The role of anxiety on perceptual and action tasks: to spring or to step

Emotional state and in particular anxiety has been shown to constrain perceptual judgement of action capabilities. However, whether anxiety also constrains actual behaviour is unknown. The current study therefore aimed to determine whether state anxiety constrained perceptual judgements of action capabilities and actual behaviour. Participants made perceptual judgements and performed action behaviours in relation to crossing ground-based apertures representing puddles. State anxiety was measured in 30 participants using the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI). The critical ratio of aperture-size relative to leg length at which participants’ behaviour choice would switch between a step and a spring was calculated. In a perceptual judgment task participants judged the ratio at which they thought they would switch. In a subsequent executed action task, the ratio at which they actually switched was measured. State anxiety does constrain perceptual judgement of action capabilities, as shown in previous studies. However, this does not seem to result in a change in behaviour. This highlights the importance of measuring emergent behaviour rather than inferring it from perceptual judgements even when they are couched in terms of action.

情绪状态，尤其是焦虑，已被证实会限制个体对自身行动能力的知觉判断。然而，焦虑是否同样会约束实际行为，目前仍未可知。因此本研究旨在探讨状态焦虑是否会对行动能力知觉判断与实际行为产生约束作用。

本研究招募了30名参与者，要求其针对模拟水坑的地面孔洞完成两项任务：一是知觉判断任务，二是实际跨洞行动任务。研究采用状态-特质焦虑量表（State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, STAI）对参与者的状态焦虑水平进行测量。研究人员计算了参与者在行动选择（跨步与跳跃）发生切换时，孔洞尺寸相对于腿长的临界比值。在知觉判断任务中，参与者需判断自身会切换行动方式的临界比值；在后续的实际行动任务中，则测量其实际发生行动方式切换时的临界比值。

研究结果证实，正如既往研究所示，状态焦虑确实会限制个体对自身行动能力的知觉判断。但这一效应似乎并未引发实际行为的改变。这一发现凸显了即便知觉判断是以行动为参照，相较于从知觉判断推断行为，直接测量实际行为的重要性。