Methodological problems undermine tests of the ideo-motor conjecture

Jansson, Erik; Wilson, Andrew D.; Williams, Justin H. G.; Mon-Williams, Mark

doi:10.1007/s00221-007-1013-1

Cited by 50 publications

(78 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…The results of the RT analysis indicate that, contrary to the suggestions of Aicken et al (2007) and Jansson et al (2007), imitative compatibility is independent of spatial compatibility. If imitative compatibility were due solely to simple spatial compatibility, no main effect of imitative compatibility would have been observed when imitative 22 compatibility was measured on both spatially compatible and spatially incompatible trials.…”

Section: Resultscontrasting

confidence: 74%

“…Experiments 1 and 2 also indicated that processes of spatial compatibility and imitative compatibility display differing time courses within each trial, as reported by Brass et al (2001), but contrary to Jansson et al (2007). Spatial compatibility effects were present from the early stages of a trial, while imitative compatibility effects arose later in a trial (Experiment 2) and appeared to increase in size for longer than spatial compatibility effects (Experiment 1).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 61%

“…However, Jansson et al (2007), in two separate experiments, failed to replicate this increase in imitative compatibility effects over time, from which they concluded that there was no evidence that imitative compatibility is distinct from spatial compatibility.…”

Section: Time Course Analyses Of Spatial Compatibility and Imitative mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, if previously reported imitative compatibility effects were the result of spatial compatibility, as suggested by Aicken et al (2007) and Jansson et al (2007), then when spatial compatibility is controlled in this fashion, an effect of spatial compatibility but no imitative compatibility effect will be observed. If, however, both spatial and imitative compatibility effects are observed when spatial compatibility is controlled, this would imply that spatial and imitative compatibility are independent of one another and thus that spatial and imitative compatibility are distinct phenomena.…”

mentioning

confidence: 95%

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Time course analyses confirm independence of imitative and spatial compatibility.

Catmur

Heyes

2011

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Perfor

137

227

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Imitative compatibility, or automatic imitation, has been used as a measure of imitative performance and as a behavioral index of the functioning of the human mirror system (e.g., Brass, Bekkering, Wohlschlager, & Prinz, 2000; Heyes, Bird, Johnson, & Haggard, 2005; Kilner, Paulignan, & Blakemore, 2003). However, the use of imitative compatibility as a measure of imitation has been criticized on the grounds that imitative compatibility has been confounded with simple spatial compatibility (Aicken, Wilson, Williams, & Mon-Williams, 2007; Bertenthal, Longo, & Kosobud, 2006; Jansson, Wilson, Williams, & Mon-Williams, 2007). Two experiments are reported in which, in contrast with previous studies, imitative compatibility was measured on both spatially compatible and spatially incompatible trials, and imitative compatibility was shown to be present regardless of spatial compatibility. Additional features of the experiments allowed measurement of the time courses of the imitative and spatial compatibility effects both within and across trials. It was found that imitative compatibility follows a different time course from spatial compatibility, providing further evidence for their independence and supporting the use of imitative compatibility as a measure of imitation

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Section: Resultscontrasting

confidence: 74%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 61%

Section: Time Course Analyses Of Spatial Compatibility and Imitative mentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 95%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Time course analyses confirm independence of imitative and spatial compatibility.

Catmur

Heyes

2011

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Perfor

137

227

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“…A recent neuroimaging study showed contrasting evidence when comparing human and robotic actions (Gazzola, Rizzolatti, Wicker, & Keysers, 2007). Also new behavioral work (Jansson, Wilson, Williams, & Mon-Williams, 2007;Stanley, Gowen, & Miall, 2007) showed comparable effects elicited by simple moving dots when the dot stimulus followed a biologically plausible or implausible velocity profile. When participants were informed that they observe dot stimuli that represent prerecorded human movements they found an interference effect but the effect was absent when the dot motion was described as computer generated.…”

Section: Biological Tuning Of Direct Matching?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Top-Down Modulation of Motor Priming by Belief About Animacy

Liepelt

Braß

2010

Experimental Psychology

114

128

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Abstract. There is recent evidence that we directly map observed actions of other agents onto our own motor repertoire, referred to as direct matching (Iacoboni et al., 1999). This was shown when we are actively engaged in joint action with others' (Sebanz et al. 2003) and also when observing irrelevant movements while executing congruent or incongruent movements (Brass et al., 2000). However, an open question is whether direct matching in human beings is limited to the perception of intentional agents. Recent research provides contradictory evidence with respect to the question whether the direct matching system has a biological bias possibly emerging from perceptual differences of the stimulus display. In this study all participants performed a motor priming task observing the identical animation showing finger lifting movements of a hand in a leather glove. Before running the experiment we presented either a human hand or a wooden analog hand wearing the leather glove. We found a motor priming effect for both human and wooden hands. However, motor priming was larger when participants believed that they interacted with a human hand than when they believed to interact with a wooden hand. The stronger motor priming effect for the biological agent suggests that the ''direct matching system'' is tuned to represent actions of animate agents.

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Self–other relations in social development and autism: multiple roles for mirror neurons and other brain bases

2008

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Mirror neuron system dysfunction may underlie a self-other matching impairment, which has previously been suggested to account for autism. Embodied Cognition Theory, which proposes that action provides a foundation for cognition has lent further credence to these ideas. The hypotheses of a self-other matching deficit and impaired mirror neuron function in autism have now been well supported by studies employing a range of methodologies. However, underlying mechanisms require further exploration to explain how mirror neurons may be involved in attentional and mentalizing processes. Impairments in self-other matching and mirror neuron function are not necessarily inextricably linked and it seems possible that different sub-populations of mirror neurons, located in several regions, contribute differentially to social cognitive functions. It is hypothesized that mirror neuron coding for action-direction may be required for developing attentional sensitivity to self-directed actions, and consequently for person-oriented, stimulus-driven attention. Mirror neuron networks may vary for different types of social learning such as ''automatic'' imitation and imitation learning. Imitation learning may be more reliant on self-other comparison processes (based on mirror neurons) that identify differences as well as similarities between actions. Differential connectivity with the amygdala-orbitofrontal system may also be important. This could have implications for developing ''theory of mind,'' with intentional self-other comparison being relevant to meta-representational abilities, and ''automatic'' imitation being more relevant to empathy. While it seems clear that autism is associated with impaired development of embodied aspects of cognition, the ways that mirror neurons contribute to these brain-behavior links are likely to be complex.

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Methodological problems undermine tests of the ideo-motor conjecture

Cited by 50 publications

References 27 publications

Time course analyses confirm independence of imitative and spatial compatibility.

Time course analyses confirm independence of imitative and spatial compatibility.

Top-Down Modulation of Motor Priming by Belief About Animacy

Self–other relations in social development and autism: multiple roles for mirror neurons and other brain bases

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