Several studies have demonstrated the existence of a link between action observation (AO) and language. However, the optimizing parameters for this link have not been explored until now. To answer this question, the present study proposed two experiments for assessing the role of motor repertory and attentional focus.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOver the past four decades, point-light displays (PLD) have been integrated into psychology and psychophysics, providing a valuable means to probe human perceptual skills. Leveraging the inherent kinematic information and controllable display parameters, researchers have utilized this technique to examine the mechanisms involved in learning and rehabilitation. However, classical PLD generation methods (e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis study investigated the influence of kinematics observation (i.e., observing action from only the motion of the main joints of an actor) on episodic memory performance differences between young and older adults.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe short-term immobilization of a limb such as the right arm can impair sensorimotor mechanisms, which in turn reduces motor control of this arm. However, it is not known whether immobilization also impairs the anticipatory mechanism for tool use without actual enactment. In two experiments, we asked participants to judge how they would use a tool in a particular environment (e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSome studies have demonstrated that Action Observation (AO) could help patients with aphasia to recover use of verbs. However, the role of kinematics in this effect has remained unknown. The main aim was to assess the effectiveness of a complementary intervention based on the observation of action kinematics in patients with aphasia.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF: The present study aimed to assess the potential benefit of the observation of rehabilitation-related point-light display in addition to a conventional 3-week rehabilitation program, the objective being to improve functional capacity in patients having undergone total knee arthroplasty. : Patients randomized in the control group had conventional rehabilitation treatment with two sessions per day 5 days a week of physical therapy (90 min), whereas patients in the experimental group had a program of conventional rehabilitation combined with a point-light display observation two times per day (5 min) and 3 days a week. : The patients of both groups had improved their performances by the end of the program, and the pre- and post-test improvement were superior for the experimental group over the control group concerning the total WOMAC score ( = 0.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn this work we aimed to assess the typical link in human development between action observation and language. For this, we studied, in 68 children aged 5-11 years of age, how action verbs can prime action representation. While children 7-8 years of age benefited from a congruent action verb prime when they had to judge an image representing an action, this effect was not present in 5-6-year-olds.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIt was more than 45 years ago that Gunnar Johansson invented the point-light display technique. This showed for the first time that kinematics is crucial for action recognition, and that humans are very sensitive to their conspecifics' movements. As a result, many of today's researchers use point-light displays to better understand the mechanisms behind this recognition ability.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObservation is known to improve memory for action. Previous findings linked such an effect with an easier relation processing of action components following observation compared to mere sentence reading. However, action observation also elicits implicit motor simulation, that is a processing of one's movement through the observer own motor system.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWithin the theoretical framework of embodied cognition, several experiments have shown the existence of links between action observation and motor learning. Our aim was to assess the effectiveness of an observational learning protocol (action observation training: AOT) of point-light-display (PLD) in judoka. Twenty participants were given 7 days to learn Go-No-Sen.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe present study aimed to explore the contribution of the manual sensorimotor system to the memory of graspable objects. Participants in the experimental group underwent a short-term upper limb immobilization design to decrease arousal to their dominant hand. Such designs are known to elicit updating of sensorimotor representations and to hardened use of implicit motor simulation, a process that occurs when observing graspable objects.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe present experiment aimed to gain more information on the effect of limb nonuse on the cognitive level of actions and, more specifically, on the content of the motor programme used for grasping an object. For that purpose, we used a hand-grasping laterality task that is known to contain concrete information on manipulation activity. Two groups participated in the experiment: an immobilised group, including participants whose right hand and arm were fixed with a rigid splint and an immobilisation vest for 24 hr, and a control group, including participants who did not undergo the immobilisation procedure.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFacial emotion recognition occupies a prominent place in emotion psychology. How perceivers recognize messages conveyed by faces can be studied in either an explicit or an implicit way, and using different kinds of facial stimuli. In the present study, we explored for the first time how facial point-light displays (PLDs) (i.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Many studies have demonstrated the existence of a link between action verb processing and action. However, little is known about the changes in this relationship with aging.
Method: To assess this point, we compare the performances of younger and older people during a priming task consisting of judging whether an image contains a human after listening to an action verb.
Numerous studies have highlighted a strong relationship between language and sensorimotor processes, showing, for example, that perceiving an action influences subsequent language processing. Moreover, previous studies have demonstrated that the context in which actions are perceived is crucial to enable this action-language relationship. In particular, action verb processing is facilitated when an action is perceived in its usual context (e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe aim of the present study was to investigate how the context in which an action is presented could modulate the effect of action observation on language processing, an effect that is classically observed in the literature. To address this question, we recorded both behavioral (reaction times) and electrophysiological measures (event-related potentials) of participants performing a semantic decision task involving a verb describing an action that was congruent or incongruent with the action presented in a prime picture that had been observed. The prime picture presented an action performed in a usual or an unusual context.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSeveral studies have demonstrated that perceiving an action influences the subsequent processing of action verbs. However, which characteristics of the perceived action are truly determinant to enable this influence is still unknown. The current study investigated the role of the agent executing an action in this action-language relationship.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPeripersonal space is a multisensory interface between the environment and the body subserving motor interactions with the physical and social world. Although changing body properties has been shown to alter the functional processing of space, little is known about the effect of short-term limb immobilization specifically on the motor representation of peripersonal space. In the present study, we investigated the effect of a right upper-limb immobilization for a duration of 24 h on a reachability judgment task and a brightness judgment task.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform
November 2018
Consistent with the embodied view of cognition, several studies have shown a link between action and the processing of action verbs. However, it is largely unknown how action properties can influence semantic activation during word processing. On the basis of the observation of point-light display (PLDs), the present study addressed this issue.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe study of biological point-light displays (PLDs) has fascinated researchers for more than 40 years. However, the mechanisms underlying PLD perception remain unclear, partly due to difficulties with precisely controlling and transforming PLD sequences. Furthermore, little agreement exists regarding how transformations are performed.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNumerous studies in the field of embodied cognition have shown a crosstalk between language and sensorimotor processes. In particular, it has been demonstrated that perceiving an action influences subsequent language processing. However, when studying the effect of action observation on language processing it has not been considered whether the context of action presentation could modulate this influence.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn
July 2017
The present study aimed to investigate whether well-established associations between action and language can be altered by short-term upper limb immobilization. The dominant arm of right-handed participants was immobilized for 24 hours with a rigid splint fixed on the hand and an immobilization vest restraining the shoulder, arm, and forearm. The control group did not undergo such immobilization.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe present study aimed to assess the role of sentence plausibility in the functional link between action words and visual judgments of point-light human actions. Following the oral presentation of action verbs included in a plausible or implausible sentence, participants were asked to detect the presence of congruent or incongruent biological movements. Sentence plausibility was manipulated by inverting the positions of the subject and the complement (e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe aim of the present study was to examine whether the ability to judge action words and the ability to judge human actions share common mechanisms. With this purpose in mind, we proposed both a lexical and an action decision task to twenty-four healthy participants. For both tasks, the participants had to judge whether the stimulus that was presented (a letter string or a point-light sequence) was valid or not (i.
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