Action-perception loops in decision making and linguistic processing

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.

Publications on this topic:

• Barca, L., Benedetti, F., Pezzulo. G. (2015). The effects of phonological similarity on the semantic categorization of pictorial and lexical stimuli: evidence from continuous behavioral measures. Journal of Cognitive Psychology
• Barca, L., Pezzulo. G. (2015). Tracking second thoughts: continuous and discrete revision processes during visual lexical decision. PlosOne, 10(2): e0116193. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0116193
• Barca, L., & Pezzulo, G. (2012). Unfolding visual lexical decision in time. PlosOne, 7(4): e3593. [link]

• Quétard, B., Quinton, J.C., Colomb, M., Pezzulo, G., Barca, L., Izaute, M., Appadoo, O.K., Mermillod, M. (2015). Combined effects of expectations and visual uncertainty upon detection and identification of a target in the fog. Cognitive Processing, DOI:10.1007/s10339-015-0673-1