Margaux Larre-Perez (IJN & LPP) "Stroop-like interference between structural and functional hand gestures within objects"

Margaux Larre-Perez (Institut Jean Nicod & LPP) will be our next speaker. She is jointly supervised by Pierre Jacob and Thérèse Collins.
Title : "Stroop-like interference between structural and functional hand gestures within objects"
Date, Time, Place : 22/03/2013, 4pm, Salle de Réunion du Pavillon Jardin

Abstract : Man-made objects may elicit at least two kinds of hand gestures : structural hand gestures associated with the shape-based properties of objects, and functional hand gestures associated with their typical usage. A number of behavioral studies have examined the relationship between these action classes, but some questions remain unanswered ; in particular, whether they are both automatically recruited when viewing a particular object, and if they are, whether they may compete with each other. We adapted a Stroop-like paradigm to assess action representations afforded by man-made objects, and the interference within the same object between its associated structural and functional hand actions. In a practice phase, subjects first learned to associate either a “clench” or a “poke” movement with a given color (green or red). In the test phase, subjects executed these learned movements in response to the color of several objects associated with both hand actions (e.g. a calculator or a soap dispenser) that were displayed on a computer screen. Three different object colorations were presented : the object was entirely red or green (“baseline” condition), or was partially colored in such a way that the color and the colored part were congruent (e.g. a red calculator key or a green calculator body) or incongruent (e.g. the opposite combination). Difference in initiation times between these conditions will shed light on what kinds of gestures are evoked by the visual image of graspable objects and if these gesture representations are automatically elicited.