Object Space is Embodied

TL;DR

This paper proposes that embodied features, such as action affordances and spatial relations, are crucial in defining object space and explaining object similarity in the human visual system.

Contribution

It introduces embodied features into the object space framework, demonstrating their role in object similarity and visual perception.

Findings

Embodied features explain object similarity alongside visual features.

The findings are replicated with novel objects.

Embodied features are essential for understanding the human visual system.

Abstract

The perceived similarity between objects has often been attributed to their physical and conceptual features, such as appearance and animacy, and the theoretical framework of object space is accordingly conceived. Here, we extend this framework by proposing that object space may also be defined by embodied features, specifically action possibilities that objects afford to an agent (i.e., affordance) and their spatial relation with the agent (i.e., situatedness). To test this proposal, we quantified the embodied features with a set of action atoms. We found that embodied features explained the subjective similarity among familiar objects along with the objects' visual features. This observation was further replicated with novel objects. Our study demonstrates that embodied features, which place objects within an ecological context, are essential in constructing object space in the human visual system, emphasizing the importance of incorporating embodiment as a fundamental dimension in our understanding of the visual world.