Is active perception better than passive perception? Examining the role of action in perception through a systematic literature review and comprehensive behavioral experiments

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Research on active and passive perception in the past year proceeded along several directions.First, we continued the development of research equipment involved in the project. Our first behavioral experiment (described below) highlighted the gaps in implementation that could hinder further progress. Accordingly, we measured and minimized all possible delays between the components of our experimental system such that data can be acquired continuously from movement, haptic output and physiology and synchronized via event triggers.Second, we have completed one behavioral study. Participants explored two-dimensional objects using our experimental apparatus and reported their object size estimates. We manipulated 1) their control over exploratory movements as being either Active (control present) or Passive (control absent) and 2) their knowledge of the task goals, being either Specific (task-focused) or Generic (exploratory). We found no difference between the Active and Passive conditions but significantly higher perceptual accuracy in Specific Intention trials compared to Generic Intention ones. The output of this work has been accepted for oral presentation and publication in the CogSci 2023 conference.Third, we started designing and piloting a new experiment on shape recognition in a similar setup.Finally, we have nearly completed a full text review of articles that were preliminarily selected for the systematic review part of the project.