道具の刃先と握り手の位置が表示画面へのタッピング反応に与える影響

抄録

Manual responses are often facilitated when the handle direction of a tool is aligned with the response hand in two-choice reaction-time tasks. This effect is discussed in terms of affordance perception, but that is still controversial. If manual responses are promoted by perceived affordance of grasping, the responses would conversely be suppressed when the danger of grasping is perceived. In this study, 36 right-handed university students performed a discrimination task using blades and non-bladed tools on a tablet screen by tapping on the left or right position near the tool with the left or right index finger. The results showed that the responses were not facilitated even when the direction of the handle was aligned with the response hand. The responses were quicker to blades than to non-bladed tools and especially facilitated when the direction of the edge of the blade and the response position coincided. These results do not support the prediction from affordance perception and can be interpreted as a Simon-type spatial compatibility effect caused by the proximity of attention-grabbing blades to response positions.