Skip to Main Content
 

Global Search Box

 
 
 

ETD Abstract Container

Abstract Header

Keeping Your Friends Close: Perceived Distance as a Function of Psychological Closeness

Corbin, Sierra Fontaine
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=dayton1497502217239512

Abstract Details

2017, Master of Arts (M.A.), University of Dayton, Psychology, General.
Traditionally, visual-spatial perception research has focused quite heavily on the visual information necessary to perceive the environment and the locations of objects within that space. Recent research has illustrated that non-visual factors like emotional states, motivations, and physical abilities can affect both perceptions and behaviors within the environment. Social factors may also impact the way we see the space around us. This research investigates whether psychological closeness affects perceived egocentric (self-to-target) distance, an important component of spatial perception. Across two experiments, participants made several estimates of the distance between themselves and another “target” person. This target person represented either someone with whom the participant shared a relationship (his/her best friend), or a stranger (confederate Alex); I hypothesized that individuals’ feelings of psychological closeness to their best friends would lead to judgments of closer visual-spatial proximity to visual representations of their friends than to visual representations of a stranger. Though participants did indeed report feeling significantly greater levels of psychological closeness to their best friends, there was no evidence that psychological closeness affected subsequent visual-spatial distance judgments in the form of verbal reports of distance (Experiment 1), visual matching of the distance (Experiment 2) or blindfolded walking to targets (Experiments 1 and 2). The contribution of these studies to the ongoing debate regarding the robustness and resilience of non-visual contributions to spatial cognition are discussed in the context of methodological limitations of the present studies and directions for future research in this area.
Benjamin Kunz, Ph.D. (Committee Chair)
Greg Elvers, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
Erin O'Mara, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
53 p.
Cognitive Psychology; Experimental Psychology; Psychology; Social Psychology
egocentric distance; distance perception; non-visual factors; social factors; visual-spatial perception

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Corbin, S. F. (2017). Keeping Your Friends Close: Perceived Distance as a Function of Psychological Closeness [Master's thesis, University of Dayton]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=dayton1497502217239512

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Corbin, Sierra. Keeping Your Friends Close: Perceived Distance as a Function of Psychological Closeness. 2017. University of Dayton, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=dayton1497502217239512.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Corbin, Sierra. "Keeping Your Friends Close: Perceived Distance as a Function of Psychological Closeness." Master's thesis, University of Dayton, 2017. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=dayton1497502217239512

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

dayton1497502217239512
635
© 2017, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by University of Dayton and OhioLINK.