In a series of experiments within Goal-Leaders and WoRHD projects, we are measuring healthy adults' hand movements toward one of two items alternatives, and recording the streaming x, y coordinates of the computer mouse (i.e., a kinematic measure) during categorization tasks.
Results show that decision-making and action execution are not separate cognitive stages. Rather, we observe dynamic competition between different processing levels, where partially activated representations (for the decision alternatives) continuously interact into a single categorization outcome.
The use of an action-dynamics approach allowed to visualize the link between cognitive processes and hand movements, with mouse trajectories mirroring online mental processing.
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