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  • Title: Is hefting to perceive the affordance for throwing a smart perceptual mechanism?
    Author: Zhu Q, Bingham GP.
    Journal: J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform; 2008 Aug; 34(4):929-43. PubMed ID: 18665736.
    Abstract:
    G. P. Bingham, R. C. Schmidt, and L. D. Rosenblum (1989) found that, by hefting objects of different sizes and weights, people could choose the optimal weight in each size for throwing to a maximum distance. In Experiment 1, the authors replicated this result. G. P. Bingham et al. hypothesized that hefting is a smart mechanism that allows objects to be perceived in the context of throwing dynamics. This hypothesis entails 2 assumptions. First, hefting by hand is required for information about throwing by hand. The authors tested and confirmed this in Experiments 2 and 3. Second, optimal objects are determined by the dynamics of throwing. In Experiment 4, the authors tested this by measuring throwing release angles and using them with mean thrown distances from Experiment 1 and object sizes and weights to simulate projectile motion and recover release velocities. The results showed that only weight, not size, affects throwing. This failed to provide evidence supporting the particular smart mechanism hypothesis of G. P. Bingham et al. Because the affordance relation is determined in part by the dynamics of projectile motion, the results imply that the affordance is learned from knowledge of results of throwing.
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