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Welsh TN, Patel S, Pathak A, Jovanov K. "The clothes (and the face) make the Starman": Facial and clothing features shape self-other matching processes between human observers and a cartoon character. Cognition 2023; 230:105281. [PMID: 36115202 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2022.105281] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/14/2021] [Revised: 07/30/2022] [Accepted: 09/07/2022] [Indexed: 10/14/2022]
Abstract
Anthropomorphization occurs when human characteristics are attributed to nonhuman animals or objects. One process that could facilitate the anthropomorphization of nonhuman animals may be a self-other body-part matching mechanism wherein the body of the nonhuman animal is conceptually mapped to the human observer's representation of their body. The present study was designed to determine if specific features could facilitate body-part matching between the cartoon of a nonhuman animal and human observers. Participants responded to targets presented on the cartoon of a starfish. In No Structure conditions, dots and curved lines were distributed evenly within the starfish. In Face conditions, two dots and one curved line represented eyes and a mouth of a "face". In Clothes conditions, dots and lines represented a shirt and pants. Body-part matching emerged when the image had a face or clothing, but did not emerge in No Structure conditions. These studies provide unique evidence that the anthropomorphization of a nonhuman cartoon may be facilitated by human-like internal features on the image.
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Affiliation(s)
- Timothy N Welsh
- Centre for Motor Control, Faculty of Kinesiology & Physical Education, University of Toronto, Canada.
| | - Shikha Patel
- Centre for Motor Control, Faculty of Kinesiology & Physical Education, University of Toronto, Canada
| | - Aarohi Pathak
- Centre for Motor Control, Faculty of Kinesiology & Physical Education, University of Toronto, Canada
| | - Kim Jovanov
- Centre for Motor Control, Faculty of Kinesiology & Physical Education, University of Toronto, Canada
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2
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Chen MM, Karlinsky A, Welsh TN. Hand, but not foot, cues generate increases in salience at the pointed-at location. Acta Psychol (Amst) 2020; 210:103165. [PMID: 32853905 DOI: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2020.103165] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/04/2020] [Revised: 07/12/2020] [Accepted: 08/14/2020] [Indexed: 12/23/2022] Open
Abstract
One line of research has indicated that directional social cues, such as eye gaze and pointed fingers, increase the salience of spatial locations or objects in a relatively involuntary manner (social cueing effect). A separate line of research has indicated that the compatibility between the body part that is observed by an actor primes and facilitates responses with a similar body part more than a dissimilar body part (body-part compatibility effect). The present experiment investigated whether or not social cueing effects were modulated by the relationship between the responding effector and the body part observed as the cue. To this end, non-predictive directional hand or foot cues were presented 100 or 1000 ms prior to a target. On different blocks of trials, participants (n = 19) executed discrete hand-button and foot-pedal responses to the location of a target to examine the influence of cue-effector body-part compatibility on social cueing effects. Response times (RTs) of both hand and foot responses were shorter to cued targets than to uncued targets when hand cues were used. No cueing effects emerged when foot cues were used, regardless of the responding effector. These results suggest changes in salience following social cues are determined by the body part used as the cue and are not modulated by the compatibility between the limb used as the cue and effector. Overall, the social relevance and learned use of a cue seem more pertinent than body-part matching of a stimulus type and response effector in social cueing.
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3
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Cracco E, Cooper RP. Automatic imitation of multiple agents: A computational model. Cogn Psychol 2019; 113:101224. [DOI: 10.1016/j.cogpsych.2019.101224] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/26/2018] [Revised: 04/08/2019] [Accepted: 06/07/2019] [Indexed: 10/26/2022]
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4
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Pacione SM, Pathak A, Patel S, Tremblay L, Welsh TN. Body schema activation for self-other matching in youth. COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT 2018. [DOI: 10.1016/j.cogdev.2018.08.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/28/2022]
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5
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Pila E, Jovanov K, Welsh TN, Sabiston CM. Body-part compatibility effects are modulated by the tendency for women to experience negative social comparative emotions and the body-type of the model. PLoS One 2017. [PMID: 28632746 PMCID: PMC5478157 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0179552] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/07/2023] Open
Abstract
Although exposure to physique-salient media images of women’s bodies has been consistently linked with negative psychological consequences, little is known about the cognitive processes that lead to these negative effects. The present study employed a novel adaptation of a computerized response time (RT) task to (i) assess implicit cognitive processing when exposed to the body of another individual, and (ii) examine individual differences in social comparative emotions that may influence the cognitive processing of human bodies. Adult females with low (n = 44) or high (n = 23) tendencies for comparative emotions completed a task in which they executed responses to coloured targets presented on the hands or feet of images of ultra-thin, average-size, and above average-size female models. Although the colour of the target is the only relevant target feature, it is typically found that the to-be-ignored location of the target on the body of the model influences RTs such that RTs are shorter when the target is on a body-part that is compatible with the responding limb (e.g., hand response when target was on hand) than on a body-part that is incompatible with the responding limb (e.g., hand response when target was on foot). Findings from the present study revealed that the magnitude of the body-part compatibility effect (i.e., the index of the cognitive processing of the model) was modulated by tendencies for affective body-related comparisons. Specifically, women who were prone to experiencing social comparative emotions demonstrated stronger and more consistent body-part compatibility effects across models. Therefore, women with higher social comparison tendencies have heightened processing of bodies at a neurocognitive level and may be at higher risk of the negative outcomes linked with physique-salient media exposure.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eva Pila
- Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
| | - Kimberely Jovanov
- Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
| | - Timothy N. Welsh
- Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
| | - Catherine M. Sabiston
- Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
- * E-mail:
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Triberti S, Repetto C, Costantini M, Riva G, Sinigaglia C. Press to grasp: how action dynamics shape object categorization. Exp Brain Res 2015; 234:799-806. [PMID: 26645308 DOI: 10.1007/s00221-015-4446-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/15/2014] [Accepted: 09/16/2015] [Indexed: 10/22/2022]
Abstract
Action and object are deeply linked to each other. Not only can viewing an object influence an ongoing action, but motor representations of action can also influence visual categorization of objects. It is tempting to assume that this influence is effector-specific. However, there is indirect evidence suggesting that this influence may be related to the action goal and not just to the effector involved in achieving it. This paper aimed, for the first time, to tackle this issue directly. Participants were asked to categorize different objects in terms of the effector (e.g. hand or foot) typically used to act upon them. The task was delivered before and after a training session in which participants were instructed either just to press a pedal with their foot or to perform the same foot action with the goal of guiding an avatar's hand to grasp a small ball. Results showed that pressing a pedal to grasp a ball influenced how participants correctly identified graspable objects as hand-related ones, making their responses more uncertain than before the training. Just pressing a pedal did not have any similar effect. This is evidence that the influence of action on object categorization can be goal-related rather than effector-specific.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stefano Triberti
- Department of Psychology, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan, Italy
| | - Claudia Repetto
- Department of Psychology, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan, Italy
| | - Marcello Costantini
- Laboratory of Neuropsychology and Cognitive Neuroscience, Department of Neuroscience, Imaging and Clinical Sciences, University G. d'Annunzio, Chieti, Italy.,Institute for Advanced Biomedical Technologies - ITAB, University G. d'Annunzio, Chieti, Italy.,Mind, Brain Imaging and Neuroethics, Institute of Mental Health Research, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada
| | - Giuseppe Riva
- Department of Psychology, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan, Italy. .,Applied Technology for Neuro-Psychology Lab., Istituto Auxologico Italiano, Milan, Italy.
| | - Corrado Sinigaglia
- Department of Philosophy, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milan, Italy. .,Centre for the Study of Social Action, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milan, Italy.
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Embodying animals: Body-part compatibility in mammalian, reptile and aves classes. Acta Psychol (Amst) 2015; 160:117-26. [PMID: 26233729 DOI: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2015.07.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/09/2014] [Revised: 06/23/2015] [Accepted: 07/12/2015] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
The purpose of the present study was to determine how humans code homologous body parts of nonhuman mammal, reptilian, and aves animals with respect to the representation of the human body. To this end, participants completed body-part compatibility tasks in which responses were executed to colored targets that were superimposed over the upper limbs, lower limbs or head of different animals in different postures. In Experiment 1, the images were of meekats and lizards in bipedal and quadrupedal postures. In Experiment 2, the images were of a human, a penguin, and an owl in a bipedal posture with upper limbs stretched out. Overall, the results revealed that the limbs of nonhuman mammals (meerkat and human) were consistently mapped onto the homologous human body parts only when the mammals were in a bipedal posture. Specifically, body-part compatibility effects emerged for the human and the meerkat in a bipedal posture, but not the meerkat in the quadrupedal posture. Further, consistent body-part compatibility effects were not observed for the lizard in the quadrupedal posture or for the lizard, penguin, or owl in a bipedal posture. The pattern of results suggests that the human bipedal body representation may distinguish taxonomical classes and is most highly engaged when viewing homologous body parts of mammalian animals.
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Priming of hand and foot response: is spatial attention to the body site enough? Psychon Bull Rev 2015; 22:1678-84. [DOI: 10.3758/s13423-015-0823-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
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9
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Sowden S, Koehne S, Catmur C, Dziobek I, Bird G. Intact Automatic Imitation and Typical Spatial Compatibility in Autism Spectrum Disorder: Challenging the Broken Mirror Theory. Autism Res 2015; 9:292-300. [PMID: 26112060 DOI: 10.1002/aur.1511] [Citation(s) in RCA: 34] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/26/2015] [Accepted: 05/20/2015] [Indexed: 11/11/2022]
Abstract
A lack of imitative behavior is frequently described as a core feature of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), and is consistent with claims of mirror neuron system dysfunction in these individuals. Previous research has questioned this characterization of ASD however, arguing that when tests of automatic imitation are used--which do not require higher-level cognitive processing--imitative behavior is intact or even enhanced in individuals with ASD. In Experiment 1, 60 adult individuals with ASD and a matched Control group completed an automatic imitation task in which they were required to perform an index or a middle finger lift while observing a hand making either the same, or the alternate, finger movement. Both groups demonstrated a significant imitation effect whereby actions were executed faster when preceded by observation of the same action, than when preceded by the alternate action. The magnitude of this "imitation effect" was statistically indistinguishable in the ASD and Control groups. Experiment 2 utilized an improved automatic imitation paradigm to demonstrate that, when automatic imitation effects are isolated from those due to spatial compatibility, increasing autism symptom severity is associated with an increased tendency to imitate. Notably, there was no association between autism symptom severity and spatial compatibility, demonstrating the specificity of the link between ASD symptoms and increased imitation. These results provide evidence against claims of a lack of imitative behavior in ASD, and challenge the "Broken Mirror Theory of Autism."
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Affiliation(s)
- Sophie Sowden
- MRC Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London
| | - Svenja Koehne
- Department of Psychology, Humboldt University, Berlin
| | - Caroline Catmur
- Department of Psychology, University of Surrey, Surrey GU2 7XH, United Kingdom
| | - Isabel Dziobek
- MRC Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London
| | - Geoffrey Bird
- MRC Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London.,Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, London, WC1N 3AR, United Kingdom
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10
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The limb-specific embodiment of a tool following experience. Exp Brain Res 2015; 233:2685-94. [PMID: 26055989 DOI: 10.1007/s00221-015-4342-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/20/2015] [Accepted: 05/23/2015] [Indexed: 10/23/2022]
Abstract
The present study was designed to investigate the incorporation of tools into the human body schema. Previous research on tool use suggests that through physical interaction with a tool, the representation of the body is adjusted to incorporate or "embody" the tool. The present experiment was conducted to test the limb-specific nature of tool embodiment. Participants were presented with images of a person holding a rake and executed hand- and foot-press responses to colored targets superimposed on the hand, foot, and rake of the image. This task was completed before and after moving a ball around a course with a hand-held rake. Consistent with previous research, a body-part compatibility effect emerged-response times (RTs) were shorter when the responding limb and target location were compatible (e.g., hand responses to targets on the hand) than when they were incompatible (e.g., hand responses to targets on the foot). Of greater theoretical relevance, hand RTs to targets presented on the hand were shorter than those to targets on the rake prior to experience, but were not different after completing the rake task. The post-experience similarity in hand RTs emerged because there was a significant reduction in RTs to targets on the rake following use. There was no significant pre-/post-experience change in hand RTs to targets on the hand or, importantly, for any response executed by the foot. These results provide new evidence that a tool is embodied in a limb-specific manner and is represented within the body schema as if it was an extension of the limb.
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11
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de la Fuente J, Casasanto D, Santiago J. Observed actions affect body-specific associations between space and valence. Acta Psychol (Amst) 2015; 156:32-6. [PMID: 25638409 DOI: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2015.01.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/13/2014] [Revised: 11/19/2014] [Accepted: 01/16/2015] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Right-handers tend to associate "good" with the right side of space and "bad" with the left. This implicit association appears to arise from the way people perform actions, more or less fluently, with their right and left hands. Here we tested whether observing manual actions performed with greater or lesser fluency can affect observers' space-valence associations. In two experiments, we assigned one participant (the actor) to perform a bimanual fine motor task while another participant (the observer) watched. Actors were assigned to wear a ski glove on either the right or left hand, which made performing the actions on this side of space disfluent. In Experiment 1, observers stood behind the actors, sharing their spatial perspective. After motor training, both actors and observers tended to associate "good" with the side of the actors' free hand and "bad" with the side of the gloved hand. To determine whether observers' space-valence associations were computed from their own perspectives or the actors', in Experiment 2 we asked the observer to stand face-to-face with the actor, reversing their spatial perspectives. After motor training, both actors and observers associated "good" with the side of space where disfluent actions had occurred from their own egocentric spatial perspectives; if "good" was associated with the actor's right-hand side it was likely to be associated with the observer's left-hand side. Results show that vicarious experiences of motor fluency can shape valence judgments, and that observers spontaneously encode the locations of fluent and disfluent actions in egocentric spatial coordinates.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Julio Santiago
- Mind, Brain, and Behaviour Research Centre, University of Granada, Spain.
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12
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Welsh TN, McDougall L, Paulson S. The personification of animals: Coding of human and nonhuman body parts based on posture and function. Cognition 2014; 132:398-415. [DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2014.05.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/24/2013] [Revised: 05/02/2014] [Accepted: 05/06/2014] [Indexed: 10/25/2022]
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13
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Abstract
Controlling neural representations of the self and other people is fundamental to social cognition. Brain imaging studies have implicated the right temporoparietal junction (rTPJ) in this ability, but causal evidence for its role is lacking. A debate is also ongoing regarding whether the control of, or switching between, self and other representations is a specialized or domain-general process: the rTPJ's well-established role in reorienting attention supports a domain-general process, but a role specific to social cognition has also been proposed. Neuronavigated repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation was used to target the rTPJ (and a control mid-occipital site) during a task requiring participants to switch between representations of others' actions on both a social and a nonsocial level, by manipulating imitative and spatial compatibility simultaneously and independently. Both imitative and spatial compatibility effects were apparent on response times; however, the effect of imitative compatibility was significantly stronger, indicating less control of imitation, during stimulation of the rTPJ relative to the control site. This suggests that the rTPJ is involved in switching between self and other representations, and further, that this process may not be entirely domain general.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sophie Sowden
- Department of Psychology, University of Surrey, Guildford GU2 7XH, UK
| | - Caroline Catmur
- Department of Psychology, University of Surrey, Guildford GU2 7XH, UK
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14
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Cooper RP, Catmur C, Heyes C. Neither Shaken nor Stirred: Reply to Bertenthal and Scheutz. Cogn Sci 2013. [DOI: 10.1111/cogs.12040] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Richard P. Cooper
- Department of Psychological Sciences, Birkbeck; University of London
| | | | - Cecilia Heyes
- All Souls College & Department of Experimental Psychology; University of Oxford
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