Citation

Bertenthal BI, Longo MR, Kosobud A. J. Exp. Psychol. Hum. Percept. Perform. 2006; 32(2): 210-225.

Affiliation

Department of Psychology, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA. bertenthal@uchicago.edu

Copyright

(Copyright © 2006, American Psychological Association)

DOI

10.1037/0096-1523.32.2.210

PMID

16634666

Abstract

Clear and unequivocal evidence shows that observation of object affordances or transitive actions facilitates the activation of a compatible response. By contrast, the evidence showing response facilitation following observation of intransitive actions is less conclusive because automatic imitation and spatial compatibility have been confounded. Three experiments tested whether observation of a finger movement (i.e., an intransitive action) in a choice reaction-time task facilitates the corresponding finger movement response because of imitation, a common spatial code, or some combination of both factors. The priming effects of a spatial and an imitative stimulus were tested in combination (Experiment 1), in opposition (Experiment 2), and independently (Experiment 3). Contrary to previous findings, the evidence revealed significant contributions from both automatic imitation and spatial compatibility, but the priming effects from an automatic tendency to imitate declined significantly across a block of trials whereas the effects of spatial compatibility remained constant or increased slightly. These differential effects suggest that priming associated with automatic imitation is mediated by a different regime than priming associated with spatial compatibility.

Language: en