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Psychonomic Bulletin & Review Jun 2018Our actions affect the behavior of other people in predictable ways. In the present article, we describe a theoretical framework for action control in social contexts... (Review)
Review
Our actions affect the behavior of other people in predictable ways. In the present article, we describe a theoretical framework for action control in social contexts that we call sociomotor action control. This framework addresses how human agents plan and initiate movements that trigger responses from other people, and we propose that humans represent and control such actions literally in terms of the body movements they consistently evoke from observers. We review evidence for this approach and discuss commonalities and differences to related fields such as joint action, intention understanding, imitation, and interpersonal power. The sociomotor framework highlights a range of open questions pertaining to how representations of other persons' actions are linked to one's own motor activity, how specifically they contribute to action initiation, and how they affect the way we perceive the actions of others.
Topics: Humans; Interpersonal Relations; Motor Activity; Social Behavior
PubMed: 28560533
DOI: 10.3758/s13423-017-1316-6 -
Neuropsychologia Oct 2017Since the discovery of motor mirroring, the involvement of the motor system in action interpretation has been widely discussed. While some theories proposed that motor...
Since the discovery of motor mirroring, the involvement of the motor system in action interpretation has been widely discussed. While some theories proposed that motor mirroring underlies human action understanding, others suggested that it is a corollary of action interpretation. We put these two accounts to the test by employing superficially similar actions that invite radically different interpretations of the underlying intentions. Using an action-observation task, we assessed motor activation (as indexed by the suppression of the EEG mu rhythm) in response to actions typically interpreted as instrumental (e.g., grasping) or referential (e.g., pointing) towards an object. Only the observation of instrumental actions resulted in enhanced mu suppression. In addition, the exposure to grasping actions failed to elicit mu suppression when they were preceded by speech, suggesting that the presence of communicative signals modulated the interpretation of the observed actions. These results suggest that the involvement of sensorimotor cortices during action processing is conditional on a particular (instrumental) action interpretation, and that action interpretation relies on inferential processes and top-down mechanisms that are implemented outside of the motor system.
Topics: Adolescent; Adult; Analysis of Variance; Communication; Electroencephalography; Evoked Potentials, Somatosensory; Female; Functional Laterality; Hand Strength; Humans; Male; Motor Activity; Perception; Photic Stimulation; Sensorimotor Cortex; Young Adult
PubMed: 28189494
DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2017.01.032 -
Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews Oct 2019The term 'action understanding' has been defined in several ways since it was first proposed to describe the psychological process subserved by mirror neurons. Here we... (Review)
Review
The term 'action understanding' has been defined in several ways since it was first proposed to describe the psychological process subserved by mirror neurons. Here we outline and critique these definitions of 'action understanding' in order to evaluate the claim that mirror neurons perform such a process. We delineate three distinct definitions of 'action understanding', each involving a distinct psychological process. Action identification comprises using the specific configurations of body parts in observed actions to identify those actions, whereas goal identification and intention identification involve generalising across different observed actions to identify the immediate goal of, or the hidden mental state motivating, the actions. This paper discusses the benefits and drawbacks of using these definitions to describe the process purportedly performed by mirror neurons. We then examine each definition in relation to the mirror neuron literature. We conclude that although there is some evidence consistent with the suggestion that mirror neurons contribute to action identification, there is little evidence to support the claim that they contribute to goal or intention identification.
Topics: Comprehension; Goals; Humans; Intention; Mentalization; Mirror Neurons; Motor Activity
PubMed: 31394116
DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2019.08.002 -
Canadian Journal of Experimental... Dec 2018Manipulable objects have the potential to evoke mental representations of hand actions. Behavioural evidence favouring the view that this process happens automatically... (Review)
Review
Manipulable objects have the potential to evoke mental representations of hand actions. Behavioural evidence favouring the view that this process happens automatically while passively viewing objects is critically examined. A case is made for the alternative proposal that objects may evoke action representations when observers concurrently operate with an intention to engage in a reach-and-grasp action. In addition, the nature of hand action representations was examined by considering two components of actions, hand selection and wrist orientation, and it is shown that the relationship between these dimensions is modulated by task context. When an action representation is evoked by a task-irrelevant object, these two dimensions are to a large extent independent of one another, but when an observer prepares an action for immediate production, these two action features are hierarchically integrated, with hand selection dominating the hierarchy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).
Topics: Humans; Intention; Motor Activity; Space Perception; Visual Perception
PubMed: 30475005
DOI: 10.1037/cep0000156 -
Developmental Science Jan 2007It is argued that cognitive development has to be understood in the functional perspective provided by actions. Actions reflect all aspects of cognitive development... (Review)
Review
It is argued that cognitive development has to be understood in the functional perspective provided by actions. Actions reflect all aspects of cognitive development including the motives of the child, the problems to be solved, and the constraints and possibilities of the child's body and sensorimotor system. Actions are directed into the future and their control is based on knowledge of what is going to happen next. Such knowledge is available because events are governed by rules and regularities. The planning of actions also requires knowledge of the affordances of objects and events. An important aspect of cognitive development is about how the child acquires such knowledge.
Topics: Child; Child Development; Cognition; Humans; Motivation; Motor Activity; Orientation; Psychomotor Performance; Visual Perception
PubMed: 17181700
DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-7687.2007.00564.x -
Progress in Brain Research 2017In this chapter, we discuss the way in which visual information is gathered and try to relate this to the task at hand. It is well established that people direct their... (Review)
Review
In this chapter, we discuss the way in which visual information is gathered and try to relate this to the task at hand. It is well established that people direct their gaze toward the places at which they expect to be able to gather the most useful information. Studies of gaze during goal-directed actions show that people also make sure to gather information precisely at the moment that they need it. We argue that the eye movements that people make during interception tasks and the precision that people achieve in such tasks suggest that people constantly update their estimates of the details that are needed to successfully hit the target. The updating predominantly consists of replacing the previously acquired information, rather than of adding to such information.
Topics: Eye Movements; Goals; Humans; Motor Activity; Visual Perception
PubMed: 29157419
DOI: 10.1016/bs.pbr.2017.07.007 -
Trends in Cognitive Sciences Dec 2017From its academic beginnings the theory of human action control has distinguished between endogenously driven, intentional action and exogenously driven, habitual, or... (Review)
Review
From its academic beginnings the theory of human action control has distinguished between endogenously driven, intentional action and exogenously driven, habitual, or automatic action. We challenge this dual-route model and argue that attempts to provide clear-cut and straightforward criteria to distinguish between intentional and automatic action have systematically failed. Specifically, we show that there is no evidence for intention-independent action, and that attempts to use the criterion of reward sensitivity and rationality to differentiate between intentional and automatic action are conceptually unsound. As a more parsimonious, and more feasible, alternative we suggest a unitary approach to action control, according to which actions are (i) represented by codes of their perceptual effects, (ii) selected by matching intention-sensitive selection criteria, and (ii) moderated by metacontrol states.
Topics: Cognition; Executive Function; Humans; Intention; Motor Activity
PubMed: 29150000
DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2017.09.009 -
Biology Letters Dec 2009Certain regions of the human brain are activated both during action execution and action observation. This so-called 'mirror neuron system' has been proposed to enable...
Certain regions of the human brain are activated both during action execution and action observation. This so-called 'mirror neuron system' has been proposed to enable an observer to understand an action through a process of internal motor simulation. Although there has been much speculation about the existence of such a system from early in life, to date there is little direct evidence that young infants recruit brain areas involved in action production during action observation. To address this question, we identified the individual frequency range in which sensorimotor alpha-band activity was attenuated in nine-month-old infants' electroencephalographs (EEGs) during elicited reaching for objects, and measured whether activity in this frequency range was also modulated by observing others' actions. We found that observing a grasping action resulted in motor activation in the infant brain, but that this activity began prior to observation of the action, once it could be anticipated. These results demonstrate not only that infants, like adults, display overlapping neural activity during execution and observation of actions, but that this activation, rather than being directly induced by the visual input, is driven by infants' understanding of a forthcoming action. These results provide support for theories implicating the motor system in action prediction.
Topics: Child Development; Electroencephalography; Female; Humans; Infant; Male; Motor Activity; Perception; Psychomotor Performance
PubMed: 19675001
DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2009.0474 -
Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews May 2020This article reviews evidence for the special inhibitory mechanisms required to keep response activation related to affordances of a non-target object from evoking... (Review)
Review
This article reviews evidence for the special inhibitory mechanisms required to keep response activation related to affordances of a non-target object from evoking responses. This evidence presents that response activation triggered by affordances of a non-target are automatically inhibited resulting, for example, in decelerated response speed when the response is compatible with the affordance. The article also highlights the neural processes that differentiate these non-target-related affordance effects from other non-target-related effects such as the Eriksen flanker effect that-contrary to these affordance effects-present decelerated response speed when there is incompatibility between the non-target and the response. The article discusses the role of frontal executive mechanisms in controlling action planning processes in these non-target-related affordance effects. It is also proposed that overlapping inhibition mechanisms prevent executing impulsive actions relative to affordances of a target and exaggerate inhibition of response activation triggered by affordances of a non-target.
Topics: Animals; Cerebral Cortex; Executive Function; Humans; Inhibition, Psychological; Motor Activity; Nerve Net; Psychomotor Performance; Size Perception
PubMed: 32097668
DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2020.02.029 -
Journal of Experimental Psychology.... Mar 2017We show that theories of response scheduling for sequential action can be discriminated on the basis of their predictions for the dynamic range of response set...
We show that theories of response scheduling for sequential action can be discriminated on the basis of their predictions for the dynamic range of response set activation during sequencing, which refers to the momentary span of activation states for completed and to-be-completed actions in a response set. In particular, theories allow that future actions in a plan are partially activated, but differ with respect to the width of the range, which refers to the number of future actions that are partially activated. Similarly, theories differ on the width of the range for recently completed actions that are assumed to be rapidly deactivated or gradually deactivated in a passive fashion. We validate a new typing task for measuring momentary activation states of actions across a response set during action sequencing. Typists recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk copied a paragraph by responding to a "go" signal that usually cued the next letter but sometimes cued a near-past or future letter (n-3, -2, -1, 0, +2, +3). The activation states for producing letters across go-signal positions can be inferred from RTs and errors. In general, we found evidence of graded parallel activation for future actions and rapid deactivation of more distal past actions. (PsycINFO Database Record
Topics: Adult; Executive Function; Female; Humans; Inhibition, Psychological; Male; Middle Aged; Motor Activity; Psychomotor Performance
PubMed: 28080109
DOI: 10.1037/xhp0000335