Holding an Object: Kinesthesia Does Not Influence the Visually Perceived Size

Perception ◽  
1996 ◽  
Vol 25 (1_suppl) ◽  
pp. 23-23
Author(s):  
E Brenner ◽  
J B J Smeets ◽  
W J van Damme

Because of the inverse relationship between an object's distance and its retinal image size, visual judgments of size require information on distance. Holding an object can obviously influence where one considers it to be. Does kinesthetic information on the posture of one's arm influence visual judgments of the object's size? Subjects were given a 5 cm cube at which they were asked to look before the experiment started, and to hold under the table in their left hand during the experiment. In their right hand, they held a rod behind a mirror. A simulated cube was presented binocularly—at the tip of the rod—via the mirror. Each presentation started with the subject placing the rod somewhere on a surface behind the mirror. The simulated cube appeared at that position (or 2.5 cm closer or further away) for 4 s, after which the subject had to indicate whether the cube he/she had seen was larger, the same, or smaller than the reference. The size of the simulated cube was varied between trials. Whether the simulated cube was closer, at the same position, or further than the rod influenced the point of subjective equality (the size of the simulation at which subjects judged it to match the reference). However, the average distance between the subject and the simulation was also different. When the latter differences were taken into account (by selecting data with the same average distance between the subject and the simulation) the abovementioned influence of the distance between the rod and the simulated cube disappeared.

1987 ◽  
Vol 101 (2) ◽  
pp. 89-94
Author(s):  
J. Bruyn

AbstractOf the nine interpretations proposed for Rembraradt's history Painting of 1626 now at Leiden, none is really convincing. Il seems attractive to think of palamedes Condemned by Agamemncm as the subject because of its political significance in the year after the publication of Voredel's tragecty Palamedcs or Innocence Murdered, which denounced the execution of the Remonstrant leader Johan van Oldenbarnevelt in 1619. γet the scene depicted does not fit any episode frorn the Palamedes story. It appears rather to represent three young men appearing before a crowned figure who makes a pronouncement, probably one of magnanimity or clemency. It is conceivable that the subject was taken from Q. Curtius Rufus's Historiae Alexandri Magni Macedonis, ofwhich several editions, including translations into the vernacular, were published in Holland in the first decades of the 17th century. The episode in question was known to the young Rubens, but does not seem to have been illustrated by any other artist. At the beginning of the seventh book it is described how Alexander summoned before. him in the presence of the army two oj three brothers, who had been close friends of Philotas, a former, friend of his who had been executed for plotting against his life. The youngest brother, Poleinon, had panicked and fled but was caught and brought back at the very moment when Alexander had accused the brothers and the eldest, Amyntas, after having been released from his bonds and given a spear which he held in his left hand, had embarked on his szzccess ful defence. The appearance of Polemon infuriated the soldiers, but when he took the blame on himself and prrifessed his brothers' innocence, they were moved to tears. So too was Alexander who, prompted by their cries, absolved the brothers. This anecdote does at least explain some of the features of Rembrandt's scene. The young man standing on the right with his right hand raised as if swearing an oath would be the eloquent Amyntas with a spear in his left hand. Hidden behind him kneels the second brother, Simias, while Polemon, 'a young man just come to maturity and in the first bloom of his youth', has fallen on one knee in the foreground, underlining his emotional words with his right hand bressed to his heart. Alexander raises his sceptre in token of his absolution and some men in the background wave and shout from a socle they have climbed. Interpreted in this way, the scene coralains not a topical political allegory but, as would seem usual with history paintings, a message of a more general nature: the magnanimity of Alexander as an 'exemblum virtutis'.


1914 ◽  
Vol 34 ◽  
pp. 76-88
Author(s):  
W. R. Lethaby

The Square Pedestals.—In some notes on the sculpture from the Artemision at the British Museum, printed in the last volume of this Journal (p. 87), I suggested that the fragment No. 1201 most probably belonged to a relief representing either Herakles in the Garden of the Hesperides or Herakles and the Hydra. Subsequent examination and the attempt to make a restoration from the given data have made me sure that the former was the subject of the sculpture. Only this would account for the quiet action of the left hand of Herakles and for the closely associated female figure. If this were indeed the subject, how could its normal elements be arranged so as to suit the conditions of the square pedestal having a vertical joint in the centre, and making proper use of the existing fragment of which Fig. 1 is a rough sketch? This question I have tried to answer. The fragment is now fixed in the side of a built-up pedestal close to its left-hand angle, but there is nothing which settles this position and it is a practically impossible one, for there is not room left in which to complete the figure of Herakles. If, however, we shift the piece to the right hand half of the pedestal, and sketch in the completion of the two figures, we at once see how perfectly the tree and serpent would occupy the centre of the composition and leave the left-hand space for the two other watching maidens—the whole making a symmetrical group.


Author(s):  
Igor Efimovich Kim ◽  
D ar`ya Vladimirovna Ilina

The article describes characteristics of popular science sphere of communication: aim and content of communication, communicative environment of the author and the reader, worldviews, circumstances of the communication. Comparison with adjacent spheres of communication is made. It is demonstrated that the content of the popular science sphere is derived from science sphere and placed into the reader’s non-professional environment; and all that determines existence of two views on the subject matter of the text. The first view is based on scientific knowledge, the second sight – on common sense. The author’s aim is to reconstruct the “naïve” worldview of the reader, to dispose it and to convince the addressee that the scientific view is real life. The more complete expression of these actions of the author is a framework which sets two semantic structures. Each of them consists of reference to the channel of information, predicate of “feeling-thinking-speaking”, and thesis. The first (left-hand) structure belongs to the reader’s “naïve” worldview, the second (right-hand) – to the author’s scientific sight. Language expression of the elements of this construction can be text fragments or zero. The latter is available due to standard meanings of qualificative categories of the modality of sentence – authorization and epistemic modality


1970 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 615-630 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lilliane Lurcat ◽  
Irene Kostin

The Lurcat Test of Graphical Abilities was administered to 124 right-handed children between the ages of 4 and 10. Age trends were determined for the ability to reproduce the correct form of a curve, i.e., a cycloid or a spiral, when given (a) visual information alone, (b) both visual and kinesthetic information, and (c) kinesthetic information alone. Results for the right and left hands were determined separately. Age trends were examined, also, for the ability to reproduce the correct trajectory or orientation of these curves in the three situations mentioned above. Most of the development of these abilities in our sample seems to occur between the ages of 4 and 7. Reproducing cycloids with parallel rotations with both hands simultaneously while blindfolded seems to be related to laterality. In this situation, for 6- and 7-yr.-olds, the large majority of right-handed children correctly reproduce the rotation of the cycloid only with the right hand. The rotation produced by the left hand was found to be symmetrical rather than parallel to that produced by the right hand.


1888 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 11-17
Author(s):  
Percy Gardner

The vase which is the subject of the present paper is no new find. It has been for many years in the British Museum (Cat. No. 810), and was mentioned by Overbeck in his Heroische Bildwerke in 1851. It has not however hitherto been figured, and it may be well to take advantage of its publication in these pages to make a few observations on the general subject of vase-paintings which are connected with the myths of the Iliad.The present vase is an amphora from Vulci, height nineteen inches. The form and decoration are given in the woodcut. On one side is a warrior standing to the left, clad in a chlamys, and armed with helmet, spear, and shield adorned with serpent. On the other side is a lady to the left, clad in Ionian chiton and overdress, her head enveloped in a kerchief; she raises her right hand; in her left hand is a baby boy, who turns and stretches his hands to the right. The main outlines of the figures are traced in black, but the folds of the Ionian chiton with light red; there are three incised circles on the warrior's shield. Under each figure runs a line of maeander pattern; an anthemion adorns the bottoms of both handles.


1946 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 2-2

In the article “Infant Speech Sounds and Intelligence” by Orvis C. Irwin and Han Piao Chen, in the December 1945 issue of the Journal, the paragraph which begins at the bottom of the left hand column on page 295 should have been placed immediately below the first paragraph at the top of the right hand column on page 296. To the authors we express our sincere apologies.


Author(s):  
Cathy Curtis

In 1942, at age twenty, after a vision-impaired and rebellious childhood in Richmond, Virginia, Nell Blaine decamped for New York. Operations had corrected her eyesight, and she was newly aware of modern art, so different from the literal style of her youthful drawings. In Manhattan, she met rising young artists and poets. Her life was hectic, with raucous parties in her loft, lovers of both sexes, and freelance design jobs, including a stint at the Village Voice. Initially drawn to the rigorous formalism of Piet Mondrian, she received critical praise for her jazzy abstractions. During the 1950s, she began to paint interiors and landscapes. By 1959, when the Whitney Museum purchased one of her paintings, her career was firmly established. That year, she contracted a severe form of polio on a trip to Greece; suddenly, she was a paraplegic. Undaunted, she taught herself to paint in oil with her left hand, reserving her right hand for watercolors. In her postpolio work, she achieved a freer style, expressive of the joy she found in flowers and landscapes. Living half the year in Gloucester, Massachusetts, and the other half in New York, she took special delight in painting the views from her windows and from her country garden. Critics found her new style irresistible, and she had a loyal circle of collectors; still, she struggled to earn enough money to pay the aides who made her life possible. At her side for her final twenty-nine years was her lover, painter Carolyn Harris.


2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (Supplement_1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Velarie Ansu ◽  
Stephanie Dickinson ◽  
Alyce Fly

Abstract Objectives To determine which digit and hand have the highest and lowest skin carotenoid scores, to compare inter-and-intra-hand variability of digits, and to determine if results are consistent with another subject. Methods Two subjects’ first(F1), second(F2), third(F3) and fifth(F5) digits on both hands were measured for skin carotenoids with a Veggie Meter, for 3 times on each of 18 days over a 37-day period. Data were subjected to ANOVA in a factorial treatment design to determine main effects for hand (2 levels), digits (4), and days (18) along with interactions. Differences between digits were determined by Tukey's post hoc test. Results There were significant hand x digit, hand x day, digit x day, and hand x digit x day interactions and significant simple main effects for hand, digit, and day (all P < 0.001). Mean square errors were 143.67 and 195.62 for subject A and B, respectively, which were smaller than mean squares for all main effects and interactions. The mean scores ± SD for F1, F2, F3, and F5 digits for the right vs left hands for subject A were F1:357.13 ± 45.97 vs 363.74 ± 46.94, F2:403.17 ± 44.77 vs. 353.20 ± 44.13, F3:406.76 ± 43.10 vs. 357.11 ± 45.13, and F5:374.95 ± 53.00 vs. 377.90 ± 47.38. For subject B, the mean scores ± SD for digits for the right vs left hands were F1:294.72 ± 61.63 vs 280.71 ± 52.48, F2:285.85 ± 66.92 vs 252.67 ± 67.56, F3:268.56 ± 57.03 vs 283.22 ± 45.87, and F5:288.18 ± 34.46 vs 307.54 ± 40.04. The digits on the right hand of both subjects had higher carotenoid scores than those on the left hands, even though subjects had different dominant hands. Subject A had higher skin carotenoid scores on the F3 and F2 digits for the right hand and F5 on the left hand. Subject B had higher skin carotenoid scores on F5 (right) and F1 (left) digits. Conclusions The variability due to hand, digit, and day were all greater than that of the 3 replicates within the digit-day for both volunteers. This indicates that data were not completely random across the readings when remeasuring the same finger. Different fingers displayed higher carotenoid scores for each volunteer. There is a need to conduct a larger study with more subjects and a range of skin tones to determine whether the reliability of measurements among digits of both hands is similar across the population. Funding Sources Indiana University.


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