ECRP06: Collaboration led by Dr Chris N.L. Olivers

Lead Research Organisation: University of Birmingham
Department Name: School of Psychology

Abstract

Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.

Publications

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Humphreys GW (2010) The interaction of attention and action: from seeing action to acting on perception. in British journal of psychology (London, England : 1953)

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Humphreys GW (2010) Neuropsychological evidence for visual- and motor-based affordance: effects of reference frame and object-hand congruence. in Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition

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Riddoch MJ (2011) Effects of action relations on the configural coding between objects. in Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance

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Riddoch MJ (2011) Functional relations trump implied motion in recovery from extinction: evidence from the effects of animacy on extinction. in Neurocase

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Roberts KL (2010) The one that does, leads: action relations influence the perceived temporal order of graspable objects. in Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance

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Roberts KL (2011) Action relations facilitate the identification of briefly-presented objects. in Attention, perception & psychophysics

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Roberts KL (2011) Action-related objects influence the distribution of visuospatial attention. in Quarterly journal of experimental psychology (2006)

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Roberts KL (2010) Action relationships concatenate representations of separate objects in the ventral visual system. in NeuroImage

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Yoon EY (2010) The paired-object affordance effect. in Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance

 
Description The project presented novel evidence for the influence of two action-related components on human visual attention: the role of action-related properties of stimuli in an image (visual affordance) and the role of motor preparation (often in response to the appropriate action properties - motor affordance). The studies using converging evidence from different methodologies including: behavioural studies with normal participants, neuropsychological studies with patients with impaired attention, electrophysiological studies (EEG) and functional brain imaging (fMRI). The results demonstrated that action-related information in an image can direct visual attention whilst also rapidly cueing a motor action which, in turn, can feed-back to modulate attention. The work, and the conclusion for dual (perceptual and motor-based) mechanisms of attentional modulation by action, provides important new refinements on our understanding of human visual attention.
Exploitation Route The research has implications for developing action-related therapies to help patients overcome attentionla disorders (eg unilateral neglect after stroke). The work has been published in nine journal papers, including leading outlets in the field (Journal of Experimental Psychology). The research has been presented at 10 conferences including at keynote addresses at the Vision Sciences Society. The implications of the research for understanding neuropsychological disorders have also been disseminated at conferences and workhops for rehabilitation therapists working with patients with attentional impairments.