Fear in the eye of the beholder: Fear and the perception of spatial layout

旁观者眼中的恐惧：恐惧与空间布局的感知

• 批准号: 7255992
• 负责人: DENNIS R PROFFITT
• 金额: $ 38.91万
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2007
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2007-04-01 至 2010-03-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/7255992
• 关键词: Address; Affect; Arousal; Attention; Attenuated; Boxing; Chronic; Clinical; Cognitive; Condition; Control Groups; Diagnosis; Distance Perception; Distress; Drops; Elderly; Emotional; Emotions; Environment; Exercise; Exposure to; Eye; Fatigue; Fright; Head; Height; Individual; Injury; Investigation; Learning; Link; Measures; Memory; Methodology; Moods; Nature; Participant; Perception; Persons; Phobic anxiety disorder; Physiological; Process; Psychology; Rate; Relative (related person); Relaxation; Research; Research Personnel; Risk; Safety; Series; Space Perception; Specific Phobia; Spiders; Staging; Testing; Work; avoidance behavior; base; clinically significant; cost; foot; indexing; insight; lens; programs; psychologic; psychological distress; research study; skateboarding; theories; virtual; virtual reality

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The aim of the proposed research is to investigate emotional influences on the perception of spatial layout, and more specifically, how fear influences the perception of heights. In a representative study, participants would stand on a high balcony and would provide indices of the apparent distance to the ground. This research is based on recent work, which showed that the perception of spatial layout was influenced by the physiological state of the observer (Proffitt, Bhalla, Gossweiler, & Midgett, 1995; Bhalla & Proffitt, 1999; Proffitt, Stefanucci, Banton, & Epstein, 2003). For instance, observers who wore a heavy backpack saw slants as steeper and distances as farther than those who did not wear a backpack. Recent work has shown that fear also influences the perception of relevant spatial layout. Steep hills, which would be impossible to descend on foot, appear steeper when viewed from the top than from the bottom. Steep hills also appear steeper when viewed from the top while standing on a skateboard as opposed to standing on a box of equivalent height. Establishing a relationship between emotion and perception would not only extend our understanding of perception, but would also provide insights into the nature and treatment of fears and phobias. Traditionally, the focus has been on relatively higher-level cognitive processing, such as biases in attention and memory. In a sense, we seek to show that fearful individuals literally see the world through a "distorted lens." To test this hypothesis, we will conduct three sets of studies. First, we will determine the parameters for normative height perception. We will employ various methodologies to obtain assessments of perceived height in both the real world and virtual reality. Assessments of fear and postural sway will also be collected and correlated with the apparent height measures. The norms and measures established will be used in the subsequent studies. Next, we will conduct a series of studies to determine if increases and reductions in state-level fear produce differences in height estimation. We will also test alternative hypotheses by introducing arousal and alternative mood manipulations. We predict that perceived height will increase when participants are frightened, but not when they are aroused for different reasons or in different moods. These experiments will allow us to better understand the underlying mechanisms by which fear affects perception of height. Finally, we will assess whether phobias influence estimates of height. Specifically, we will investigate whether individuals with a specific phobia toward heights (termed acrophobia) show larger changes in height estimation relative to other-fear and control groups. We will also test whether fear reduction (after habituation of fear through exposures) attenuates the overestimation of heights expected in persons with acrophobia.

描述（由申请人提供）：本研究旨在探讨情绪对空间布局感知的影响，更具体地说，恐惧如何影响高度感知。在一项有代表性的研究中，参与者站在一个高阳台上，并提供与地面的视距离指数。这项研究基于最近的研究，该研究表明，空间布局的感知受到观察者生理状态的影响（Proffitt, Bhalla, Gossweiler, & Midgett, 1995; Bhalla & Proffitt, 1999; Proffitt, Stefanucci, Banton, & Epstein, 2003）。例如，与没有背背包的人相比，背沉重背包的人看到的斜坡更陡，距离更远。最近的研究表明，恐惧也会影响对相关空间布局的感知。陡峭的山，是不可能步行下来的，从上面看比从下面看更陡峭。站在滑板上比站在同等高度的箱子上从山顶看，陡坡也显得更陡峭。建立情感和感知之间的关系不仅可以扩展我们对感知的理解，还可以为恐惧和恐惧症的本质和治疗提供见解。传统上，研究的重点是相对较高层次的认知处理，比如注意力和记忆方面的偏见。从某种意义上说，我们试图表明，恐惧的人实际上是通过“扭曲的镜头”看待世界的。为了验证这一假设，我们将进行三组研究。首先，我们将确定规范高度感知的参数。我们将采用不同的方法来评估真实世界和虚拟现实中的感知高度。恐惧和姿势摇摆的评估也将被收集，并与表观身高测量相关联。所制订的准则和措施将在以后的研究中使用。接下来，我们将进行一系列研究，以确定国家层面恐惧的增加和减少是否会产生身高估计的差异。我们还将通过引入唤醒和其他情绪操纵来测试其他假设。我们预测，当参与者受到惊吓时，感知高度会增加，但当他们出于不同的原因或处于不同的情绪时，感知高度不会增加。这些实验将使我们更好地理解恐惧影响身高感知的潜在机制。最后，我们将评估恐惧症是否影响对身高的估计。具体来说，我们将调查是否有特定恐高症（称为恐高症）的个体相对于其他恐惧和对照组在高度估计上表现出更大的变化。我们还将测试恐惧的减少（通过暴露习惯恐惧后）是否会减弱恐高症患者对高度的过高估计。