Letters as visual action-effects in skilled typing.
In the present study, action-(visual)-effect associations in participants who type using the 10-finger-system and participants who do hunt-and-peck typing were investigated. Following responses (on either a keyboard or an external response device) to colored squares, participants were presented response corresponding or non-corresponding letters. In Experiment 1, evidence for action activation by anticipated action-effects was found. In Experiment 2, evidence that actions can activate the corresponding action-effects was obtained, but only when participants responded on a keyboard and only in the first half of the experimental trials. In both experiments, effects were only present in participants who type using the 10-finger-system. Thus, results provided evidence for bidirectional action-effect associations in 10-finger-system typists. Anticipated visual action-effects are important for action selection in expert typists. Visual action-effects also have a function for performance monitoring, but only in an appropriate context. The functional use of existing action-effect associations is flexible.
Rieger
Martina
M
Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Department of Psychology, Cognition and Action, Stephanstr. 1a, 04103 Leipzig, Germany. rieger@cbs.mpg.de
D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001244:Association; D005260:Female; D005385:Fingers / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009048:Motor Skills / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology; D014110:Touch / Q000502:physiology; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*