Abstract
The anticipation of action effects is a basic process that can be observed even for key-pressing responses in a stimulus-response paradigm. In Ziessler et al.’s (2012) experiments participants first learned arbitrary effects of key-pressing responses. In the test phase an imperative stimulus determined the response, but participants withheld the response until a Go-stimulus appeared. Reaction times (RTs) were shorter if the Go-stimulus was compatible with the learned response effect. This is strong evidence that effect representations were activated during response planning. Here, we repeated the experiment using event-related potentials (ERPs), and we found that Go-stimulus locked ERPs depended on the compatibility relationship between the Go-stimulus and the response effect. In general, this supports the interpretation of the behavioral data. More specifically, differences in the ERPs between compatible and incompatible Go-stimuli were found for the early perceptual P1 component and the later frontal P2 component. P1 differences were found only in the second half of the experiment and for long stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs) between imperative stimulus and Go-stimulus, i.e., when the effect was fully anticipated and the perceptual system was prepared for the effect-compatible Go-stimulus. P2 amplitudes, likely associated with evaluation and conflict detection, were larger when Go-stimulus and effect were incompatible; presumably, incompatibility increased the difficulty of effect anticipation. Onset of response-locked lateralized readiness potentials (R-LRPs) occurred earlier under incompatible conditions indicating extended motor processing. Together, these results strongly suggest that effect anticipation affects all (i.e., perceptual, cognitive, and motor) phases of response preparation.
Highlights
There is ample evidence that the performance of voluntary actions includes the anticipation of action effects
High false alarm rates would indicate that the participants did not pay attention to the Go and NoGo stimuli and the different types of Go-stimuli could not affect the preparation of the responses
In the current experiment we were mainly interested in the event-related potentials (ERPs) evoked by the Go-stimuli, and our analyses focused on the P1, N1, P2, and N2 components which were time-locked to the onset of the Go-stimuli
Summary
There is ample evidence that the performance of voluntary actions includes the anticipation of action effects. It has been argued that actions are represented in memory by their sensory effects (Greenwald, 1970; Prinz, 1983, 1997; Hommel et al, 2001; Hommel, 2009). Whereas those theories assume that effect anticipation is crucial for the selection of voluntary actions, other theoretical accounts argue that anticipation of effects is part of the control processes to plan and to execute the action. Effect anticipation is considered as an important component for error detection and correction
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