Abstract
Observing the actions of another person activates similar action representations in the observer. A consequence of this perception-action matching process is that producing actions one simultaneously observes will be easier than producing different actions. For example, when observing another person kick a ball, a foot response to identify a stimulus will be faster than a key-press with the finger. In contrast, observing a person press a key with the finger will facilitate a subsequent finger key-press relative to a foot response. We investigated two issues concerning this action priming effect: First, the effects have typically been obtained when viewing video clips or real actions, but can they be detected when static images implying action are viewed? Second, can visuomotor priming influence other stimulus properties such as personality characteristics of the viewed person? New data providing answers to these two questions will be reported.
This research is supported by the Wellcome Programme grant awarded to SPT