Abstract
A large corpus of work demonstrates that observing other people’s actions activates corresponding motor representations in the observer by running an internal simulation of the observed action. Recent evidence suggests that recalled action plans reflect a plan of how the observer would execute that action (based on the specific motor representation) rather than a plan of the actually observed action (based on the visual representation). This study examined whether people would recall an action plan based on a visual representation if the observed movement is biomechanically favorable for their own subsequent action. Participants performed an object manipulation task alongside a confederate. In the intra-individual task, the participant (or confederate) transported a plunger from an outer platform of fixed height to a center target platform located at different heights (home-to-target move), and then the same person transported the plunger back to the outer platform (target-back-to-home move). In the inter-individual task, the sequence was split between the two persons such that the participant (or confederate) performed the home-to-target move and the other person performed the target-back-to-home move. Importantly, the confederate always grasped the plunger at the same height. This grasp height was designated such that if participants would copy the action (i.e., grasp the object at the same height) it would place the participant’s arm in a comfortable position at the end of the target-back-to-home move (i.e., end-state comfort). Results show that participants’ grasp height was inversely related to center target height and similar regardless of direction (home-to-target vs. target-back-to-home move) and task (intra- vs. inter-individual). In addition, during the inter-individual task, participant’s target-back-to-home grasp height was correlated with their own, but not with the confederate’s grasp height during the home-to-target moves. These findings provide evidence that observing actions that are biomechanically favorable for subsequent action execution does not influence action plan recall processes.
Highlights
There is convincing evidence to suggest that action planning is contingent upon upcoming task demands or the intended action goals (e.g., Rosenbaum et al, 1990; Cohen and Rosenbaum, 2004; Ansuini et al, 2008; Sartori et al, 2011; Seegelke et al, 2011, 2013a)
Complementing the large body of research demonstrating that the observation of an action activates corresponding motor representations in the observer by internally simulating the action (Gallese and Goldman, 1998; Jeannerod, 2001), these findings demonstrate that a simulated action plan can be held in memory and reused for an actor’s subsequent actions
The present study examined whether action plan recall processes are modulated by observing actions that are biomechanically favorable for one’s own subsequent action execution
Summary
There is convincing evidence to suggest that action planning is contingent upon upcoming task demands or the intended action goals (e.g., Rosenbaum et al, 1990; Cohen and Rosenbaum, 2004; Ansuini et al, 2008; Sartori et al, 2011; Seegelke et al, 2011, 2013a). In one study (Cohen and Rosenbaum, 2004), participants grasped a plunger from a home platform and placed it at one of five target platforms (home-to-target moves). It was found that participants changed the height at which they grasped the plunger from the home platform depending on the height of the target platform such that the higher the plunger was to be placed the lower it was initially grasped (and vice versa). Complementing previous findings (cf Rosenbaum et al, 2012), this inverse relationship between target height and initial grasp height was taken as evidence that participants planned their actions based on future task demands (i.e., target platform height) and adopted initial grasps that would afford comfortable or biomechanically favorable postures at the end, rather than at the start, of the movement (i.e., end-state comfort)
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