Couth Samuel, Gowen Emma, Poliakoff Ellen
Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Manchester, Carys Bannister Building, Dover Street, Manchester, M13 9PL, UK,
Exp Brain Res. 2014 Mar;232(3):855-64. doi: 10.1007/s00221-013-3798-4. Epub 2013 Dec 15.
Previous research has demonstrated faster reaction times in response to appropriately oriented action-inducing stimuli (affordance effect, e.g. Tucker and Ellis in J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform 24:830-846, 1998). However, it has been argued that faster responses may be due to a spatial compatibility effect. In the current investigation, we aimed to dissociate the affordance and spatial compatibility effects. Moreover, we explored these effects beyond button-press responses by measuring detailed kinematics of the arms and hands during a naturalistic reach response. Participants were presented with images of a door handle (affording) or an abstract (non-affording) stimulus and made a pantomimed reach response with either hand depending on a colour change of the stimulus (i.e. Blue = left, Green = right). Stimuli could be aligned as spatially compatible or incompatible with the responding hand. The colour change occurred after a delay of 0, 500 or 1,000 ms. Only spatially compatible affordance stimuli facilitated reach onset compared to other stimuli and compatibility combinations, replicating previous reaction time studies. Therefore, in the absence of graspable stimuli, spatial compatibility alone was not sufficient to facilitate reach onset. There was also a larger outwards deviation of reach trajectory for spatially incompatible abstract stimuli compared to spatially compatible abstract stimuli, which waned with stimulus onset delay. However, no such affect was observed for the affording stimuli. Accordingly, later kinematics of the reaching action was influenced by the spatial compatibility of the stimulus alone. Overall, the dissociation of affordance and spatial compatibility effects suggests that these effects are driven by visuomotor priming and the inhibition of the incompatible spatial location, respectively.
先前的研究表明，对方向合适的动作诱发刺激做出反应时反应速度更快（可供性效应，例如Tucker和Ellis在《实验心理学杂志：人类感知与表现》24:830 - 846, 1998年中的研究）。然而，有人认为更快的反应可能是由于空间兼容性效应。在当前的研究中，我们旨在区分可供性效应和空间兼容性效应。此外，我们通过测量自然伸手反应过程中手臂和手部的详细运动学，探究了这些效应在按键反应之外的情况。向参与者呈现门把手（具有可供性）或抽象（不具有可供性）刺激的图像，并根据刺激的颜色变化（即蓝色 = 左手，绿色 = 右手）用任意一只手做出模仿伸手的反应。刺激可以与反应手在空间上对齐或不对齐。颜色变化在延迟0、500或1000毫秒后发生。与其他刺激和兼容性组合相比，只有空间兼容的可供性刺激促进了伸手动作的起始，这重复了先前的反应时间研究。因此，在没有可抓握刺激的情况下，仅空间兼容性不足以促进伸手动作的起始。与空间兼容的抽象刺激相比，空间不兼容的抽象刺激的伸手轨迹向外偏差也更大，且这种偏差随着刺激起始延迟而减弱。然而，对于具有可供性的刺激未观察到这种影响。相应地，伸手动作的后期运动学仅受刺激的空间兼容性影响。总体而言，可供性效应和空间兼容性效应的区分表明，这些效应分别由视觉运动启动和对不兼容空间位置的抑制驱动。
