The Influence of Action Potentiation on the Perception of Objects Presented Near Hand

For currently-debated reasons, perception of visual stimuli is enhanced in near-hand space compared to far-hand space. According to the action potentiation hypothesis, near-hand effects result from automatically generated potential motor responses produced upon viewing objects presented in near-hand space. This hypothesis was tested by crossing hand manipulations with two separate techniques designed to elicit action potentiation. The first series of experiments presented participants with a cueing task where images of handled objects served as the cue, and its handle compatibility was manipulated. A consistent near-hand effect was observed, but there was no evidence that the images potentiated action as there was no handle-compatibility effect. The second experiment used a visuomotor competition reaching task, which required participants to initiate reaches toward a distractor display and adjust their trajectory on the fly so as to end the reach at a later indicated target location. For every distractor presented simultaneous and competing motor responses were generated, and differences in how hand presence influenced the resolution of this competition were examined. Based on predictions made, action potentiation is unlikely to be the root cause of the near-hand effect; however, was not possible to rule out this explanation entirely. The findings of these experiments shed light both on the importance and consistency of the near-hand effect, and the difficulties associated with uncovering its nature in human populations.