Abstract
Vitality forms represent a fundamental aspect of social interactions by characterizing how actions are performed and how words are pronounced on the basis of the attitude of the agent. Same action, such as a handshake, may have a different impact on the receiver when it is performed kindly or vigorously, and similarly, a gentle or rude tone of voice may have a different impact on the listener. In the present study, we carried out two experiments that aimed to investigate whether and how vocal requests conveying different vitality forms can influence the perception of goal-directed actions and to measure the duration of this effect over time. More specifically, participants were asked to listen to the voice of an actor pronouncing “give me” in a rude or gentle way. Then, they were asked to observe the initial part of a rude or a gentle passing action, continue it mentally, and estimate the time of its completion. Results showed that the perception of different vitality forms expressed by vocal requests influenced the estimation of action duration. Moreover, we found that this effect was limited to a certain time interval (800 ms), after which it started to decay.
Highlights
The observation of goal-directed actions performed by another individual allows one to understand what, why, and how that individual is doing it
Listening to a rude vocal request decreased the estimated duration of the same action
In order to evaluate the effect of vocal requests conveying gentle and rude vitality forms on the perception of observed actions, we analyzed the responses of the participants
Summary
The observation of goal-directed actions performed by another individual allows one to understand what, why, and how that individual is doing it. It is plausible that the affective state of the agent communicated by speech and action vitality forms may modulate the motor behavior of the receiver during social interactions. Whereas a gentle request produced a kind interaction with the object, corresponding to a smaller trajectory and a lower velocity These findings represent first evidence that vitality forms expressed by an agent affect the motor behavior of the receiver. Since perception, planning, and execution of action and speech vitality forms are based on the same neural circuit, in the present study, we hypothesized that the vitality form of a motor request (give me) expressed vocally may influence the internal representation of a subsequent action (passing an object) by modifying some features, such as its time duration. This effect lasted 800 ms and started to decay
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