The effect of biomechanical properties of motion on 6-month-old infants’ and adults’ perception of goal directed grasping actions I Senna1, E Geangu2, E Croci1, C Turati1 |
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1Department of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy |
| The current study investigated whether the biomechanical properties of motion are relevant for 6-month-old infants and adults processing of human goal-directed actions. Participants observed a biomechanically possible goal-directed action and a similar action executed in a biomechanically impossible manner. Their gaze was recorded by means of an eye-tracker. Both adults’ and infants’ looking time to the grasping hand was longer in the impossible than in the possible condition, demonstrating that participants discriminated between them. Moreover, participants manifested predictive gazes (i.e. gazes reached the goal before the arrival of the agent’s hand) in both possible and impossible conditions, suggesting that they coded both actions as goal directed. However, infants who were presented first with the possible grasping action made more predictive gazes in the possible condition, than in the following impossible one. This suggests that information about the anatomical plausibility of the observed action is relevant for the understanding of that action. Importantly, the observation of the biomechanically impossible grasp triggered in adults an increase in pupil diameter, suggesting a higher emotional arousal. |
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