Location-coding account versus affordance-activation account in handle-to-hand correspondence effects: Evidence of Simon-like effects based on the coding of action direction.

Abstract

An increasing number of studies have shown a close link between perception and action, which is supposed to be responsible for the automatic activation of actions compatible with objects' properties, such as the orientation of their graspable parts. It has been observed that left and right hand responses to objects (e.g., cups) are faster and more accurate if the handle orientation corresponds to the response location than when it does not. Two alternative explanations have been proposed for this : location coding and affordance activation. The aim of the present study was to provide disambiguating evidence on the origin of this effect by employing object sets for which the visually salient portion was separated from, and opposite to the graspable 1, and vice versa. Seven experiments were conducted employing both single objects and object pairs as visual stimuli to enhance the contextual information about objects' graspability and usability. Notwithstanding these manipulations intended to favor affordance activation, results fully supported the location-coding account displaying significant Simon-like effects that involved the orientation of the visually salient portion of the object stimulus and the location of the response. Crucially, we provided evidence of Simon-like effects based on higher-level cognitive, iconic representations of action directions rather than based on lower-level spatial coding of the pure position of protruding portions of the visual stimuli. (PsycINFO Database Record

Visual salience, not the graspable part of a pictured eating utensil, grabs attention

“…The interaction pattern obtained in Experiment 1 reversed to show a larger compatibility effect for the handle end than the functional end when the salience of the chopstick handle was increased in Experiments 3A and 3B. Thus, the results are in agreement with findings of other studies that the compatibility effects obtained with pictorial depictions and photographs of objects with graspable handles are due primarily to correspondence of spatial codes derived from salient properties of the objects that vary in location across trials (Cho & Proctor, 2011;Pellicano, Koch, & Binkofski, 2017).…”

Exploring the Role of Action Consequences in the Handle-Response Compatibility Effect

“…Therefore, it is likely that neural anticipatory mechanisms driven by the cerebellar internal models of the environment mimic the input-output properties of our own body and other objects (Wolpert et al, 1998;Kawato, 1999; see also Nowak et al, 2007;Imamizu and Kawato, 2009). Our finding of a response-effect compatibility effect further extends results from Pellicano et al (2017) by showing that a response code relative to the functional side of the objects was created even if no action was suggested in the visual scene.…”

Editorial: Bridging the Theories of Affordances and Limb Apraxia

“…Ambrosecchia et al investigated the handle-to-hand correspondence effect (CE) to support the affordance activation account, or the location coding account (attention-based Simon effect, see Pellicano et al, in press). A discrimination task was performed on graspable objects with intact and broken handles, preceded by a spatial Stimulus-Response Compatibility task with incompatible S-R mapping.…”