The influence of irrelevant dangerous objects on the action activation of target objects
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The influence of irrelevant dangerous objects on the action activation of target objects Liang Zhao 1
# Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2018
Abstract Previous studies have shown that object observation can automatically evoke motor programs for specific actions; this is referred to as affordance. Recent studies have evidenced that individuals are sensitive to the difference between dangerous and neutral objects. This study explored the influence of irrelevant dangerous object on individuals’ responses to the target object. In a priming task, participants were required to respond to a target object, which was preceded by a prime object. The object types varied between dangerous and neutral objects. The results revealed that the affordance of the neutral object only occurred when the orientation of the prime object corresponded to that of the target object. The affordance of dangerous object was modulated by a dangerous prime object. When the orientation of the prime object did not correspond to that of the target object, the affordance of the dangerous object was observed; whereas, when the orientation was in correspondence, the congruency effect was reversed. These findings suggest that object-action priming is modulated by the danger level of objects. Keywords Affordance . Neutral object . Dangerous object . Prime
From the perspective of embodied cognition, visual perception of the environment involves the recognition of not only objects but also perceivers’ potential interactions with the objects. Gibson (1979) introduced the notion of affordances: properties of a graspable object that automatically activate possible actions toward that object. Object affordance can be observed even when there is no explicit intention to act; this has been demonstrated using both behavioral and imaging methods. Reaction times (RTs) studies have shown that responses to visual objects are facilitated when they are congruent with the actions that those objects can naturally afford (Ambrosecchia et al. 2015; Ellis and Tucker 2000; Symes et al. 2007; Tucker and Ellis 1998, 2001; Wilf et al. 2013). For example, Tucker and Ellis (1998) showed pictures of household objects to participants and asked them to decide whether a household object was upright or upside down using their left or right hand. Responses were faster when the side of the responding hand was congruent with the handle of the object. Grèzes and Decety (2002) found that medial frontal motor regions, such as the supplementary motor area (SMA),
* Liang Zhao [email protected] 1
School of Education, Baoji University of Arts and Sciences, Baoji 721000, China
were activated even when observers were simply viewing graspable objects. Subsequent neuroimaging studies have found that the dorso-dorsal and dorso-ventral pathways are primarily involved in executing reaching and grasping movements (Caligiore et al. 2010; Gentilucci 2003; Rizzolatti and Matelli 2003). In an actual environment, individuals need to discriminate Bdangerous objects^ that po
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