Graduate School of Creative Science and Engineering, Waseda University, Shinjuku, Tokyo, 1628480, Japan.
Laboratoire d'Informatique, de Robotique et de Microelectronique de Montpellier (LIRMM), University Montpellier, CNRS, Montpellier, 34095, France.
Commun Biol. 2022 Jul 14;5(1):701. doi: 10.1038/s42003-022-03603-6.
Many everyday tasks, like walking down a street, require us to dual task to also avoid collisions of our swinging arms with other pedestrians. The collision avoidance is possible with ease because humans attend to all our (embodied) limbs. But how does the level of embodiment affect attention distribution, and consequently task performance in dual tasks? Here we examined this question with a dual task that required participants to perform a cued button-press (main task) with their right hand, while reacting to possible collisions by a moving object with a left 'robot' hand (secondary task). We observed that participants consistently improve main task performance when they perceived the robot hand to be embodied, compared to when they don't. The secondary task performance could be maintained in both cases. Our results suggest that embodiment of a limb modifies attention allotment for the benefit of dual motor task performance using limbs.
许多日常任务，如走在街上，需要我们同时完成两个任务，以避免我们挥舞的手臂与其他行人发生碰撞。因为人类会关注到我们所有的（具身化的）肢体，所以这种碰撞的避免是轻而易举的。但是，具身化的程度如何影响注意力分配，进而影响双重任务中的任务表现呢？在这里，我们通过一项双重任务来研究这个问题，该任务要求参与者用右手完成一个提示按钮的按压（主要任务），同时用左手的“机器人”手对移动的物体可能发生的碰撞做出反应（次要任务）。我们观察到，与不具身化的情况相比，当参与者感知到机器人手具有具身化特征时，他们在主要任务上的表现会持续提高。在这两种情况下，次要任务的表现都可以保持。我们的结果表明，肢体的具身化会改变注意力的分配，从而有利于使用肢体进行双重运动任务的表现。
