Visual near space is scaled to parameters of current action plans

Abstract

In the present study, we show that energetic costs of planned hand movements affect the perception of distances in reaching space. In three experiments, participants prepared hand movements that varied regarding movement amplitude or necessary movement force in either a blockwise or trial-by-trial manner. Before actual execution of the action, a visually presented distance had to be estimated. The results show that judgments of visual distances vary as a function of planned movement amplitude and movement force, specifically, when these parameters change rapidly from moment to moment. These findings show that previous reports of influences of action on perception from extrapersonal space and more enduring changes of action potential generalize to grasping space and much more subtle changes of movement effort. How actions affect visual perception might be determined by the changing parameters of current action plans.