Effect of Experimentally-Induced Self-Object Cognitive Attitudes on Body and Object Perception

Abstract

In two experiments (Exp. I with 32 Ss and Exp. II with 16 Ss), it was demonstrated that experimentally-induced cognitive attitudes of fusion or “depolarization” and of separation or “polarization” of self and object significantly affect apparent location of fingertip (body perception) and apparent location of target (object perception), when S is instrumentally related to an object (target) by pointing. The physical distance between apparent fingertip and apparent target location is significantly smaller under a “depolarized” compared with the “polarized” cognitive attitude. Both apparent fingertip and apparent target location shift relatively toward each other under “depolarized” compared with “polarized” attitudinal conditions. The findings are interpreted in terms of organismic-developmental theory.