Abstract
We evaluate the actions of other individuals based upon their movements and postures that reveal critical information to guide our decision making and behavioural responses. These signals convey information about the actor, their goals, intentions and internal mental states. To understand the structure of the conceptual space underlying action representation we assessed which action qualities were fundamental, and how individuals perceived actions on these dimensions. 240 different actions were rated by 230 participants on 23 action characteristics. Exploratory Factor Analysis showed that action space was four-dimensional, with the dimensions: friendly-unfriendly, formidable-feeble, intentional-accidental, abduction-adduction. We developed an action morphing method that used source actions located within action space to generate novel actions that lay along the different action dimensions. We measured action discrimination along each dimension using adaptive 2-AFC procedures, and found considerable variation in perceptual thresholds, varying up to ~1100%. This interindividual variation in action perception could not be explained by autistic traits. Together, our results show that actions are perceived on 4 fundamental dimensions: Friendliness and Formidableness appear similar to dimensions underlying face trait evaluation, whilst Intentionality and Abduction appear unique to actions. Our isolation of these dimensions allows the investigation of the conceptual representation of human actions.
Original language | English |
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Publication status | Published - 3 Jul 2024 |
Event | Experimental Psychology Society Meeting - York, United Kingdom Duration: 3 Jul 2024 → 5 Nov 2024 |
Conference
Conference | Experimental Psychology Society Meeting |
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Country/Territory | United Kingdom |
City | York |
Period | 3/07/24 → 5/11/24 |