Orientation priming of grasping decision for drawings of objects and blocks, and words

Memory & Cognition, May 2011

This study tested the influence of orientation priming on grasping decisions. Two groups of 20 healthy participants had to select a preferred grasping orientation (horizontal, vertical) based on drawings of everyday objects, geometric blocks or object names. Three priming conditions were used: congruent, incongruent and neutral. The facilitating effects of priming were observed in the grasping decision task for drawings of objects and blocks but not object names. The visual information about congruent orientation in the prime quickened participants’ responses but had no effect on response accuracy. The results are discussed in the context of the hypothesis that an object automatically potentiates grasping associated with it, and that the on-line visual information is necessary for grasping potentiation to occur. The possibility that the most frequent orientation of familiar objects might be included in object-action representation is also discussed.

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Orientation priming of grasping decision for drawings of objects and blocks, and words

Hanna Chainay Lucie Naouri Alice Pavec 0 ) Laboratoire d'Etude des Mcanismes Cognitifs, Universit Lumire Lyon 2 , 5 avenue Pierre Mendes France, 69676, Bron cedex, France This study tested the influence of orientation priming on grasping decisions. Two groups of 20 healthy participants had to select a preferred grasping orientation (horizontal, vertical) based on drawings of everyday objects, geometric blocks or object names. Three priming conditions were used: congruent, incongruent and neutral. The facilitating effects of priming were observed in the grasping decision task for drawings of objects and blocks but not object names. The visual information about congruent orientation in the prime quickened participants' responses but had no effect on response accuracy. The results are discussed in the context of the hypothesis that an object automatically potentiates grasping associated with it, and that the on-line visual information is necessary for grasping potentiation to occur. The possibility that the most frequent orientation of familiar objects might be included in object-action representation is also discussed. - Performance of an object-directed action can be seen to be based on two different types of processing: one using conceptual knowledge about the object, the other using visual information independent of the conceptual knowledge. Some cognitive models have proposed that action may be evoked without access to the conceptual knowledge (e.g., Riddoch, Humphreys, & Price, 1989), insofar as perceptual information contained in a visually presented object is sufficient for action selection (Rumiati & Humphreys, 1998; Humphreys & Riddoch, 2003). However, more and more evidence suggests that conceptual information and visual information are combined to ensure correct use of an object (Chainay & Humphreys, 2002; for a review see Borghi, 2005). Tucker and Ellis (1998) have proposed that observing an object, even when it is not a target for action, could automatically activate motor representations appropriate for reaching, grasping and manipulating it. Furthermore, they proposed that visual object representation includes motor patterns associated with action it affords (Ellis & Tucker, 2000). Numerous behavioural studies involving visuo-motor priming (e.g., Craighero, Fadiga, Rizzolatti, & Umilta, 1998) and a stimulus-response compatibility paradigm have supported the idea that seeing an object re-activates action knowledge associated with it and results in the generation of affordance effects (Tucker & Ellis, 1998, 2001; Phillips & Ward, 2002; Hommel, 2002; Derbyshire, Ellis, & Tucker, 2006). On the other hand, neuroimaging studies have provided evidence that cortical representation of tools and manipulable objects activates motor-related areas (e.g., CreemRegehr, 2009; Gerlach, Law, & Paulson, 2002; Grafton, Fadiga, Arbib, & Rizzolatti, 1997). Creem-Regehr & Lee (2005) pointed out that objects can have multiple affordances that define how they can be grasped. However, familiar objects such as tools have one specific use associated with their identity and that may constrain action representation. In their fMRI study, participants viewed images of 3D tools and 3D graspable shapes (cone, cylinder) presented in different orientations, or imagined grasping them. For imagined grasping, the region of activation observed in the left posterior parietal cortex was larger for tools than for graspable shapes. Activation for tools was also observed in the middle temporal gyrus and fusiform gyrus. It is thought that these regions have a special role to play in the generation of actions based on internal representations related to the functional identity of objects. Of particular interest for the re-activation of action knowledge associated with an object is the influence of its orientation with respect to grasping decisions. The orientation of an object, along with its location, is a viewpoint-dependent object property that varies continuously as the object or the observer moves. This kind of information is particularly important for real-time processing when actual grasping is required and a precise parameterisation of the particular grasp is crucial. When grasping is not required, however, the information about object orientation does not seem to be particularly relevant for action potentiation of a certain type of grasp. Tucker and Ellis (2004) proposed that intrinsic properties such as object size and shape are especially important for re-activating an appropriate type of grasp. However, they did not rule out the possibility that our knowledge of familiar objects and their usual orientation may also provide information about the type of grasp required. More recently, Derbyshir, Ellis, and Tucker (2006), failed to find the compatibility effect between object orientation and hand used to respond, and questioned this possibility. One of the aims of the present study is to investigate whether the orientation of (...truncated)


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Hanna Chainay, Lucie Naouri, Alice Pavec. Orientation priming of grasping decision for drawings of objects and blocks, and words, Memory & Cognition, 2011, pp. 614-624, Volume 39, Issue 4, DOI: 10.3758/s13421-010-0049-9