Does action affect perception or memory?

Current literature maintains that success or failure in the performance of an action can modify perception of the objects of that action. The tests of that modification, however, may have measured memory rather than perception. To address this issue, the current experiment had observers throw a marble into various sized holes and assess their size through either a haptic or verbal measure. They respond either before the throw while the hole is visible (control condition), after the throw while the hole is visible (perception condition), or after the throw while the hole is not visible (memory condition). It was found that observers judged the hole size to be different depending on their throwing success only during the memory condition. This casts doubt on the conclusion of an action-specific perception account (Witt, 2011), and instead we propose an action-specific memory account.

► Past experiments on action's effect on size perception are confounded by memory. ► The present experiment investigates this issue. ► We found that action does not affect size perception, but does affect size memory.