title: How do you hold your mouse? Tracking the compatibility effect between hand posture and stimulus size.
abstract: In keeping with the idea that observing objects activates possible motor responses, several experiments revealed compatibility effects between the hand postures used to report a choice and some characteristics of the stimuli. The real-time dynamics of such compatibility effects are currently unknown. We tracked the time course of a categorization experiment requiring subjects to categorize as natural or artifact figures of big and small objects. Participants reported their choice using either a big mouse (requiring a power grip: a hand posture compatible with the grasping of big objects) or a small mouse (requiring a precision grip: a hand posture compatible with the grasping of small objects). We found a compatibility effect between the grip required by the mouse and the grip elicited by objects, even if it was irrelevant to the task. In a following experiment with the same paradigm, lexical stimuli failed to reproduce the same effect. Nevertheless, a compatibility effect mediated by the target-word category (artificial vs. natural) was observed. We discuss the results in the context of affordance effects literature and grounded theories of cognition.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Bologna, Viale Berti Pichat 5, 40127, Bologna, Italy. andrea.flumini2@unibo.it.
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Flumini
authors.affiliation: Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies (ISTC), National Research Council, Via San Martino della Battaglia 44, 00185, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Barca
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Bologna, Viale Berti Pichat 5, 40127, Bologna, Italy.|Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies (ISTC), National Research Council, Via San Martino della Battaglia 44, 00185, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Anna M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Borghi
authors.affiliation: Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies (ISTC), National Research Council, Via San Martino della Battaglia 44, 00185, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Giovanni
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Pezzulo
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002755:Choice Behavior; D016287:Computer Peripherals; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological; D005260:Female; D018737:Hand Strength; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D009048:Motor Skills; D009949:Orientation; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D011187:Posture; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D012858:Size Perception; D055815:Young Adult