Action-induced effects on perception depend neither on element-level nor on set-level similarity between stimulus and response sets

Abstract

As was shown by Wykowska, Schubö, and Hommel (Journal of Experimental Psychology, Human Perception and Performance, 35, 1755-1769, 2009), action control can affect rather early perceptual processes in visual search: Although size pop-outs are detected faster when having prepared for a manual grasping action, luminance pop-outs benefit from preparing for a pointing action. In the present study, we demonstrate that this effect of action-target congruency does not rely on, or vary with, set-level similarity or element-level similarity between perception and action-two factors that play crucial roles in standard stimulus-response interactions and in models accounting for these interactions. This result suggests that action control biases perceptual processes in specific ways that go beyond standard stimulus-response compatibility effects and supports the idea that action-target congruency taps into a fundamental characteristic of human action control.