TY  - JOUR
A1  - Springer, Anne
A1  - Brandstädter, Simone
A1  - Liepelt, Roman
A1  - Birngruber, Teresa
A1  - Giese, Martin
A1  - Mechsner, Franz
A1  - Prinz, Wolfgang
T1  - Motor execution affects action prediction
JF  - Brain and cognition : a journal of experimental and clinical research
N2  - Previous studies provided evidence of the claim that the prediction of occluded action involves real-time simulation. We report two experiments that aimed to study how real-time simulation is affected by simultaneous action execution under conditions of full, partial or no overlap between observed and executed actions. This overlap was analysed by comparing the body sides and the movement kinematics involved in the observed and the executed action. While performing actions, participants observed point-light (PL) actions that were interrupted by an occluder, followed by a test pose. The task was to judge whether the test pose depicted a continuation of the occluded action in the same depth angle. Using a paradigm proposed by Graf et al., we independently manipulated the duration of the occluder and the temporal advance of the test pose relative to occlusion onset (occluder time and pose time, respectively). This paradigm allows the assessment of real-time simulation, based on prediction performance across different occluder time/pose time combinations (i.e., improved task performance with decreasing time distance between occluder time and pose time is taken to reflect real-time simulation). The PL actor could be perceived as from the front or back, as indicated by task instructions. In Experiment 1 (front view instructions), evidence of action simulation was obtained for partial overlap (i.e., observed and performed action corresponded either in body side or movement kinematics), but not for full or no overlap conditions. The same pattern was obtained in Experiment 2 (back view instructions), ruling out a spatial compatibility explanation for the real-time pattern observed. Our results suggest that motor processes affect action prediction and real-time simulation. The strength of their impact varies as a function of the overlap between observed and executed actions.
KW  - Action prediction
KW  - Internal simulation
KW  - Motor execution
KW  - Common coding
KW  - Perception-action-link
Y1  - 2011
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bandc.2011.03.007
SN  - 0278-2626
VL  - 76
IS  - 1
SP  - 26
EP  - 36
PB  - Elsevier
CY  - San Diego
ER  -