Probing Representations of Gymnastics Movements: A Visual Priming Study

In this study, we designed a visual short-term priming paradigm to investigate the mechanisms underlying the priming of movements and to probe movement representations in motor experts and matched controls. We employed static visual stimuli that implied or not human whole-body movements, that is, gymnastics movements and static positions. Twelve elite female gymnasts and twelve matched controls performed a speeded two-choice response time task. The participants were presented with congruent and incongruent prime-target pairs and had to decide whether the target stimulus represented a gymnastics movement or a static position. First, a visual priming effect was observed in the two groups. Second, a stimulus-response rote association could not easily account for our results. Novel primes never presented as targets could also prime the targets. Third, by manipulating three levels of prime-target relations in moving congruent pairs, we demonstrated that the more similar prime-target pairs, the greater the facilitation in target. Lastly, gymnastics motor expertise impacted on priming effects.