The anisotropy of perceived distance: The eyes story

Abstract

The aim of this study is to determine whether the eye position shift changes perceived distance, that is, whether kinesthetic information from eye muscles affects distance perception. Two experiments were done, in a dark room (reduced-cue situation), with 27 participants, psychology undergraduates. Participants had a task to match distances of three stimuli, on three viewing directions, 0, 30 and 60 deg rees relative to the body. Head and body of participants were fixed, and they changed viewing directions only by moving their eyes. Stimuli were 7cm*5cm large, and rectangular in shape. In the first experiment participants were sitting upright, and in the second they were lying on a left side of their body. Results have shown that perceived distance did not change with viewing direction, in both experiments. That is, kinesthetic information from eye muscles did not change perceived distance. Therefore, we can conclude that the anisotropy of perceived distance is not a consequence of the change in kinesthetic information from eye muscles.