Pesquita Ana, Bernardet Ulysses, Richards Bethany E, Jensen Ole, Shapiro Kimron
Centre for Human Brain Health, School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK.
Aston Institute of Urban Technology and the Environment (ASTUTE), Aston University, Birmingham B4 7ET, UK.
Brain Sci. 2022 Mar 24;12(4):432. doi: 10.3390/brainsci12040432.
Previous research suggests that predictive mechanisms are essential in perceiving social interactions. However, these studies did not isolate (a priori expectations about how partners in an interaction react to one another) from (a posteriori processing of both partner's actions). This study investigated action prediction during social interactions while controlling for integration confounds. Twenty participants viewed 3D animations depicting an action-reaction interaction between two actors. At the start of each action-reaction interaction, one actor performs a social action. Immediately after, instead of presenting the other actor's reaction, a black screen covers the animation for a short time (occlusion duration) until a still frame depicting a precise moment of the reaction is shown (reaction frame). The moment shown in the reaction frame is either temporally aligned with the occlusion duration or deviates by 150 ms or 300 ms. Fifty percent of the action-reaction trials were semantically congruent, and the remaining were incongruent, e.g., one actor offers to shake hands, and the other reciprocally shakes their hand (congruent action-reaction) versus one actor offers to shake hands, and the other leans down (incongruent action-reaction). Participants made fast congruency judgments. We hypothesized that judging the congruency of action-reaction sequences is aided by temporal predictions. The findings supported this hypothesis; linear speed-accuracy scores showed that congruency judgments were facilitated by a temporally aligned occlusion duration, and reaction frames compared to 300 ms deviations, thus suggesting that observers internally simulate the temporal unfolding of an observed social interction. Furthermore, we explored the link between participants with higher autistic traits and their sensitivity to temporal deviations. Overall, the study offers new evidence of prediction mechanisms underpinning the perception of social interactions in isolation from action integration confounds.
先前的研究表明，预测机制在感知社会互动中至关重要。然而，这些研究并未将（对互动中伙伴如何相互反应的先验期望）与（对双方行为的后验处理）区分开来。本研究在控制整合混淆因素的同时，调查了社会互动过程中的动作预测。20名参与者观看了描绘两个演员之间动作 - 反应互动的3D动画。在每次动作 - 反应互动开始时，一个演员执行一个社交动作。之后，不是呈现另一个演员的反应，而是在短时间内（遮挡持续时间）用黑屏覆盖动画，直到显示描绘反应精确时刻的静止帧（反应帧）。反应帧中显示的时刻要么与遮挡持续时间在时间上对齐，要么偏差150毫秒或300毫秒。50%的动作 - 反应试验在语义上是一致的，其余的则不一致，例如，一个演员主动握手，另一个演员也握手回应（一致的动作 - 反应），而一个演员主动握手，另一个演员却俯身（不一致的动作 - 反应）。参与者要做出快速的一致性判断。我们假设对动作 - 反应序列一致性的判断得益于时间预测。研究结果支持了这一假设；线性速度 - 准确性得分表明，与300毫秒的偏差相比，时间对齐的遮挡持续时间和反应帧促进了一致性判断，这表明观察者在内心模拟了观察到的社会互动的时间展开。此外，我们还探讨了自闭症特征较高的参与者与其对时间偏差的敏感性之间的联系。总体而言，该研究提供了新的证据，证明预测机制在孤立于动作整合混淆因素的情况下支撑着对社会互动的感知。
