Past Event

Abstract:

Professor Masson will report experiments that examine object-action compatibility effects in contexts where the primary task is either to identify an object or to complete a reach and grasp action.  In both cases, observers are simultaneously preparing or carrying out an action and perceiving or holding in working memory an object.  These experiments demonstrate two primary phenomena.

First, planning versus executing an action influence the identification of an action-compatible object in opposite ways.

Second, keeping in mind an object while making a compatible or incompatible reach and grasp action perturbs the kinematics of the action throughout its trajectory.

These results have fundamentally important implications for models of action planning and control and for the strict functional distinction between dorsal and ventral visual pathways.