order to complete these objectives by using original experimental manipulations of our factors of interest and original measures of space perception. By doing so, this project will open the French research about space perception to interesting questions which are mostly investigated by American researchers. Furthermore, the integrative nature and the interdisciplinarity of this project strengthen its originality. The Task 1 aims to investigate if physical features of obstacles (e.g., width or height) lead people to perceive distance to a target differently according to their intended action (Sub-Task 1.1), and to precise when and how the opportunity to use a tool influences perceived distances to this target (Sub-Task 1.2). The Task 2 aims first to investigate if people perceive distance to a target differently when they have the opportunity to use someone to reach it and when making more salient the instrumentality of the other person (Sub-Task 2.1). Second, the Task 2 aims to investigate the relative influence of social relationships (e.g., friendship), social constraints (e.g., personal space invasion), and physical effort on perceived interpersonal distance depending on the intended action (Sub-Task 2.2). The Task 3 aims to extend our previous research about the influence of closeness feeling and social relationship on the perception of apertures (Sub-Task 3.1), and to precise if this effect depends on intended actions (Sub-Task 3.2).