Department of Psychology, Center for Cognitive Science, University of Turin, Turin, Italy.
PLoS One. 2012;7(5):e37514. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0037514. Epub 2012 May 18.
Human observers are especially sensitive to the actions of conspecifics that match their own actions. This has been proposed to be critical for social interaction, providing the basis for empathy and joint action. However, the precise relation between observed and executed actions is still poorly understood. Do ongoing actions change the way observers perceive others' actions? To pursue this question, we exploited the bistability of depth-ambiguous point-light walkers, which can be perceived as facing towards the viewer or as facing away from the viewer. We demonstrate that point-light walkers are perceived more often as facing the viewer when the observer is walking on a treadmill compared to when the observer is performing an action that does not match the observed behavior (e.g., cycling). These findings suggest that motor processes influence the perceived orientation of observed actions: Acting observers tend to perceive similar actions by conspecifics as oriented towards themselves. We discuss these results in light of the possible mechanisms subtending action-induced modulation of perception.
人类观察者特别敏感于与自己的动作相匹配的同类动作。这被认为对于社会互动至关重要，为同理心和共同行动提供了基础。然而，观察到的和执行的动作之间的精确关系仍然理解得很差。正在进行的动作是否会改变观察者感知他人动作的方式？为了探讨这个问题，我们利用了深度歧义点光步行者的双稳态性，这些步行者可以被感知为面向观察者或远离观察者。我们证明，与观察者执行与观察到的行为不匹配的动作（例如，骑自行车）相比，当观察者在跑步机上行走时，点光步行者被感知为面向观察者的情况更常见。这些发现表明，运动过程会影响观察者对观察到的动作的感知方向：行为观察者往往会将同类的类似动作感知为朝向自己。我们根据可能的机制来讨论这些结果，这些机制支持动作引起的感知调制。
