The effect of affordances on perceived interval durations during motor action

Affordances describe the possible actions that an agent can perform on an object, determined by the agent's morphology as well as the object's perceptual features. Using a stimulus-response compatibility (SRC) setup in virtual reality, this study aimed to investigate whether visual perception of affordances while performing motor actions could affect the perceived durations of these actions or the visual stimuli being acted upon. The reaching affordance was proposed to be present in congruent conditions, in which the handle of a pan stimulus was on the same side as the hand to respond. Subjects reported longer perceived durations in congruent conditions than in incongruent conditions, hinting at the possibility of affordance effects on perceived time. However, the control study suggests that these differences in perceived time may have been due to Vierordt's phenomenon. Additionally, subjects similarly reported longer perceived durations in congruent conditions when the pan stimulus was placed in extrapersonal space, where reaching was not afforded. While this thesis could not elucidate the relationship between affordance perception and time perception, the results suggest that the differences in response times to and perceived durations of graspable stimuli in SRC setups might be due to spatial compatibility, rather than affordance potentiation. Further research is still necessary to determine the effects of affordances on perceived time. Once these effects are determined, the exact details of the mechanism by which these effects are mediated can be investigated.