Department of Psychology, University of Bologna, Italy.
Brain Cogn. 2012 Oct;80(1):64-73. doi: 10.1016/j.bandc.2012.04.007. Epub 2012 May 25.
Studies on affordances typically focus on single objects. We investigated whether affordances are modulated by the context, defined by the relation between two objects and a hand. Participants were presented with pictures displaying two manipulable objects linked by a functional (knife-butter), a spatial (knife-coffee mug), or by no relation. They responded by pressing a key whether the objects were related or not. To determine if observing other's actions and understanding their goals would facilitate judgments, a hand was: (a) displayed near the objects; (b) grasping an object to use it; (c) grasping an object to manipulate/move it; (d) no hand was displayed. RTs were faster when objects were functionally rather than spatially related. Manipulation postures were the slowest in the functional context and functional postures were inhibited in the spatial context, probably due to mismatch between the inferred goal and the context. The absence of this interaction with foot responses instead of hands in Experiment 2 suggests that effects are due to motor simulation rather than to associations between context and hand-postures.
研究可供性通常集中于单个物体。我们研究了可供性是否会受到上下文的调节，上下文由两个物体和一只手之间的关系定义。参与者看到显示两个可操作物体的图片，这些物体通过功能（刀-黄油）、空间（刀-咖啡杯）或无关系连接。他们通过按下一个键来回答这些物体是否有关联。为了确定观察他人的动作和理解他们的目标是否会促进判断，一只手会：（a）显示在物体附近；（b）抓住一个物体以使用它；（c）抓住一个物体以操纵/移动它；（d）不显示手。当物体在功能上而不是在空间上相关时，反应时会更快。在功能语境中，操纵姿势最慢，而在空间语境中，功能姿势受到抑制，这可能是由于推断出的目标与语境之间不匹配造成的。在实验 2 中，没有出现这种与脚反应的交互作用，而不是与手的交互作用，这表明这些影响是由于运动模拟而不是由于上下文和手姿势之间的关联造成的。
