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What part of an action interferes with ongoing perception?
Jan Zwickel1, Marc Grosjean, Wolfgang Prinz
1Department of Psychology, Ludwig Maximilians University Munich, Germany. zwickel@psy.uni-muenchen.de <zwickel@psy.uni-muenchen.de>
Acta Psychologica
|May 18, 2010
Summary
The intention to move and executing the movement are crucial for perception-action interference. Passive movements or blocked actions do not cause this specific sensory-motor repulsion effect.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Human Motor Control
- Perception-Action Coupling
Background:
- Concurrent perception and action tasks reveal specific interference effects.
- A common finding is the repulsion of perceived motion direction by the produced movement direction.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the necessary preconditions for perception-action interference, specifically the repulsion effect.
- To determine if passive limb displacement or movement intention alone is sufficient to induce this effect.
Main Methods:
- A continuous perception-action paradigm was used, involving movement production and stimulus motion judgment.
- Experiment 1: Participants produced movements; some were passively guided by a robot.
- Experiment 2: Participants produced movements; some were unexpectedly blocked by a robot.
Main Results:
- Passive hand displacements by a robot did not induce the repulsion effect.
- Repulsion was observed for active movements where participants intended to move.
- Movement blocking by a robot eliminated the repulsion effect.
Conclusions:
- The intention to move is necessary but not sufficient for the repulsion effect.
- Actual movement execution is also a necessary precondition.
- Both intention and execution are required for this specific interference in continuous perception-action tasks.
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