Exploratory Movement Generates Higher-Order Information That Is Sufficient for Accurate Perception of Scaled Egocentric Distance

What is it about?

How do we come to know the distance separating us from surrounding objects? We show that such information can be perceived, not with the eyes or ears or any other isolated sensory modality, but with a conjunction of them because the relevant information only lies *across* the senses. We further show that the this information is created by the perceiver's own motion (exploratory activity).

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Why is it important?

When it comes to perceiving the world around us, people often believe that there are visual information, auditory information, vestibular information and so on. Here we show that we, humans, can also perceive information that is not available to any single sensory modality but that only extends *across* the senses. We also show that perceiving involves an active role of the perceiver: she/he creates information, not through inferential processes that would take place inside her/his head, but through her/his motor behavior.