Cues to intention bias action perception toward the most efficient trajectory

Tools

McDonough, Katrina L. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7599-8317, Hudson, Matthew and Bach, Patric (2019) Cues to intention bias action perception toward the most efficient trajectory. Scientific Reports, 9 (1). ISSN 2045-2322

Full text not available from this repository. (Request a copy)

Abstract

Humans interpret others’ behaviour as intentional and expect them to take the most energy-efficient path to achieve their goals. Recent studies show that these expectations of efficient action take the form of a prediction of an ideal “reference” trajectory, against which observed actions are evaluated, distorting their perceptual representation towards this expected path. Here we tested whether these predictions depend upon the implied intentionality of the stimulus. Participants saw videos of an actor reaching either efficiently (straight towards an object or arched over an obstacle) or inefficiently (straight towards obstacle or arched over empty space). The hand disappeared mid-trajectory and participants reported the last seen position on a touch-screen. As in prior research, judgments of inefficient actions were biased toward efficiency expectations (straight trajectories upwards to avoid obstacles, arched trajectories downward towards goals). In two further experimental groups, intentionality cues were removed by replacing the hand with a non-agentive ball (group 2), and by removing the action’s biological motion profile (group 3). Removing these cues substantially reduced perceptual biases. Our results therefore confirm that the perception of others’ actions is guided by expectations of efficient actions, which are triggered by the perception of semantic and motion cues to intentionality.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	Funding Information: This work was supported by the Economic and Social Research Council [Grant Number ES/J019178/1] awarded to Patric Bach, and a University of Plymouth doctoral student grant awarded to Katrina L. McDonough. Publisher Copyright: © 2019, The Author(s).
Uncontrolled Keywords:	general ,/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/1000
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Psychology
Related URLs:	http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?...
Depositing User:	LivePure Connector
Date Deposited:	04 Mar 2024 18:39
Last Modified:	04 Mar 2024 18:39
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/94564
DOI:	10.1038/s41598-019-42204-y

Actions (login required)

View Item