Action-specific: Individual Perception of Task Difficulty

Abstract

The action-specific hypothesis is that perception depends on interactions between the perceived features of the environment and the perception of one’s abilities (Witt, 2011). For example, carrying a heavy load up steep incline can make a hill seem longer and steeper than if the load is lighter and a ledge looks higher when fear of heights is greater (Proffitt, 2006). Age may influence the perception of one’s physical abilities such that being older may mean that loads seem heavier and distances further. Sixty participants helped test the action-specific hypothesis in relation to the perception of length and distance. They performed three action tasks. The first was estimating the distance to a target. Participants provided estimates of the distance from the target by moving laterally the same distance they perceived the cone to be. In the second task, they balanced a wooden dowel rod in the center of their palms. Then they estimated the length of the dowel by holding their hands apart the perceived length. In the third task, they verbally estimated the distance to a tennis ball from a chair where they sat holding a standard grabber-type reaching tool or no tool. Analysis of variance revealed age differences in mean estimated distance in the cone task and length in the dowel task. No age difference was observed in the tennis ball task, although there was a difference between the no tool and the reaching/grabbing tool conditions within the older group.