Performing various perceptual actions elicits differentiable P300 responses.

Several studies have explored the differentiation of visual action verbs (e.g., see, perceive, and notice). The vast number and variety to choose from, along with a common understanding between the meanings of the words, suggests that they may represent measurable differences in perceptual processing. The present study investigated how manipulating the visual action verb embedded into a common instruction could produce either differentiable electrophysiological or behavioral effects, or possibly both. It was hypothesized that the P300 component elicited during an oddball task would differ depending on the visual action that participants had been instructed to perform. Results support this hypothesis, but suggest that response bias also could contribute to action performance. When participants were asked to 'sense' deviants in an oddball task, the P300 differed in amplitude compared to when they were asked to 'distinguish' the deviants. In addition, participants displayed varying response times for the instructions 'notice' versus 'view', 'distinguish' versus 'sense', and 'notice' versus 'sense'. When considering the behavioral and ERP results together, we can conclude that response biases and perceptual cognitive processing both contribute to how identical stimuli can be processed depending on the visual action performed.