Complex object-related actions: Structure, meaning, and context

Abstract

All object-related actions are complex. Even the “simplest” of reach to grasp movements requires finely honed coordination of the muscles of the arm, hand, and fingers; is dependent upon exquisitely tuned feedforward and feedback mechanisms for motor control; is honed by learning; and is influenced by such cognitive factors as task goals. In this sense, then, the title of this Symposium, Complex Object-Related Actions, contains a redundancy. It is also true, however, that (as compared with, say, memory, language, executive function, attention, and spatial skills) the study of skilled action has been neglected within the fields of neuropsychology and cognitive neuroscience. One reason for this finding may be that many psychologists and neuroscientists do not view action as “cognitive” (Rosenbaum, 2005). As the work presented here illustrates, there is ample recent evidence suggesting that this view is inaccurate. We retain the word “Complex” in the title of the Symposium to emphasize the cognitive, psychological, and memory-related aspects of action that deserve broader interest. We suspect that the organizational principles and mechanisms that underlie cognition in many other domains will be found to play a role in the action system as well.