Seeing the world through another person’s eyes: Simulating selective attention via action observation

Selective attention is usually considered an egocentric mechanism, biasing sensory information based on its behavioural relevance to oneself. This study provides evidence for an equivalent allocentric mechanism that allows passive observers to selectively attend to information from the perspective of another person. In a negative priming task, participants reached for a red target stimulus whilst ignoring a green distractor. Distractors located close to their hand were inhibited strongly, consistent with an egocentric frame of reference. When participants took turns with another person, the pattern of negative priming shifted to an allocentric frame of reference: locations close to the hand of the observed agent (but far away from the participant's hand) were inhibited strongly. This suggests that witnessing another's action leads the observer to simulate the same selective attention mechanisms such that they effectively perceive their surroundings from the other person's perspective.

[1]  S. Tipper.  The Negative Priming Effect: Inhibitory Priming by Ignored Objects , 1985, The Quarterly journal of experimental psychology. A, Human experimental psychology.

[2]  Romeo Chua,et al.  Does Joe influence Fred's action? Inhibition of return across different nervous systems , 2005, Neuroscience Letters.

[3]  L. Craighero,et al.  Modulation of spinal excitability during observation of hand actions in humans , 2001, The European journal of neuroscience.

[4]  A. Goldman,et al.  Mirror neurons and the simulation theory of mind-reading , 1998, Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

[5]  S. Tipper,et al.  Selective reaching: evidence for action-centered attention. , 1992, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[6]  G. Rizzolatti,et al.  Understanding motor events: a neurophysiological study , 2004, Experimental Brain Research.

[7]  S P Tipper,et al.  Action-based mechanisms of attention. , 1998, Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences.

[8]  Luciano Fadiga,et al.  Hand action preparation influences the responses to hand pictures , 2002, Neuropsychologia.

[9]  G. Rizzolatti,et al.  I Know What You Are Doing A Neurophysiological Study , 2001, Neuron.

[10]  F. Binkofski,et al.  The mirror neuron system and action recognition , 2004, Brain and Language.

[11]  G. Rizzolatti,et al.  Action recognition in the premotor cortex. , 1996, Brain : a journal of neurology.

[12]  M. Moscovitch,et al.  Attention and Performance 15: Conscious and Nonconscious Information Processing , 1994 .

[13]  S. Tipper.  Does Negative Priming Reflect Inhibitory Mechanisms? A Review and Integration of Conflicting Views , 2001, The Quarterly journal of experimental psychology. A, Human experimental psychology.

[14]  G. Rizzolatti,et al.  Premotor cortex and the recognition of motor actions. , 1996, Brain research. Cognitive brain research.

[15]  Y. Paulignan,et al.  An Interference Effect of Observed Biological Movement on Action , 2003, Current Biology.

[16]  Steven P. Tipper,et al.  Action-centred negative priming: Evidence for reactive inhibition , 2002 .

[17]  E. Procyk,et al.  Brain activity during observation of actions. Influence of action content and subject's strategy. , 1997, Brain : a journal of neurology.

[18]  Á. Pascual-Leone,et al.  Phase-specific modulation of cortical motor output during movement observation , 2001, Neuroreport.

[19]  J. Decety,et al.  Top down effect of strategy on the perception of human biological motion: a pet investigation. , 1998, Cognitive neuropsychology.

[20]  R. Passingham,et al.  Seeing or Doing? Influence of Visual and Motor Familiarity in Action Observation , 2006, Current Biology.

[21]  G. Rizzolatti,et al.  A unifying view of the basis of social cognition , 2004, Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

[22]  H. Bekkering,et al.  Imitation of gestures in children is goal-directed. , 2000, The Quarterly journal of experimental psychology. A, Human experimental psychology.

[23]  S. Tipper,et al.  Implicit action encoding influences personal-trait judgments , 2007, Cognition.

[24]  Romeo Chua,et al.  Within- and between-nervous-system inhibition of return: Observation is as good as performance , 2007, Psychonomic bulletin & review.

[25]  J. Mazziotta,et al.  Grasping the Intentions of Others with One's Own Mirror Neuron System , 2005, PLoS biology.

[26]  E. Fox.  Negative priming from ignored distractors in visual selection: A review , 1995, Psychonomic bulletin & review.

[27]  Stefanie Schuch,et al.  On observing another person’s actions: Influences of observed inhibition and errors , 2007, Perception & psychophysics.

[28]  G Aschersleben,et al.  Correspondence effects with manual gestures and postures: a study of imitation. , 2000, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[29]  J. Mazziotta,et al.  RETRACTED ARTICLE: Experience-dependent modulation of motor corticospinal excitability during action observation , 2001, Experimental Brain Research.

[30]  Steven P. Tipper,et al.  Focusing on body sites: the role of spatial attention in action perception , 2007, Experimental Brain Research.

[31]  G. Rizzolatti,et al.  The mirror-neuron system. , 2004, Annual review of neuroscience.

[32]  W. Prinz,et al.  Compatibility between Observed and Executed Finger Movements: Comparing Symbolic, Spatial, and Imitative Cues , 2000, Brain and Cognition.