Grasp preparation improves change detection for congruent objects.
A series of experiments provided converging support for the hypothesis that action preparation biases selective attention to action-congruent object features. When visual transients are masked in so-called change-blindness scenes, viewers are blind to substantial changes between 2 otherwise identical pictures that flick back and forth. The authors report data in which participants planned a grasp prior to the onset of a change-blindness scene in which 1 of 12 objects changed identity. Change blindness was substantially reduced for grasp-congruent objects (e.g., planning a whole-hand grasp reduced change blindness to a changing apple). A series of follow-up experiments ruled out an alternative explanation that this reduction had resulted from a labeling or strategizing of responses and provided converging support that the effect genuinely arose from grasp planning.
Symes
Ed
E
School of Psychology, University of Plymouth, Plymouth, England. esymes@plymouth.ac.uk
Tucker
Mike
M
Ellis
Rob
R
Vainio
Lari
L
Ottoboni
Giovanni
G
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D001364:Awareness; D003118:Color Perception; D005260:Female; D018737:Hand Strength; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory; D008875:Middle Aged; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D010470:Perceptual Masking; D011434:Proprioception; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D011930:Reaction Time; D017603:Signal Detection, Psychological; D012858:Size Perception; D013028:Space Perception; D014796:Visual Perception