Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 15, 2026

Methods to Explore the Influence of Top-down Visual Processes on Motor Behavior
Published on: April 16, 2014
Do you 'see' what I 'see'? Differentiation of visual action words
Joël Dickinson1, Laura Cirelli, Frank Szeligo
1Department of Psychology, Laurentian University, Sudbury, P3E 2C6, ON, Canada, jdickinson@laurentian.ca.
Abstract:
Dickinson and Szeligo (Can J Exp Psychol 62(4):211-222, 2008) found that processing time for simple visual stimuli was affected by the visual action participants had been instructed to perform on these stimuli (e.g., see, distinguish). It was concluded that these effects reflected the differences in the durations of these various visual actions, and the results were compared to participants' subjective ratings of word meaning but it was also possible that word characteristics like length might have influenced response times. The present study takes advantage of word length differences between French and English visual action words in order to address this issue. The goals of the present study were to provide evidence that (1) the processing time differences previously found were due to differences in the cognitive actions represented by these words (and not due to characteristics to the words themselves), and (2) that individuals subjectively differentiate visual action words in such a way that allows for predictable differences in behaviour. Participants differentiated 14 French visual action words along two dimensions. Four of these words were then used in the instructions for a size-discrimination task. Processing time depended on the visual action word in the instruction to the task and differed in a predictable manner according to word meaning but not word length.
Related Concept Videos
Depth Perception and Spatial Vision
Vision
Visual System
Once through the pupil, the light passes through the lens, a...
Parallel Processing
Anatomy of the Eyeball
Synesthesia

