Does it fit? - Trainability of affordance judgments in young and older adults.
Will I fit into the overcrowded subway? Advanced aging can change our abilities associated with accurately judging the fit between perceived environmental properties and our own actual physical capabilities (affordance judgments). Two experimental studies examined the effects of aging and trainabili...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Public Library of Science (PLoS)
2019-01-01
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| Series: | PLoS ONE |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0212709 |
| _version_ | 1818824281787727872 |
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| author | Lisa Finkel Simone Engler Jennifer Randerath |
| author_facet | Lisa Finkel Simone Engler Jennifer Randerath |
| author_sort | Lisa Finkel |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Will I fit into the overcrowded subway? Advanced aging can change our abilities associated with accurately judging the fit between perceived environmental properties and our own actual physical capabilities (affordance judgments). Two experimental studies examined the effects of aging and trainability in affordance judgments. Participants were asked to decide whether their hand fits into a given opening (Aperture Task). We used a detection theory approach to evaluate different judgment characteristics. Study 1 demonstrated that older (N = 39) compared to younger adults (N = 39) produced rather conservative judgments, but did not differ in perceptual sensitivity. Distributions of Hit and False-Alarm rates, as well as risk-perception statements (DOSPERT questionnaire), indicated a heightened concern about potential consequences of misjudgments in older adults. In Study 2, 20 younger and 22 older adults were trained by actually trying to fit their hand into each presented opening. Training included acoustic, haptic and visual feedback. Compared to pre-training, both groups demonstrated significant increases in accuracy when assessed post-training and after a one-week follow-up. While younger adults improved in perceptual sensitivity in post-training as well as in follow-up, the older group adjusted their tendency towards less conservative judgments in both following sessions. Our results are consistent with affordance models that propose a complex and dynamic interplay of different neural processes involved in this skill. Future studies are needed to further elucidate that interplay and the trainability of affordance judgments. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-18T23:53:23Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-f16dd97a39094770b6f795b6d333dc7d |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1932-6203 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-18T23:53:23Z |
| publishDate | 2019-01-01 |
| publisher | Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | PLoS ONE |
| spelling | doaj.art-f16dd97a39094770b6f795b6d333dc7d2022-12-21T20:46:49ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032019-01-01142e021270910.1371/journal.pone.0212709Does it fit? - Trainability of affordance judgments in young and older adults.Lisa FinkelSimone EnglerJennifer RanderathWill I fit into the overcrowded subway? Advanced aging can change our abilities associated with accurately judging the fit between perceived environmental properties and our own actual physical capabilities (affordance judgments). Two experimental studies examined the effects of aging and trainability in affordance judgments. Participants were asked to decide whether their hand fits into a given opening (Aperture Task). We used a detection theory approach to evaluate different judgment characteristics. Study 1 demonstrated that older (N = 39) compared to younger adults (N = 39) produced rather conservative judgments, but did not differ in perceptual sensitivity. Distributions of Hit and False-Alarm rates, as well as risk-perception statements (DOSPERT questionnaire), indicated a heightened concern about potential consequences of misjudgments in older adults. In Study 2, 20 younger and 22 older adults were trained by actually trying to fit their hand into each presented opening. Training included acoustic, haptic and visual feedback. Compared to pre-training, both groups demonstrated significant increases in accuracy when assessed post-training and after a one-week follow-up. While younger adults improved in perceptual sensitivity in post-training as well as in follow-up, the older group adjusted their tendency towards less conservative judgments in both following sessions. Our results are consistent with affordance models that propose a complex and dynamic interplay of different neural processes involved in this skill. Future studies are needed to further elucidate that interplay and the trainability of affordance judgments.https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0212709 |
| spellingShingle | Lisa Finkel Simone Engler Jennifer Randerath Does it fit? - Trainability of affordance judgments in young and older adults. PLoS ONE |
| title | Does it fit? - Trainability of affordance judgments in young and older adults. |
| title_full | Does it fit? - Trainability of affordance judgments in young and older adults. |
| title_fullStr | Does it fit? - Trainability of affordance judgments in young and older adults. |
| title_full_unstemmed | Does it fit? - Trainability of affordance judgments in young and older adults. |
| title_short | Does it fit? - Trainability of affordance judgments in young and older adults. |
| title_sort | does it fit trainability of affordance judgments in young and older adults |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0212709 |
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