Frank Zaal¹ (), Samruddhi Damle¹, Reinoud Bootsma²; ¹University Medical Center Groningen, The Netherlands, ²Aix-Marseille Université, CNRS, France

Knowing whether certain actions are (still) possible for others is often relevant. Using a lateral-interception task, we studied the affordance of interceptability for others. Balls moving down from the top of a 55” screen, following linear trajectories, could be intercepted with a “paddle” that could move horizontally along an interception axis near the bottom of the screen. We varied the balls’ horizontal departure positions, arrival positions, and flight times. Two groups (“actors” and “observers”) of 12 participants each completed three conditions: a “training”, an “action”, and a “judging” condition. In the “action” condition, the participants were instructed to try to intercept the virtual balls even when they felt that this would be impossible. In the “judging” condition, the actors also tried to make an interception but when they perceived that the interception would not be possible (anymore), they indicated this by calling “no” and were free to abandon their interception attempt. The actors successfully intercepted the ball in 80% of their “action” trials and indicated that an interception was perceived to be impossible in 12% of a set of similar “judging” trials. In their “judging” condition, the observers were shown the played-back kinematics of ball and paddle for a selection of the trials from the actors’ “judging” condition, with an even distribution of interceptable and uninterceptable balls. The observers were instructed to indicate with a button press whether or not a ball would be interceptable for the original player (i.e., the actors). They turned out to be correct on 72% of the trials. We conclude that people are able to perceive the affordance of interceptability both for themselves and for others.

Acknowledgements: This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie SkłodowskaCurie grant agreement No 956003.