Abstract
Embodied Cognition Theories (ECTs) of decision-making propose that the decision process pervades the execution of choice actions and manifests itself in these actions. Decision-making scenarios where actions not only express the choice but also help sample information can provide a valuable, ecologically relevant model for this framework. We present a study to address this paradigmatic situation in humans. Subjects categorized (2AFC task) a central object image, blurred to different extents, by moving a cursor toward the left or right of the display. Upward cursor movements reduced the image blur and could be used to sample information. Thus, actions for decision and actions for sampling were orthogonal to each other. We analyzed response trajectories to test whether information-sampling movements co-occurred with the ongoing decision process. Trajectories were bimodally distributed, with one kind being direct towards one response option (non-sampling), and the other kind containing an initial upward component before veering off towards an option (sampling). This implies that there was an initial decision at the early stage of a trial, whether to sample information or not. Importantly, in sampling trials trajectories were not purely upward, but rather had a significant horizontal deviation early on. This result suggests that movements to sample information exhibit an online interaction with the decision process, therefore supporting the prediction of the ECTs under ecologically relevant constrains.
Highlights
Embodied Cognition Theories (ECTs) of decision-making propose that the decision process pervades the execution of choice actions and manifests itself in these actions
We tested whether trajectories in blur trials reached higher than trajectories in the no blur trials
To eliminate the height differences that are present in the trajectories but unrelated to information gathering, we subtracted the average height in No Blur (NB) condition from Low Blur (LB) and High Blur (HB) trajectory heights in each individual’s data and continued the analysis with these normalized values
Summary
Embodied Cognition Theories (ECTs) of decision-making propose that the decision process pervades the execution of choice actions and manifests itself in these actions. To investigate the putative interaction between action and decision as it unfolds in time, some studies have used decision-making tasks which require continuous control of action These tasks track responses executed on devices like joysticks, robotic handles, computer mice, or freely with hand reaching m ovements[6,7,8,9]. An exacerbated expression of this online crosstalk are changes of mind, trials in which the subject’s response movement starts off toward one target but corrects on-the-fly toward the alternative target[7] These findings motivated the parallel view of decision-making, which focuses on the ongoing one-way flow of information from decision to action.
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