Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition & Behaviour, Radboud University Nijmegen, P.O. Box 9104, 6500, HE Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
Psychon Bull Rev. 2011 Oct;18(5):1022-8. doi: 10.3758/s13423-011-0136-3.
The acquisition of bidirectional action-effect associations plays a central role in the ability to intentionally control actions. Humans learn about actions not only through active experience, but also through observing the actions of others. In Experiment 1, we examined whether action-effect associations can be acquired by observational learning. To this end, participants observed how a model repeatedly pressed two buttons during an observation phase. Each of the buttonpresses led to a specific tone (action effect). In a subsequent test phase, the tones served as target stimuli to which the participants had to respond with buttonpresses. Reaction times were shorter if the stimulus-response mapping in the test phase was compatible with the action-effect association in the observation phase. Experiment 2 excluded the possibility that the impact of perceived action effects on own actions was driven merely by an association of spatial features with the particular tones. Furthermore, we demonstrated that the presence of an agent is necessary to acquire novel action-effect associations through observation. Altogether, the study provides evidence for the claim that bidirectional action-effect associations can be acquired by observational learning. Our findings are discussed in the context of the idea that the acquisition of action-effect associations through observation is an important cognitive mechanism subserving the human ability for social learning.
双向动作-效果关联的获得在有意控制动作的能力中起着核心作用。人类不仅通过主动体验，还通过观察他人的动作来学习动作。在实验 1 中，我们研究了通过观察学习是否可以获得动作-效果关联。为此，参与者在观察阶段观察模型如何多次按下两个按钮。每次按钮按下都会产生特定的声音（动作效果）。在随后的测试阶段，这些声音作为目标刺激，参与者必须用按钮按下做出反应。如果测试阶段的刺激-反应映射与观察阶段的动作-效果关联相匹配，则反应时间会更短。实验 2 排除了感知动作效果对自身动作的影响仅仅是由特定声音与特定空间特征的关联驱动的可能性。此外，我们证明了通过观察获得新的动作-效果关联需要有一个主体的存在。总的来说，该研究为以下观点提供了证据，即通过观察可以获得双向动作-效果关联。我们的研究结果在认为通过观察获得动作-效果关联是支持人类社会学习能力的重要认知机制的观点背景下进行了讨论。
