Abstract
The shape of a target object could influence maximum grip aperture in human grasping movements in several different ways. Maximum grip aperture could be influenced by the required precision of digit placement, by the aim to avoid colliding with the wrong parts of the target objects, by the mass of the target objects, or by (mis)judging the width or the volume of the target objects. To examine the influence of these five factors, we asked subjects to grasp five differently shaped target objects with the same maximal width, height and depth and compared their maximum grip aperture with what one would expect for each of the five factors. The five target objects, a cube, a three-dimensional plus sign, a rectangular block, a cylinder and a sphere, were all grasped with the same final grip aperture. The experimentally observed maximum grip apertures correlated poorly with the maximum grip apertures that were expected on the basis of the required precision, the actual mass, the perceived width and the perceived volume. They correlated much better with the maximum grip apertures that were expected on the basis of avoiding unintended collisions with the target object. We propose that the influence of target object shape on maximum grip aperture might primarily be the result of the need to avoid colliding with the wrong parts of the target object.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Aglioti S, DeSouza JFX, Goodale MA (1995) Size-contrast illusions deceive the eye but not the hand. Curr Biol 5(6):679–685. doi:10.1016/S0960-9822(95)00133-3
Borchers S, Verheij R, Smeets JBJ, Himmelbach M (2014) The influence of object height on maximum grip aperture in empirical and modelled data. J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform 40(2):889–896. doi:10.1037/a0035061
Brenner E, Smeets JBJ (1996) Size illusion influences how we lift but not how we grasp an object. Exp Brain Res 111(3):473–476. doi:10.1007/BF00228737
Cuijpers RH, Smeets JBJ, Brenner E (2004) On the relation between object shape and grasping kinematics. J Neurophysiol 91(6):2598–2606. doi:10.1152/jn.00644.2003
Eastough D, Edwards MG (2007) Movement kinematics in prehension are affected by grasping objects of different mass. Exp Brain Res 176(1):193–198. doi:10.1007/s00221-006-0749-3
Eloka O, Franz VH (2011) Effects of object shape on the visual guidance of action. Vis Res 51(8):925–931. doi:10.1016/j.visres.2011.02.002
Franz VH (2001) Action does not resist visual illusions. Trends Cogn Sci 5(11):457–459. doi:10.1016/S1364-6613(00)01772-1
Franz VH, Gegenfurtner KR, Bülthoff HH, Fahle M (2000) Grasping visual illusions: no evidence for a dissociation between perception and action. Psychol Sci 11(1):20–25. doi:10.1111/1467-9280.00209
Franz VH, Fahle M, Bülthoff HH, Gegenfurtner KR (2001) Effects of visual illusions on grasping. J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform 27(5):1124–1144. doi:10.1037/0096-1523.27.5.1124
Haffenden AM, Goodale MA (1998) The effect of pictorial illusion on prehension and perception. J Cogn Neurosci 10(1):122–136. doi:10.1162/089892998563824
Hu Y, Eagleson R, Goodale MA (1999) The effects of delay on the kinematics of grasping. Exp Brain Res 126(1):109–116. doi:10.1007/s002210050720
Jakobson LS, Goodale MA (1991) Factors affecting higher-order movement planning: a kinematic analysis of human prehension. Exp Brain Res 86(1):199–208
Jeannerod M (1981) Intersegmental coordination during reaching at natural visual objects. In: Long IJ, Baddeley A (eds) Attention and performance IX. Lawrence Erlbaum, Hillsdale, pp 153–169
Jeannerod M (1984) The timing of natural prehension movements. J Mot Behav 16(3):235–254
Lee YL, Crabtree CE, Norman JF, Bingham GP (2008) Poor shape perception is the reason reaches-to-grasp are visually guided online. Percept Psychophys 70(6):1032–1046. doi:10.3758/PP.70.6.1032
Messier J, Kalaska JF (1997) Differential effect of task conditions on errors of direction and extent of reaching movements. Exp Brain Res 115(3):469–478
Messier J, Kalaska JF (1999) Comparison of variability of initial kinematics and endpoints of reaching movements. Exp Brain Res 125(2):139–152
Mon-Williams M, Bingham GP (2011) Discovering affordances that determine the spatial structure of reach-to-grasp movements. Exp Brain Res 211(1):145–160. doi:10.1007/s00221-011-2659-2
Raghubir P, Krishna A (1999) Vital dimensions in volume perception: can the eye fool the stomach? J Mark Res 36(3):313–326. doi:10.2307/3152079
Schot WD, Brenner E, Smeets JBJ (2010) Robust movement segmentation by combining multiple sources of information. J Neurosci Methods 187(2):147–155. doi:10.1016/j.jneumeth.2010.01.004
Smeets JBJ, Brenner E (1999) A new view on grasping. Mot Control 3(3):237–271
Verheij R, Brenner E, Smeets JBJ (2012) Grasping kinematics from the perspective of the individual digits: a modelling study. PLoS ONE 7(3):e33150. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0033150
Verheij R, Brenner E, Smeets JBJ (2013) Why are the digits’ paths curved vertically in human grasping movements? Exp Brain Res 224(1):59–68. doi:10.1007/s00221-012-3288-0
Wansink B, Van Ittersum K (2003) Bottoms up! The influence of elongation on pouring and consumption volume. J Consum Res 30(3):455–463. doi:10.1086/378621
Weir PL, Mackenzie CL, Marteniuk RG, Cargoe SL, Frazer MB (1991) The effects of object weight on the kinematics of prehension. J Mot Behav 23(3):192–204. doi:10.1080/00222895.1991.10118362
Wing AM, Turton A, Fraser C (1986) Grasp size and accuracy of approach in reaching. J Mot Behav 18(3):245–260. doi:10.1080/00222895.1986.10735380
Zaal FTJM, Bootsma RJ (1993) Accuracy demands in natural prehension. Hum Mov Sci 12(3):339–345. doi:10.1016/0167-9457(93)90023-I
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by a Grant from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research, NWO Vici grant 453-08-004.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Verheij, R., Brenner, E. & Smeets, J.B.J. The influence of target object shape on maximum grip aperture in human grasping movements. Exp Brain Res 232, 3569–3578 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-014-4046-2
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-014-4046-2