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No evidence for visuomotor priming in a visually guided action task
Jonathan S Cant1, David A Westwood, Kenneth F Valyear
1CIHR Group on Action and Perception, Department of Psychology, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada N6A 5C2.
Neuropsychologia
|February 15, 2005
Summary
Visuomotor priming affects memory-guided actions but not visually guided grasping. Real-time visual guidance for actions bypasses perceptual memory effects, suggesting specialized visuomotor modules.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Motor Control
- Perception-Action Coupling
Background:
- Previous research indicated faster grasping movements when a goal object's orientation matched a 'prime' object.
- The interpretation was debated: general visuomotor priming versus specific priming of memory-guided actions.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate whether perceptual memory influences the programming of visually guided grasping actions.
- To differentiate between priming effects on memory-guided versus visually guided actions.
Main Methods:
- Experiment 1: Compared priming effects on memory-guided versus visually guided grasping.
- Experiment 2: Assessed effects of a prime object on grasping and naming a visible target.
- Experiment 3: Examined grasping after viewing or grasping a prime object.
Main Results:
- Memory-guided grasping, but not visually guided grasping, was primed by passive viewing of a prime object.
- Object naming was faster when the target matched the prime (perceptual priming).
- Grasping reaction time was unaffected by prime object orientation or shape in visible target tasks.
Conclusions:
- Perceptual memory, underlying visual priming, appears largely irrelevant for programming actions towards visible objects.
- Visually guided actions are likely programmed by real-time, dedicated visuomotor modules.
- These modules seem insensitive to priming effects typically seen in visual perception.