Is perception-action coupling more malleable in virtual than in real environments?

Whenever we move, we gain experience with how changes in visual flow are related to movement through the environment. One way that researchers have studied these perception-action linkages is through perturbing the normal relationship between perception and action [Kunz et al. 2009; Rieser et al. 1995]. In these studies, people experience an optic flow rate that is manipulated to be significantly faster or slower than their walking rate. Comparison of distance estimates from before and after this recalibration experience typically shows that people who experience faster optic flow undershoot targets at posttest and people who experience slower optic flow overshoot targets at posttest. Here, we examined how experience with mismatched perception and action (i.e., faster or slower optic flow) in a virtual environment affects subsequent distance estimation in the same virtual environment and in a similar real environment. Of particular interest was whether perception-action coupling is more malleable in the virtual environment than in the real environment.