Perceiving New Heights: Head Orientation Influences Height Perception

In the current work, we examine whether height perception is determined by head orientation. Our previous work has found that upward head orientation is overestimated by the same factor as downward head orientation, and this is consistent with the distance by which targets you must look up at are overestimated. In Experiment 1, participants looked at two targets from two different distances. Height estimates were significantly correlated to head orientation. Head orientation also significantly changed height estimates, with the closer distance (i.e., higher head orientation) yielding greater distance estimates, even when controlling for target height. In Experiment 2, we controlled for distance by having participants estimate the height of two targets while sitting down or standing. Height estimates were again significantly correlated with head orientation. Sitting or standing (i.e., manipulating head orientation) changed height estimates, with sitting yielding greater distance estimates, again, even when controlling for target height. Our work shows that head orientation is strongly positively correlated to the perception of height and that changing head orientation leads to concomitant changes in perception of height. The common scale expansion for upward and downward head orientation leads to corresponding distance estimates that reliably predict how we spatially map the environment.