Abstract
We report three experiments in which name verification responses to either objects (Experiments 1 and 2) or hand movements (Experiment 3) were compared withaction decisions, where participants verified whether an object is typically used in the way described by a verbal label. In Experiments 1 and 2, we report that action decisions show more consistent and larger effects of the congruency of either a handgrip or a type of movement than do name verification responses, although there was some effect of the congruency of the handgrip on name verification. In Experiment 3, we demonstrate that the congruency of the object being moved affects both action and name verification responses to hand movements. We discuss the data relative to accounts of how actions and names are accessed by visually presented objects and in relation to work on the information called upon in classification tasks.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Barsalou, L. W. (1999). Perceptual symbol systems.Behavioral & Brain Sciences,22, 577–660.
Beauvois, M. F. (1982). Optic aphasia: A process of interaction between vision and language.Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London: Series B,298, 35–47.
Biederman, I., &Cooper, E. E. (1991). Evidence for complete translational and reflectional invariance in visual object priming.Perception,20, 585–593.
Boucart, M., Humphreys, G. W., &Lorenceau, J. (1995). Automatic access to object identity: Attention to global information, not to particular physical dimensions, is important.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,21, 584–601.
Buccino, G., Binkofski, F., Fink, G. R., Fadiga, L., Fogassi, L., Gallese, R. J., et al. (2001). Action observation activates premotor and parietal areas in a somatotopic manner: An fMRI study.European Journal of Neuroscience,13, 400–404.
Chainay, H., &Humphreys, G. W. (2002). Privileged access to action for objects relative to words.Psychonomic Bulletin & Review,9, 348–355.
Chao, L. L., Haxby, J. V., &Martin, A. (1999). Attribute-based neural substrates in temporal cortex for perceiving and knowing about objects.Nature Neuroscience,2, 913–919.
Chao, L. L., &Martin, A. (2000). Representation of manipulable manmade objects in the dorsal stream.NeuroImage,12, 478–484.
Cohen, J. D., Dunbar, K., &McClelland, J. L. (1990). On the control of automatic processes: A parallel distributed processing account of the Stroop effect.Psychological Review,97, 332–361.
Coslett, H. M., &Saffran, E. M. (1992). Optic aphasia and the right hemisphere: A replication and extension.Brain & Language,13, 95–98.
Craighero, L., Fadifa, L., Rizzolatti, G., &Umiltà, C. (1998). Visuomotor priming.Visual Cognition,5, 109–126.
Craighero, L., Fadifa, L., Rizzolatti, G., &Umiltà, C. (1999). Action for perception: A motor-visual attentional effect.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,25, 1673–1692.
Decety, J., Perani, D., Jeannerod, M., Bettinardi, V., Woods, R., Mazziotta, J. C., &Fazio, F. (1994). Mapping motor representations with positron emission tomography.Nature,371, 600–602.
DeRenzi, E., Faglioni, P., &Sorgato, P. (1982). Modality-specific and supramodal mechanisms of apraxia.Brain,105, 301–312.
Devlin, J. T., Moore, C. J., Mummery, C. J., Gorno-Tempini, M. L., Phillips, J. A., Noppeney, U., et al. (2002). Anatomic constraints on cognitive theories of category specificity.NeuroImage,15, 675–685.
Gibson, J. J. (1979).The ecological approach to visual perception. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Glaser, W. R. (1992). Picture naming.Cognition,42, 61–105.
Glenberg, A. M., &Kaschak, M. P. (2002). Grounding language in action.Psychonomic Bulletin & Review,9, 558–565.
Grabowski, T., Damasio, H., &Damasio, A. R. (1998). Premotor and prefrontal correlates of category-related lexical retrieval.NeuroImage,7, 232–243.
Grafton, S. T., Arbib, M. A., Fadiga, L., &Rizzolatti, G. (1996). Localization of grasp representations in humans by positron emission tomography: 2. Observation compared with imagination.Experimental Brain Research,112, 103–111.
Grèzes, J., &Decety, J. (2002). Does visual perception of object afford action? Evidence from a neuroimaging study.Neuropsychologia,40, 212–222.
Grèzes, J., Tucker, M., Ellis, R., &Passingham, R. E. (2003). Objects automatically potentiate action: An fMRI study of implicit processing.European Journal of Neuroscience,17, 2735–2740.
Handy, T. C., Grafton, S. T., Shroff, N. M., Ketay, S., &Gazzaniga, M. S. (2003). Graspable objects grab attention when the potential for action is recognized.Nature Neuroscience,6, 421–427.
Heywood, C. A., &Zihl, J. (1999). Motion blindness. In G. W. Humphreys (Ed.),Case studies in the neuropsychology of vision (p. 1–16). Hove, U.K. Psychology Press.
Hillis, A., &Caramazza, A. (1995). Cognitive and neural mechanisms underlying visual and semantic processing: Implication from “optic aphasia.”Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience,7, 457–478.
Hintzman, D. L. (1984). MINERVA 2: A simulation model of human memory.Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, & Computers,16, 96–101.
Hintzman, D. L. (1986). “Schema abstraction” in a multiple-trace memory model.Psychological Review,93, 411–428.
Hodges, J. R., Bozeat, S., Lambon Ralph, M. A., Patterson, K., &Spatt, J. (2000). The role of conceptual knowledge in object use: Evidence from semantic dementia.Brain,123, 1913–1925.
Hodges, J. R., Spatt, J., &Patterson, K. (1999). “What” and “how”: Evidence for the dissociation of object knowledge and mechanical problem-solving skills in the human brain.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,96, 9444–9448.
Humphreys, G. W. (2001). Objects, affordances … action!The Psychologist,14, 408–412.
Humphreys, G. W., &Riddoch, M. J. (2001). Detection by action: Neuropsychological evidence for action-defined templates in search.Nature Neuroscience,4, 84–88.
Humphreys, G. W., &Riddoch, M. J. (2003). From vision to action, and action to vision: A convergent route approach to vision, action and attention. In D. Irwin & B. Ross (Eds.),Cognitive vision: Psychology of learning and motivation (Vol. 42, pp. 225–264). New York: Elsevier.
Jeannerod, M., Decety, J., &Michel, F. (1994). Impairment of grasping movements following a bilateral posterior parietal lesion.Neuropsychologia,32, 369–380.
Kellenbach, M. L., Brett, M., &Patterson, K. (2003). Actions speak louder than functions: The importance of manipulability and action in tool representation.Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience,15, 30–46.
Kourtzi, Z., &Kanwisher, N. (2000). Activation in human MT/MST by static images with implied motion.Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience,12, 48–55.
Lhermitte, F., &Beauvois, M. F. (1973). A visual—speech disconnection syndrome: Report of a case with optic aphasia.Brain,96, 695–714.
MacLeod, C. M. (1991). Half century of research on the Stroop effect: An integrative review.Psychological Bulletin,109, 163–203.
MacLeod, C. M. (1992). The Stroop task: The “gold standard” of attentional measures.Journal of Experimental Psychology: General,121, 12–14.
Manning, L., &Campbell, R. (1992). Optic aphasia with spared action naming: A description and possible loci of impairment.Neuropsychologia,30, 587–592.
Ochipa, C., Rothi, L. J., &Heilman, K. M. (1992). Conceptual apraxia in Alzheimer’s disease.Brain,115, 1061–1071.
Pilgrim, E., &Humphreys, G. W. (1991). Impairment of action to visual objects in a case of ideomotor apraxia.Cognitive Neuropsychology,8, 459–473.
Riddoch, M. J., Edwards, M. G., Humphreys, G. W., West, R., &Heafield, T. (1998). An experimental study of anarchic hand syndrome: Evidence that visual affordances direct action.Cognitive Neuropsychology,15, 645–683.
Riddoch, M. J., &Humphreys, G. W. (1987). Visual object processing in optic aphasia: A case of semantic access agnosia.Cognitive Neuropsychology,4, 131–185.
Riddoch, M. J., Humphreys, G. W., &Edwards, M. G. (2000). Visual affordances and object selection. In S. Monsell & J. Driver (Eds.),Attention and performance XVIII: Control of cognitive processes (pp. 603–626). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Riddoch, M. J., Humphreys, G. W., Heslop, J., &Castermans, E. (2002). Dissociations between object knowledge and everyday action.Neurocase,8, 100–110.
Riddoch, M. J., Humphreys, G. W., &Price, C. J. (1989). Routes to action: Evidence from apraxia.Cognitive Neuropsychology,6, 437–454.
Roy, E. A., &Square, P. A. (1985). Common considerations in the study of limb, verbal, and oral apraxia. In E. A. Roy (Ed.),Neuropsychological studies of apraxia and related disorders (pp. 112–162). Amsterdam: North-Holland.
Rumiati, R. I., &Humphreys, G. W. (1998). Recognition by action: Dissociating visual and semantic routes to actions in normal observers.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,24, 631–647.
Saenz, M., Buracas, G. T., &Boynton, G. M. (2002). Global effects of feature-based attention in human visual cortex.Nature Neuroscience,5, 631–632.
Simon, J. R., &Small, A. M. (1969). Processing auditory information: Interference from an irrelevant cue.Journal of Applied Psychology,53, 433–435.
Sirigu, A., Duhamel, J. R., Cohen, L., Pillon, B., Dubois, B., &Agid, Y. (1996). The mental representation of hand movements after parietal cortex damage.Science,273, 1564–1568.
Snowden, J. S., Goulding, P. J., &Neary, D. (1989). Semantic dementia: A form of circumscribed cerebral atrophy.Behavioural Neurology,2, 167–182.
Stroop, J. R. (1935). Studies of interference in serial verbal reactions.Journal of Experimental Psychology,18, 643–662.
Tucker, M., &Ellis, R. (1998). On the relations between seen objects and components of potential actions.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,24, 830–846.
Warrington, E. K. (1975). The selective impairment of semantic memory.Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology,27, 187–199.
Yoon, E. Y., Heinke, D., &Humphreys, G. W. (2002). Modelling direct constraints on action selection: The naming and action model (NAM).Visual Cognition,9, 615–661.
Yoon, E. Y., & Humphreys, G. W. (2005).Dissociative effects of viewpoint and semantic priming on action and semantic decisions: Evidence for dual route to action from vision. Manuscript submitted for publication.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
This work was supported by an ESRC grant to the first author and by a Wellcome Trust project grant and an MRC program grant to the second author.
Electronic supplementary material
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Yoon, E.Y., Humphreys, G.W. Direct and indirect effects of action on object classification. Memory & Cognition 33, 1131–1146 (2005). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03193218
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03193218