People are better at maximizing expected gain in a manual aiming task with rapidly changing probabilities than with rapidly changing payoffs

Previous research has shown that humans can select movements that achieve their goals, while avoiding negative outcomes, by selecting an “optimal movement endpoint.” This optimal endpoint is modeled based on the participants' endpoint variability and the payoffs associated with the target and penalty regions within the environment. Although the values associated with our goals vary on a moment-to-moment basis in our daily interactions, the adaptation of endpoint selection to changing payoffs in laboratory-based tasks has been examined by varying contexts between blocks of trials. The present study was designed to determine whether participants adjust endpoints and aim to optimal endpoints and whether performance differs when probability or payoff parameters change from trial to trial. Participants aimed to a target circle that was partially overlapped by a penalty circle. They received 100 points for hitting the target and lost points for hitting the penalty area. The magnitude of the penalty value or the distance between the centers of the circles (related to the probability of target and penalty contact) was changed randomly from trial to trial in separate blocks. Results revealed that participants shifted their endpoint and generally aimed optimally when the distance between the circles was varied but did not optimally shift their endpoints when the penalty value was varied. The results suggest that participants rapidly adapted endpoints when the probabilities associated with the task change, because the spatial parameters are an intrinsic property of the visual stimuli that are tightly linked with the motor system, whereas consistent feedback may be necessary to adjust to value parameters effectively.

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A Dissociation between Reaction Time to Sinusoidal Gratings and Temporal-Order Judgment

Perception ◽

10.1068/p230335 ◽

1994 ◽

Vol 23 (3) ◽

pp. 335-347 ◽

Cited By ~ 22

Author(s):

Thomas Tappe ◽

Michael Niepel ◽

Odmar Neumann

Keyword(s):

Reaction Time ◽

Spatial Frequency ◽

Comparison Stimulus ◽

Motor System ◽

Temporal Order ◽

Temporal Order Judgment ◽

Visual Stimuli ◽

Visual Latency ◽

Sinusoidal Gratings ◽

Sharp Edges

The effect of the spatial frequency (SF) of visual gratings on reaction time (RT) and temporal-order judgment (TOJ) was examined in three experiments. In experiment 1 the visual stimuli were vertical sinusoidal gratings with SFs between 2 and 8 cycles deg−1 and the comparison stimulus in the TOJ task was a 2300 Hz tone. Whereas SF had a highly significant effect on RT, it left TOJ completely unaffected. To test whether this dissociation was due to the sharp (high SF) horizontal edges of the gratings, a second experiment was carried out with circular stimuli with no sharp edges. These stimuli did produce an effect of SF on TOJ, but it was significantly smaller than was the effect on RT. In experiment 3 we confirmed that this difference was not due to differences in grating orientation between the first two experiments. These findings (a) solve discrepancies between findings reported in the literature and (b) strongly suggest that RT and TOJ cannot be regarded as converging operations for determining ‘visual latency’. This dissociation can best be accounted for by assuming that the output of early stimulus analysis can feed directly into the motor system (direct parameter specification), whereas the conscious representation that is used for TOJ is based on later integrative processes.

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36. Visual stimuli primes the motor system prior to the initiation of movement

Clinical Neurophysiology ◽

10.1016/j.clinph.2008.10.054 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 120 (2) ◽

pp. e99

Author(s):

L.L. Boisse ◽

G.L. King ◽

S.H. Scott ◽

R.J. Flanagan ◽

D.P. Munoz

Keyword(s):

Motor System ◽

Visual Stimuli

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Choices in a key press decision-making task are more optimal after gaining both aiming and reward experience

Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology ◽

10.1177/1747021820940620 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 73 (12) ◽

pp. 2197-2216

Author(s):

Joseph X Manzone ◽

Saba Taravati ◽

Heather F Neyedli ◽

Timothy N Welsh

Keyword(s):

Spatial Information ◽

Group Level ◽

Movement Variability ◽

Outcome Feedback ◽

A Value ◽

Expected Gain ◽

Outcome Information ◽

Key Press ◽

Spatial Parameters ◽

And Performance

When presented with two different target–penalty configurations of similar maximum expected gain (MEG), participants prefer aiming to configurations with more advantageous spatial, rather than more advantageous gain parameters—perhaps due to the motor system’s inherent prioritisation of spatial information during movements with high accuracy demands such as aiming. To test this hypothesis, participants in the present studies chose between target–penalty configurations via key presses to reduce the importance of spatial parameters of the response and performance-related feedback. Configurations varied in spatial (target–penalty region overlap) and gain parameters (negative penalty values) and could have similar or different MEG. Choices were made without prior aiming experience (Experiment 1), after aiming experience provided information of movement variability (Experiment 2), or after aiming experience provided information of movement variability and outcome feedback (Experiment 3). Overall, configurations with advantageous spatial or gain parameters were chosen equally (Both-Similar condition) in all experiments. However, average behaviour at the group level was not reflective of the behaviour of most individual participants with three subgroups emerging: those with a value preference, distance preference, or no preference. In Experiments 1 and 2, these individual differences cannot be explained by MEG differences between configurations or participants’ movement variability, but these variables predicted choice behaviour in Experiment 3. Further in the Both-Different condition, participants only selected the larger MEG configuration at a level above chance when both variability and outcome information were given prior to the key press task (Experiment 3). In sum, the data indicate that prioritisation of spatial information did not emerge at the group level when performing key presses and more optimal behaviour emerged when information regarding movement variability and outcome feedback were given.

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Word Association of Time-Altered Auditory and Visual Stimuli in Aphasia

Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research ◽

10.1044/jshr.2403.469b ◽

1981 ◽

Vol 24 (3) ◽

pp. 469-469

Author(s):

Robert Goldfarb ◽

Harvey Halpern

Keyword(s):

Word Association ◽

Visual Stimuli

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Effect of subliminally presented visual stimuli on event-related potentials: Use of oddball paradigm

Electroencephalography and Clinical Neurophysiology ◽

10.1016/s0013-4694(97)88471-8 ◽

1997 ◽

Vol 103 (1) ◽

pp. 109

Author(s):

M Brázdil

Keyword(s):

Visual Stimuli ◽

Event Related Potentials ◽

Oddball Paradigm ◽

Related Potentials

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Variation of nontarget visual stimuli and task-irrelevant P3

Electroencephalography and Clinical Neurophysiology ◽

10.1016/s0013-4694(97)88910-2 ◽

1997 ◽

Vol 103 (1) ◽

pp. 191-192

Author(s):

M Saito

Keyword(s):

Visual Stimuli ◽

Task Irrelevant ◽

And Task

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Does the Motor System Facilitate Spatial Imagery?

Zeitschrift für Entwicklungspsychologie und Pädagogische Psychologie ◽

10.1026/0049-8637/a000175 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 49 (3) ◽

pp. 127-137 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Markus Krüger ◽

Horst Krist

Keyword(s):

Motor System ◽

Third Graders ◽

External Support ◽

New Paradigm ◽

Perceptual Condition ◽

Imagery Condition ◽

Passive Rotation ◽

Perception Condition ◽

Motor Condition ◽

Dynamic Imagery

Abstract. Recent studies have ascertained a link between the motor system and imagery in children. A motor effect on imagery is demonstrated by the influence of stimuli-related movement constraints (i. e., constraints defined by the musculoskeletal system) on mental rotation, or by interference effects due to participants’ own body movements or body postures. This link is usually seen as qualitatively different or stronger in children as opposed to adults. In the present research, we put this interpretation to further scrutiny using a new paradigm: In a motor condition we asked our participants (kindergartners and third-graders) to manually rotate a circular board with a covered picture on it. This condition was compared with a perceptual condition where the board was rotated by an experimenter. Additionally, in a pure imagery condition, children were instructed to merely imagine the rotation of the board. The children’s task was to mark the presumed end position of a salient detail of the respective picture. The children’s performance was clearly the worst in the pure imagery condition. However, contrary to what embodiment theories would suggest, there was no difference in participants’ performance between the active rotation (i. e., motor) and the passive rotation (i. e., perception) condition. Control experiments revealed that this was also the case when, in the perception condition, gaze shifting was controlled for and when the board was rotated mechanically rather than by the experimenter. Our findings indicate that young children depend heavily on external support when imagining physical events. Furthermore, they indicate that motor-assisted imagery is not generally superior to perceptually driven dynamic imagery.

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