Neuroscience
You don't see all parts of the world equally well. An obvious example is the way your peripheral vision is much fuzzier than your central vision. Now Richard Abrams and colleagues have provided a far more curious example - apparently the mere presence of our hands alters the way we process visual information in their vicinity.
On hundreds of trials, 52 participants sought to identify as fast as possible whether it was an 'H' or an 'S' that was hidden among a crowd of 'E's and 'U's displayed on a computer monitor.
Bizarrely, participants were significantly slower at the task when their hands were placed either side of the computer screen (nearer the stimuli), as opposed to being located on their laps.
Importantly, the hands' proximity to the stimuli still exerted this effect even when they were hidden behind cardboard, and also when participants responded using foot pedals. In other words, it was the hands' mere location in space that affected visual processing - it wasn't the sight of them, or to do with their being used to respond.
A second experiment showed that the presence of the hands near the computer screen made participants take longer to disengage their attention from a target that appeared abruptly on the screen. A final experiment, showed that the presence of the hands led to a prolonged 'attentional' blink - this is our tendency to miss the second of two targets appearing in a stream, if the second appears too soon after the first.
Across all three experiments, the message seems to be that the presence of the hands makes it harder for us to disengage our visual attention from a target. Why should this be? "One possibility," the researchers said, "stems from the fact that objects that are near the hands are likely candidates for physical manipulation [such as a tool or food]...In those circumstances, extended analyses of objects near the hand may facilitate the production of accurate movements."
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ABRAMS, R., DAVOLI, C., DU, F., KNAPPIII, W., PAULL, D. (2008). Altered vision near the hands. Cognition, 107(3), 1035-1047. DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2007.09.006
Post written by Christian Jarrett (@psych_writer) for the BPS Research Digest.
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Neuroscience
We see things differently when they're near our hands
You don't see all parts of the world equally well. An obvious example is the way your peripheral vision is much fuzzier than your central vision. Now Richard Abrams and colleagues have provided a far more curious example - apparently the mere presence of our hands alters the way we process visual information in their vicinity.On hundreds of trials, 52 participants sought to identify as fast as possible whether it was an 'H' or an 'S' that was hidden among a crowd of 'E's and 'U's displayed on a computer monitor.
Bizarrely, participants were significantly slower at the task when their hands were placed either side of the computer screen (nearer the stimuli), as opposed to being located on their laps.
Importantly, the hands' proximity to the stimuli still exerted this effect even when they were hidden behind cardboard, and also when participants responded using foot pedals. In other words, it was the hands' mere location in space that affected visual processing - it wasn't the sight of them, or to do with their being used to respond.
A second experiment showed that the presence of the hands near the computer screen made participants take longer to disengage their attention from a target that appeared abruptly on the screen. A final experiment, showed that the presence of the hands led to a prolonged 'attentional' blink - this is our tendency to miss the second of two targets appearing in a stream, if the second appears too soon after the first.
Across all three experiments, the message seems to be that the presence of the hands makes it harder for us to disengage our visual attention from a target. Why should this be? "One possibility," the researchers said, "stems from the fact that objects that are near the hands are likely candidates for physical manipulation [such as a tool or food]...In those circumstances, extended analyses of objects near the hand may facilitate the production of accurate movements."
_________________________________
ABRAMS, R., DAVOLI, C., DU, F., KNAPPIII, W., PAULL, D. (2008). Altered vision near the hands. Cognition, 107(3), 1035-1047. DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2007.09.006
Post written by Christian Jarrett (@psych_writer) for the BPS Research Digest.
- When Your Hands Are Tied, Your Eyes Are Tied Up Too
Our eyes and hands operate in wonderful balletic synchrony. When we reach for an object, our eyes jump first, grabbing our intended target visually. Something similar also happens when we watch another person reaching. Our eyes jump ahead...
- Biofeedback Training Can Boost Concentration Power
Psychologists have developed a form of training, involving biofeedback, that can boost people's ability to concentrate. The system shows potential as a way to help people with ADHD (i.e an attention deficit). The work was inspired by research showing...
- Looking For Longer But 'seeing' Less
Looking for too long at something can sometimes make it harder to ‘see’ what you are looking for, according to Li Zhaoping and Nathalie Guyader at UCL. In an odd-one-out type task, a single line orientated like this / was hidden among dozens of lines...
- Your Conscience Really Can Be Wiped Clean
We talk about “washing away” our sins and “feeling dirty” after doing something naughty, but is this just a quirk of our language, or are moral and physical cleanliness really intertwined? Chen-Bo Zhong and Katie Liljenquist first demonstrated...
- Encephalon 19 At Peripersonal Space
Encephalon 19: Emotion vs. Reason (a false dichotomy) and a hidden emotion quote embedded in the text appear at Peripersonal Space. Can you solve the mystery? Among the included posts are two from Neurophilosophy and (of course) The Phineas Gage Fan Club...