Abstract
While repetition and semantic priming effects have been demonstrated robustly in numerous studies, there has been a debate about visuomotor priming effects, that is, whether seeing an object prior to movement initiation facilitates an action congruent with the visual properties of that object. While some studies provide evidence for a general visuomotor priming effect, others failed to find visuomotor priming effects and the factors causally influencing visuomotor priming are still unclear. In the present study, we investigated two potentially important factors, cue exposure time and quality of cue processing. We were interested in whether simple exposure time already had an impact on visuomotor priming effects or whether the quality of cue processing was relevant. We implemented four experimental manipulations in a pick-and-place task with natural objects (wine or water glass), using identical objects as cue and target objects. Two experimental conditions for cue exposure time (simultaneous vs. delayed cue-target presentation) were combined with two kinds of cue processing quality (cue memory task vs. no memory task). Speed and trajectories of the grasping movements were recorded via an electromagnetic motion tracking system. Grasping of the target glass was faster when the cue was congruent compared to when it was incongruent but only if participants had to remember the cue identity for the memory task. Time course of cue-target presentation alone did not affect grasping speed. Movement trajectories and velocity profiles were not affected. In summary, we provide evidence for visuomotor priming in a pick-and-place task simulating natural grasping situations but only if participants processed and memorized the identity of the cue. The results of the current study suggest that visuomotor priming effects depend on the quality of cue processing and cannot be explained by the simple exposure time to the cue.
Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2012