Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 9, 2026
09:49
Methods to Explore the Influence of Top-down Visual Processes on Motor Behavior
Published on: April 16, 2014
Moving beyond discrete categories in motor cognition.
Roland Pfister1,2, Greg Huffman3,4, James R Brockmole4
1Experimental Psychology, Trier University, Trier, Germany. roland.pfister@uni-trier.de.
Psychonomic Bulletin & Review
|July 7, 2026
Summary
Human action control involves recycling past plans, with feature binding integrating stimulus and response details. New research shows this process incorporates continuous, metric information, not just categories, for improved movement selection.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Neuroscience
- Motor Control
Background:
- Human action control theories propose recycling prior action plans to manage complex movements.
- Feature binding integrates stimulus and response features into episodic representations for plan recycling.
- Prior evidence for feature binding and retrieval was limited to categorical features for coarse decisions.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate whether episodic representations incorporate continuous, metric information beyond categorical features.
- To determine if feature binding and retrieval extend to metric information in human action control.
Main Methods:
- Two experiments involving participants performing whole-arm pointing movements to varied target locations.
- Utilized left or right hand responses with varying inter-trial distances between successive target locations.
- Analyzed the effect of metric distance on response repetitions versus response changes.
Main Results:
- Short inter-trial distances facilitated response repetitions (same hand).
- Increasing inter-trial distances enhanced response changes (different hand).
- This distance-dependent effect was a direct function of metric distance.
Conclusions:
- Episodic representations can incorporate continuous, metric information, not solely categorical data.
- Feature binding and retrieval extend beyond coarse decisions to include metric details.
- This mechanism may involve metric information of current stimuli or direct access to motor repertoire.
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