Individual Differences in Distance Estimation: Comparison of Judgments in the Field with Those from Projected Slides of the Same Scenes

Abstract

This study was designed to determine the comparative accuracy with which trained and untrained observers could judge distances to a target and to assess the correspondence of those judgments with other judgments, by the same observers, from photographic slides of the same target and scene at identical viewing distances. 9 experienced and 15 untrained observers estimated distances ranging from 600 co 1550 m in 50-m increments. Photographic slides were made of the target at each distance and, 1 mo. later, observers made the same judgments from the slides. It was found that averages of the group's judgments in the field very closely approximated true target distances. However, judgments of the individual observers were so erratic and inaccurate as to render questionable the interpretation of those averages. In addition, while the averages of the group indicated that judgments from two-dimensional slides could be substituted for three-dimensional real-world judgments, detailed analysis of the individual observers' performances dramatically contradicted this conclusion.