Short-term action-effect bindings encode perceptual transitions rather than perceptual end-states

Recent evidence suggests that ideomotor effect anticipations rely on transitions rather than end-states. That is, humans generate motor actions not by anticipating a desired end-state, but by anticipating the change from the current situation to that desired end-state. Here, we tested whether ideomotor learning mechanisms mirror this sensitivity to transitions. To this end, we conducted three preregistered experiments employing a prime-probe design. In the prime, an action produced a visual effect. In the subsequent probe, the stimulus always either matched or mismatched this previously produced end-state. Crucially, the probe stimulus either involved the same transition of producing a novel stimulus (onset stimuli) or, alternatively, it involved only the same end-state, but a different transition resulting in that end-state (offset stimuli). Evidence for action-effect binding as a precursor of ideomotor learning emerged only when the probe transition repeated the prime transition. This suggests that ideomotor learning is mainly sensitive to transitions rather than end-states.