One step ahead: The perceived kinematics of others’ actions are biased toward expected goals

Hudson, Matthew, Nicholson, Toby, Simpson, William A., Ellis, Rob and Bach, Patric (2016) One step ahead: The perceived kinematics of others’ actions are biased toward expected goals. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 145 (1). pp. 1-7. ISSN 1939-2222

Preview

PDF Available under License Creative Commons Attribution. Download (507kB) | Preview

Abstract

Action observation is often conceptualized in a bottom-up manner, where sensory information activates conceptual (or motor) representations. In contrast, here we show that expectations about an actor’s goal have a top-down predictive effect on action perception, biasing it toward these goals. In 3 experiments, participants observed hands reach for or withdraw from objects and judged whether a probe stimulus corresponded to the hand’s final position. Before action onset, participants generated action expectations on the basis of either object types (safe or painful, Experiments 1 and 2) or abstract color cues (Experiment 3). Participants more readily mistook probes displaced in a predicted position (relative to unpredicted positions) for the hand’s final position, and this predictive bias was larger when the movement and expectation were aligned. These effects were evident for low-level movement and high-level goal expectancies. Expectations bias action observation toward the predicted goals. These results challenge current bottom-up views and support recent predictive models of action observation.

Item Type:	Article
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > Psychology B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > Psychology > Cognitive psychology
Divisions:	School of Business > Staff Research and Publications
Depositing User:	Caoimhe Ní Mhaicín
Date Deposited:	02 Oct 2018 16:29
Last Modified:	02 Oct 2018 16:29
URI:	https://norma.ncirl.ie/id/eprint/3217

Actions (login required)

View Item