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


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.

SUBMITTER: Hudson M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4694084 | biostudies-other | 2016 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other

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

Hudson Matthew M   Nicholson Toby T   Simpson William A WA   Ellis Rob R   Bach Patric P  

Journal of experimental psychology. General 20151123 1


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 ac  ...[more]

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