Vision-for-action: the effects of object property discrimination and action state on affordance compatibility effects.
When a person views an object, the action the object evokes appears to be activated independently of the person's intention to act. We demonstrate two further properties of this vision-to-action process. First, it is not completely automatic, but is determined by the stimulus properties of the object that are attended. Thus, when a person discriminates the shape of an object, action affordance effects are observed; but when a person discriminates an object's color, no affordance effects are observed. The former, shape property is associated with action, such as how an object might be grasped; the latter, color property is irrelevant to action. Second, we also show that the action state of an object influences evoked action. Thus, active objects, with which current action is implied, produce larger affordance effects than passive objects, with which no action is implied. We suggest that the active object activates action simulation processes similar to those proposed in mirror systems.
Tipper
Steven P
SP
Centre for Clinical and Cognitive Neuroscience, School of Psychology, University of Wales, Bangor, Gwynedd LL57 2AS, Wales. s.tipper@bangor.ac.uk
Paul
Matthew A
MA
Hayes
Amy E
AE
D000328:Adult; D001332:Automatism; D003118:Color Perception; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological; D005260:Female; D005556:Form Perception; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009039:Motion Perception; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D011930:Reaction Time; D014796:Visual Perception