new insights from affordance and simon effects

215 Pages·2012·2.41 MB·English

AAllmmaa MMaatteerr SSttuuddiioorruumm –– UUnniivveerrssiittàà ddii BBoollooggnnaa

DOTTORATO DI RICERCA IN

MENTE, LOGICA E LINGUAGGIO

Ciclo XXIV

Settore Concorsuale di afferenza: 11/E1

Settore Scientifico disciplinare: M-PSI/01

SOCIAL COGNITION: NEW INSIGHTS
FROM AFFORDANCE AND SIMON EFFECTS

Presentata da: Filomena Anelli

Coordinatore Dottorato Relatore

Prof. Roberto Nicoletti Prof. Roberto Nicoletti

Esame finale anno 2012
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Ai miei genitori e
a mio fratello
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TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………………..9

CHAPTER I . SOCIAL COGNITION………………………………………………...15
1.1 Cognitive Science: from an individualistic to a social perspective....................15
1.2 Social Cognition: toward a definition………………………………………….18
1.3 The perception-action link……………………………………………………..22
1.4 Towards a unifying neural hypothesis of the basis of social cognition………..23
1.5 Relevant topics in social cognition…………………………………………….27
1.5.1 Imitating action…………………………………………………………………..28
1.5.2 Joint action……………………………………………………………………….29
1.5.3 Motor resonance……………………………………………………………….. 30
1.5.4 Emotional contagion and empathy…………………………………………….31
1.5.5 Theory of mind or mentalizing…………………………………………………33
1.6 Overview and aim of the project………………………………………………34

PART 1
CHAPTER II . AFFORDANCE EFFECT…………………………………………….37
2.1 Definition and Gibsonian notion of affordance………………………………..37
2.2 From Gibson’s view to micro-affordance……………………………………...40
2.2.1 Empirical evidence………………………………………………………………44
2.3 An affordance effect case-sample: the object consistence……………………..48
2.4 Affordance effect and motor resonance………………………………………..54
2.4.1 Compatibility paradigm and motor simulation………………………………55
2.4.2 Characteristics of resonance mechanism…………………………………….57

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CHAPTER III . STUDY 1: MOTOR RESONANCE WITH DANGEROUS
AFFORDANCE…………………………………………………………………………61
3.1 Introduction…………………………………………………………………….61
3.2 Experiment 1…………………………………………………………………...69
3.2.1 Methods……………………………………………………………………………70
3.2.1.1 Participants
3.2.1.2 Apparatus and stimuli
3.2.1.3 Procedure
3.2.2 Results……………………………………………………………………………..72
3.2.3 Discussion…………………………………………………………………………75
3.3 Experiment 2…………………………………………………………………...76
3.3.1 Methods……………………………………………………………………………76
3.3.1.1 Participants
3.3.1.2 Apparatus, stimuli, and procedure
3.3.2 Results……………………………………………………………………………..77
3.3.3 Discussion…………………………………………………………………………79
3.4 Experiment 3…………………………………………………………………...80
3.4.1 Methods……………………………………………………………………………80
3.4.1.1 Participants
3.4.1.2 Apparatus, stimuli, and procedure
3.4.2
Results……………………………………………………………………………………80
3.4.3 Discussion…………………………………………………………………………83
3.5 General Discussion…………………………………………………………….84

PART 2
CHAPTER IV . SIMON EFFECT……………………………………………………..89
4.1 Classical Simon effect………………………………………………………….89
4.2 Joint Simon effect……………………………………………………………...92
4.2.1 Cognitive mechanisms…………………………………………………………..95
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4.2.2 Neural mechanisms………………………………………………………………97
4.2.3 Social modulations………………………………………………………………99
4.2.4 Learning…………………………………………………………………………101
4.3 Joint Simon effect and joint action…………………………………………...103
4.3.1 Mechanisms and minimal architecture of joint action…………………….105
4.3.2 Classification of joint action………………………………………………….108

CHAPTER V . STUDY 2: GROUP MEMBERSHIP AND JOINT ACTION……..113
5.1 Introduction…………………………………………………………………...113
5.2 Experiment 4………………………………………………………………….116
5.2.1 Methods…………………………………………………………………………..117
5.2.1.1 Participants
5.2.1.2 Apparatus and stimuli
5.2.1.3 Procedure
5.2.2 Results……………………………………………………………………………119
5.2.3 Discussion……………………………………………………………………….121
5.3 Experiment 5………………………………………………………………….122
5.3.1 Methods…………………………………………………………………………..123
5.3.1.1 Participants
5.3.1.2 Apparatus, stimuli, and procedure
5.3.2 Results………………………………............................................................125
5.3.3 Discussion………………………………………………………………………126
5.4 Comparison between Experiments 4 and 5…………………………………...127
5.5 General Discussion…………………………………………………………...127

CHAPTER VI . STUDY 3: JOINT ACTION AND CARRY-OVER EFFECT OF
INTERDEPENCENCE………………………………………………………………..131
6.1 Introduction…………………………………………………………………...131
6.2 Experiment 6………………………………………………………………….137
6.2.1 Methods…………………………………………………………………………..137
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6.2.1.1 Participants
6.2.1.2 Apparatus and stimuli
6.2.1.3 Procedure
6.2.2 Results……………………………………………………………………………140
6.2.3 Discussion……………………………………………………………………….141
6.3 Experiment 7………………………………………………………………….141
6.3.1 Methods…………………………………………………………………………..142
6.3.1.1 Participants
6.3.1.2 Apparatus, stimuli, and procedure
6.3.2 Results……………………………………………………………………………143
6.3.3 Discussion……………………………………………………………………….144
6.4 Experiment 8………………………………………………………………….144
6.4.1 Methods…………………………………………………………………………..144
6.4.1.1 Participants
6.4.1.2 Apparatus, stimuli, and procedure
6.4.2 Results……………………………………………………………………………145
6.4.3
Discussion………………………………………………………………………………146
6.5 Comparison between Experiments 6, 7, and 8………………………………..147
6.6 General discussion……………………………………………………………147

GENERAL CONCLUSIONS…………………………………………………………153

APPENDICES………………………………………………………………………….163

REFERENCES………………………………………………………………………...175

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INTRODUCTION

In the following pages, I would like to present my doctoral thesis giving an overview
of the treated issues.
In Chapter 1, I have tried to contextualize the present project within the area of
cognitive science. Specifically, the perspective of the present project can be inscribed
within that endorsed by that area of cognitive science that in the last years moved from a
focus on individual mind and on individual cognitive processes toward the need to
consider the human ability to act in social contexts. Several findings supporting this view
have been presented with the special aim of showing how researchers have noticed the
need to retrieve the importance of the brain, body, and environment. Thus, an important
change is taking place in the so-called “Social Cognition” framework, from a focus on the
individual mind toward embodied and participatory aspects of social understanding. I
have explored the origin and the recent development of a new interdisciplinary attempt,
which combines approaches from various disciplines and integrates data from different
levels of analysis: the social cognitive (neuro)science.
A relevant point for social cognitive (neuro)science, and for my thesis, is the notion
of close perception-action link, as suggested by ideomotor theories. The idea that
perception and action are tightly interwoven has received a growing attention also due to
converging neurophysiological evidence on the so-called mirror or shared-circuit
mechanism, which could provide the first unifying perspective of the neural basis of
social cognition and of simulation mechanisms, linking first- and third-person
experiences. In fact throughout the chapter it has been explained that the understanding of
basic aspects of social cognition depends on activation of neural structures normally
involved in our own personally experienced actions or emotions. By means of this
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activation, a bridge is created between the others and ourselves. With the sensory
description of the observed social stimuli, internal representations of the state associated
with these actions or emotions are evoked in the observers, “as if” they were performing a
similar action or experiencing a similar emotion. Some relevant issues of social cognition
have been then introduced, such as imitating action, joint action, motor resonance,
emotional contagion, empathy, and theory of mind.
Among these topics, the aim of the present project was to shed more light on motor
resonance and joint action, themes that have been detailed and discussed in the first and in
the second part of the thesis, respectively. Each part has been organized so that each issue
has been first treated both at a theoretical and empirical level, and then experimentally
investigated in a series of experiments, by using two well-known effects of cognitive
psychology: “Affordance” and “Simon”.
In the first part of this project, the Affordance effect has been considered.
In particular, in Chapter 2 the notion of affordance was discussed starting from the
original theorization of Gibson who defined affordances as properties in the environment
that are relevant for an organism’s goals and that provide the observer with practical
opportunities which he/she is able to perceive and use. To clarify what type of properties
affordances are, some post-Gibson theorizations were presented ranging from the position
of those who stated that affordances are dispositional properties of the environment that
must be integrated with some dispositional properties of individuals, to other that posited
that they are relations between the features of a situation and the abilities of an individual.
Particular attention has received the notion of “Micro-affordance” proposed by Ellis and
Tucker to refer to the potential elements of an action. Micro-affordances have been
defined as brain representations of action possibilities, namely as the result in the brain of
the connection between visual responses and action-related responses and of previously
stored perception-action experiences. Moreover, micro-affordances were intended as the
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