Abstract
Research confirms that the body influences perception, but little is known about the embodiment of attention. We investigated whether the implied actions of others direct spatial attention, using a lateralized covert-orienting task with nonpredictive central cues depicting static, right/left-facing bodies poised in midaction. Validity effects (decreased response times for validly compared with invalidly cued trials) indicated orienting in the direction of the implied action. In Experiment 1, we compared action (running, throwing) with nonaction (standing) cues. Only the action cues produced validity effects, suggesting that implied action directs attention. The action cues produced faster responses overall, suggesting that action cues prime motor responses. In Experiment 2, we determined whether action cues shifted attention in a specific direction rather than to a general side of space: Two cues had similar action speed and motor effort but differed in implied direction (jumping, vertical; throwing, horizontal). Validity effects were found only for the throw cues for which the implied motion direction was consistent with lateralized target locations. In Experiment 3, we compared block-like stimuli to the throwing action stimuli to examine whether lower level perceptual information could account for the attention effects alone. Validity effects were found only for the human-action stimuli. Overall, the results suggest that predictive simulations of action shift attention in action-consistent directions.
Article PDF
References
Barsalou, L. W. (2003). Situated simulation in the human conceptual system. Language & Cognitive Processes, 18, 513–562.
Freyd, J. J. (1983). The mental representation of movement when static stimuli are viewed. Perception & Psychophysics, 33, 575–581.
Friesen, C. K., & Kingstone, A. (1998). The eyes have it! Reflexive orienting is triggered by nonpredictive gaze. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 5, 490–495.
Grubb, J. D., & Reed, C. L. (2002). Trunk orientation induces neglect-like performance in intact individuals. Psychological Science, 13, 554–557.
Hietanen, J. K. (2002). Social attention orienting integrates visual information from head and body orientation. Psychological Research, 66, 174–179.
Jonides, J. (1981). Voluntary versus automatic control over the mind’s eye. In J. Long & A. Baddeley (Eds.), Attention and performance IX (pp. 187–203). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Kingstone, A., Smilek, D., Ristic, J., Friesen, C. K., & Eastwood, J. D. (2003). Attention researchers! It is time to take a look at the real world. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 12, 176–180.
Kingstone, A., Tipper, C., Ristic, J., & Ngan, E. (2004). The eyes have it! An fMRI investigation. Brain & Cognition, 55, 269–271.
Knoblich, G., & Flach, R. (2001). Predicting the effects of actions: Interactions of perception and action. Psychological Science, 12, 467–472.
Kourtzi, Z., & Kanwisher, N. (2000). Activation in human MT/MST for static images with implied motion. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 12, 48–55.
Kuhn, G., & Land, M. F. (2006). There’s more to magic than meets the eye. Current Biology, 16, R950-R951.
Langton, S. R. H., & Bruce, V. (2000). You must see the point: Automatic processing of cues to the direction of social attention. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance, 26, 747–757.
Langton, S. R. H., Watt, R. J., & Bruce, V. (2000). Do the eyes have it? Cues to the direction of social attention. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 4, 50–59.
Loula, F., Prasad, S., Harber, K., & Shiffrar, M. (2005). Recognizing people from their movement. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance, 31, 210–220.
Nijhawan, R. (2008). Visual prediction: Psychophysics and neurophysiology of compensation for time delays. Behavioral & Brain Sciences, 31, 179–198.
Palmer, S. E. (1980). What makes triangles point: Local and global effects in configurations of ambiguous triangles. Cognitive Psychology, 12, 285–305.
Posner, M. I., & Cohen, Y. (1984). Components of visual orienting. In H. Bouma & D. G. Bouwhuis (Eds.), Attention and performance X: Control of language processes (pp. 531–555). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Reed, C. L., Grubb, J. D., & Steele, C. (2006). Grasping attention: Behavioral consequences of bimodal neurons. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance, 32, 166–177.
Rizzolatti, G., Craighero, L., & Fadiga, L. (2002). The mirror system in humans. In M. I. Stamenov & V. Gallese (Eds.), Mirror neurons and the evolution of the brain and language (pp. 37–59). Amsterdam: Benjamins.
Schendel, K., & Robertson, L. C. (2004). Reaching out to see: Arm position can attenuate human visual loss. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 16, 935–943.
Shmuelof, L., & Zohary, E. (2007). Watching others’ actions: Mirror representations in the parietal cortex. Neuroscientist, 13, 667–672.
Tipper, S. P., Howard, L. A., & Houghton, G. (1999). Action-based mechanisms of attention. In G. W. Humphreys & J. Duncan (Eds.), Attention, space, and action: Studies in cognitive neuroscience (pp. 232–247). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Wilson, M. (2001). Perceiving imitatible stimuli: Consequences of isomorphism between input and output. Psychological Bulletin, 127, 543–553.
Wilson, M. (2002). Six views of embodied cognition. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 9, 625–636.
Wilson, M. (2006). Covert imitation: How the body schema acts as a prediction device. In G. Knoblich, I. M. Thornton, M. Grosjean, & M. Shiffrar (Eds.), Human body perception from the inside and out: Advances in visual cognition (pp. 211–228). New York: Oxford University Press.
Wilson, M., & Knoblich, G. (2005). The case for motor involvement in perceiving conspecifics. Psychological Bulletin, 131, 460–473.
Witt, J. K., Proffitt, D. R., & Epstein, W. (2005). Tool use affects perceived distance but only when you intend to use it. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance, 31, 880–888.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
This research was supported by a Partners-in-Scholarship grant awarded to the first two authors from the University of Denver.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Gervais, W.M., Reed, C.L., Beall, P.M. et al. Implied body action directs spatial attention. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics 72, 1437–1443 (2010). https://doi.org/10.3758/APP.72.6.1437
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/APP.72.6.1437