Action semantics modulate action prediction

Abstract

Previous studies have demonstrated that action prediction involves an internal action simulation that runs time-locked to the real action. The present study replicates and extends these findings by indicating a real-time simulation process (Graf et al., 2007), which can be differentiated from a similarity-based evaluation of internal action representations. Moreover, results showed that action semantics modulate action prediction accuracy. The semantic effect was specified by the processing of action verbs and concrete nouns (Experiment 1) and, more specifically, by the dynamics described by action verbs (Experiment 2) and the speed described by the verbs (e.g., “to catch” vs. “to grasp” vs. “to stretch”; Experiment 3). These results propose a linkage between action simulation and action semantics as two yet unrelated domains, a view that coincides with a recent notion of a close link between motor processes and the understanding of action language.

Keywords:

• Action prediction
• Real-time simulation
• Semantic priming
• Action language
• Embodied cognition

Acknowledgments

We thank Simone Brandstaedter, Kerstin Traeger, and Mathias Lesche for their help in conducting this research, Markus Graf for providing us the point-light stimuli, and Markus Schoebel, Christiane Hauser, and Thomas Gunter for helpful comments on earlier versions of this manuscript. We would also like to thank two anonymous reviewers.