Associative Learning from Verbal Action-Effect Instructions: A Replication and Investigation of Underlying Mechanisms
Yevhen Damanskyy1, Torsten Martiny-Huenger1, Elizabeth J Parks-Stamm2
1UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, NO.
Journal of Cognition
|June 26, 2023
Summary
Verbal instructions create unintentional response-priming effects by forming action-effect associations. Perceptual details enhance this priming, while mere highlighting without association does not.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Action-Effect Learning
Background:
- Action-effect associations are formed through experience and can also be acquired via verbal information.
- The ideomotor principle explains how actions become linked to their perceivable consequences.
- Understanding how verbal instructions induce response priming is crucial for cognitive science.
Purpose of the Study:
- To replicate unintentional response-priming effects from verbal action-effect instructions.
- To investigate the role of perceptual processes in verbally induced response priming.
- To test a saliency-based explanation for verbally induced response priming.
Main Methods:
- A large-scale experiment (N = 651) with three conditions.
- Condition 1: Direct replication of verbal action-effect instructions.
- Conditions 2 & 3: Manipulated perceptual presentation and saliency of action-effect components.
Main Results:
- A significant response-priming effect was observed following verbal action-effect instructions.
- Condition 2 (no perceptual information) showed a weaker, though significant, priming effect compared to Condition 1.
- Condition 3 (highlighted components without association) did not yield a significant priming effect.
Conclusions:
- Verbal instructions reliably induce unintentional response-priming effects.
- Perceptual aspects of instructions appear relevant for the strength of response priming.
- A saliency-based account for this effect can be preliminarily excluded.
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