Authors: Jeffrey B Wagman Sarah E Caputo Thomas A Stoffregen
Publish Date: 2016/06/09
Volume: 234, Issue: 10, Pages: 2923-2933
Abstract
Research on affordances typically has focused on the identification and perception of a single affordance However in daily life multiple affordances are available We investigated potential hierarchical relations among affordances of tools in two experiments In Experiment 1 participants assembled a tool consisting of an Lshaped object and attached masses so as to perform a particular behavior on a target object—tipping over or sliding it—located at a particular distance from the participant In Experiment 2 participants performed the same task with additional precision constraints on the tool use task In both experiments participants selected longer objects when target objects were farther away and added more mass to tools to be used for tipping than for sliding The results were compatible with the hypothesis that participants were simultaneously sensitive to affordances for tool assembly as revealed in their actualization of affordances in tool assembly and prospectively to affordances for tool use as revealed in relations between assembled tools and the nature of tasks for which they were assembled
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