Influences of Shoulder Widths on Aperture Passage in an Environment-Person-Person System

Abstract

The study was aimed to investigate the perception of individual's affordances for aperture passage in an environment-person-person system, and the influence of the shoulder width on aperture passage. Nine wide-shoulder and 9 narrow-shoulder undergraduates served as perceivers while another 9 wide-shoulder and 9 narrow-shoulder undergraduates served as companions. Perceivers and companions stood side by side as a dyad and then the perceivers were required to make judgments about the dyads' minimal passable aperture width. The dyads then walked side by side toward the aperture to determine the minimal passed aperture width of the system. The results indicated that despite the shoulder widths of the companions, the perceived minimal aperture width correlated with but different from the actual minimal aperture width. When the ratio between aperture width and the shoulder width of the perceiver + companion was taken into consideration, the ANOVA indicated that the differences between shoulder widths disappeared in both the perceived and actual passed conditions. The perception of the perceivers' affordances for aperture passage for the environment-person-person system was based on the shoulder widths of the perceiver and companion. Individuals were able to perceive affordances for an environment-person-person system based the body-scaled information of a dyad.