On the relations between action planning, object identification, and motor representations of observed actions and objects.

Full Abstract

Recent evidence suggests that viewing a static prime object (a hand grasp), can activate action representations that affect the subsequent identification of graspable target objects. The present study explored whether stronger effects on target object identification would occur when the prime object (a hand grasp) was made more action-rich and dynamic. Of additional interest was whether this type of action prime would affect the generation of motor activity normally elicited by the target object. Three experiments demonstrated that grasp observation improved the identification of grasp-congruent target objects relative to grasp-incongruent target objects. We argue from this data that identifying a graspable object includes the processing of its action-related attributes. In addition, grasp observation was shown to influence the motor activity elicited by the target object, demonstrating interplay between action-based and object-based motor coding.

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Author information

Author/s: Vainio, Lari (L); Symes, Ed (E); Ellis, Rob (R); Tucker, Mike (M); Ottoboni, Giovanni (G);

Affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Helsinki, Siltavuorenpenger, Helsinki, Finland. lari.vainio@helsinki.fi

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: Cognition (Cognition), published in Netherlands. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2008-Aug; vol 108 (issue 2) : pp 444-65

Dates: Created 2008/06/30; Completed 2008/09/17;

PMID: 18452910, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 11/6/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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