title: I don't get you. Action observation effects inverted by kinematic variation.
abstract: Recent studies have reported an intricate interplay between affordance and mirror effects (the imitation of another agent) when participants attend to the concurrent presentation of an object and another agent interacting with it. In the present paper, we compare two experimental settings in which an observed action was presented as a prime for a task involving the categorization of a graspable object. In experiment 1a, the action depicted a reach and grasp gesture whereas in experiment 1b, only the reach phase was presented. This modification led to very different outcomes. Experiment 1a reflected the traditional imitation effect elicited by human motion. Conversely, experiment 1b showed the facilitation of contralateral responses. Affordance effects were found in experiment 1a only for the RVF. Our results support the view that motor simulation processes underlying imitation or joint actions are extremely sensitive to specific phase kinematics.
authors.affiliation: Department of Basic, Evolutionary and Education Psychology, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Campus de Bellaterra UAB, 08193 Cerdanyola del Valles, Spain; Center for Basic Research in Psychology, Universidad de la República, Tristán Narvaja 1674, 11200 Montevideo, Uruguay. Electronic address: fernando.gonzalez@psico.edu.uy.
authors.forename: Fernando
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: González-Perilli
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, University of Plymouth, Drake Circus, Plymouth PL4 7AA, United Kingdom. Electronic address: rellis@plymouth.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Rob
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ellis
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning; D008297:Male; D009048:Motor Skills; D009068:Movement; D011214:Practice, Psychological; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D011930:Reaction Time; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: Action and perception; Affordances; Grasping; Imitation; Motor processes; Visuomotor facilitation