Currently browsing "Distance Perception"

More Reasons to Be Nice: It’s Less Work for Everyone

A polite act shows respect. But a new study of a common etiquette—holding a door for someone—suggests that courtesy may have a more practical, though unconscious, shared motivation: to reduce the work for those involved. The research, by Joseph P. Santamaria and David A. Rosenbaum of Pennsylvania State University, is the first to combine two fields of study ordinarily considered unrelated: altruism and motor control. It is to be published in a forthcoming issue of Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.... More>

Border Bias: Mapping Risk and Safety

I once lived within a short walking distance of a state line, and I had a friend who lived right on the avenue that was the dividing line. That meant ... More>

On the High Horse: Why Dominant Individuals Climb the Proverbial Ladder

In an attempt to grasp complex concepts, humans have tried to represent abstractions like power and dominance through visually-stimulated metaphors such as pyramids and steeples. And dominance especially has been ... More>

Observation

Going the Distance Takes More Than Meets the Eye

How do humans perceive distance? To say “with our eyes” seems obvious. But when gauging the distance to a destination one is walking or throwing something to — or performing ... More>