Body posture aftereffects—does viewing slouched bodies change people’s perception of normal posture?
Eva Tzschaschel, Ian D. Stephen, Kevin Brooks

TL;DR
This study explores how seeing slouched postures affects people's perception of what is considered a normal posture.
Contribution
The study introduces a novel use of the visual adaptation paradigm to examine posture perception.
Findings
Perceived normal posture changed after viewing slouched or upright postures.
The aftereffect only occurred when test and adaptation postures were in the same orientation.
Results suggest posture perception is retina-centred, not object-centred.
Abstract
People lead increasingly sedentary lifestyles and spend extended periods sitting in slouched and head-forward positions, which can lead to health issues. People are so accustomed to seeing slouched posture that they may perceive it as normal and fail to notice their own slouched posture. We aim to investigate this possibility using the visual adaptation paradigm, which has provided insights into the perception of body size and shape in the context of exposure to thin bodies in the media. The experiment was conducted in three phases. First, participants established the posture they perceived as normal by manipulating body stimuli shown in profile view. In the second phase, the adaptation phase, participants viewed bodies with extremely upright or slouched postures before establishing their perceived normal posture again in the third phase. Perceived normal posture differed significantly…
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Taxonomy
TopicsColor perception and design · Multisensory perception and integration · Visual perception and processing mechanisms
