Laboratoire sur les Interactions Cognition, Action, Émotion (LICAE), Université Paris Nanterre, Nanterre Cedex, France.
Q J Exp Psychol (Hove). 2023 Dec;76(12):2749-2759. doi: 10.1177/17470218231155836. Epub 2023 Feb 21.
Seeing objects usually grasped with a power or a precision grip (e.g., an apple vs a cherry) potentiates power- and precision-grip responses, respectively. An embodied account suggests that this effect occurs because object conceptual representations would lie on a motor simulation process. A new account, named the size-coding account, argues that this effect could be rather due to an overlapping of size codes used to represent both manipulable objects and response options. In this article, we investigate whether this potentiation effect could be merely due to a low-level visual feature that favours a size-coding of stimuli: the visual size in which objects are presented. Accordingly, we conducted two experiments in which we presented highly elementary and non-graspable stimuli (i.e., ink spots) either large or small rather than graspable objects. Our results showed that the mere visual size automatically potentiates power- and precision-grip responses that are in line with the size-coding account of the potentiation effect of grasping behaviours. Moreover, these results appeal to improve the methodological control of the size of stimuli especially when researchers try to support the embodied account.
通常使用力握或精准握抓握物体（例如，苹果与樱桃）分别会增强力握和精准握抓握反应。具身认知理论认为这种效应的产生是因为物体的概念表示位于运动模拟过程中。一种新的理论，即大小编码理论认为，这种效应可能是由于用于表示可操作性物体和反应选项的大小编码重叠所致。在本文中，我们研究了这种增强效应是否仅仅是由于有利于大小编码的低级视觉特征：呈现物体的视觉大小。因此，我们进行了两项实验，其中我们呈现了非常基本且不可抓握的刺激（即墨点），大小不同，但都是不可抓握的物体。我们的结果表明，仅仅是视觉大小就会自动增强力握和精准握抓握反应，这与抓握行为增强效应的大小编码理论一致。此外，这些结果呼吁改善刺激大小的方法学控制，特别是当研究人员试图支持具身认知理论时。
