Hack 67. Objects Ask to Be Used (3)
So, objects can produce movements within our mind, but just how do they do so? We don’t know the answer to this yet. One possibility is that these effects happen automatically, as Gibson suggested. Our system for visual perception has two routes [Hack #66] : the ventral (or “what?”) route, concerned with the identity of the object and the dorsal (”where?” or “how?”) route, concerned with location and action. Affordances may act directly on the dorsal stream, without relying on any higher processing; information about the type of movement might be extracted directly from the shape or location of the object.
However, our knowledge about objects must play a role. We certainly couldn’t have evolved to respond to everyday objects of todayprehistoric man didn’t live in a world filled with door handles and coffee mugs! These automatic responses must be learned through experience. Recently, Tucker and Ellis4 found that merely seeing an object’s name was enough to speed reaction times to produce the relevant size of grasp. Thus, our previous experience and knowledge about acting upon objects become bound up with the way that we represent each object in our brains. So, whenever you see (or simply consider) an object, the possibility of what you might do with it is automatically triggered in your mind.
One point to remember from this research is that objects will exert a constant “pull” on people to be used in the ways that they afford. Don’t be surprised if people who are tired, in a hurry, or simply not paying attention (or who just have a lack of respect for how you wanted the object to be used) end up automatically responding to the actions the object offers. One practical example: if you don’t want something to be used by accident (e.g., an ejector seat), don’t have it triggered by the same action as something else that is used constantly without much thought (e.g., have it triggered by a twist switch, rather than by a button like the ignition).
T. S.
6.7.3. End Notes
Tucker, M., & Ellis, R. (1998). On the relationship between seen objects and components of potential actions. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 24, 830-846.
de’Sperati, C., & Stucchi, N. (1997). Recognizing the motion of a graspable object is guided by handedness. NeuroReport, 8, 2761-2765.
Grezes, J., & Decety, J. (2002). Does visual perception of object afford action? Evidence from a neuroimaging study. Neuropsychologia, 40, 212-222.
Tucker, M., & Ellis, R. (2004). Action priming by briefly presented objects. Acta Psychologica, 116, 185-203.
Ellen Poliakoff
Taken from : Mind Hacks
