Reflexive Spatial Attention to Goal Directed Reaching

Abstract

Social interaction involves cues such as gaze direction, head orientation, and pointing gestures that serve to automatically orient attention to a specific referent or spatial location. In this paper we demonstrate that an observed reaching action similarly results in a reflexive shift in attention as evidenced by faster responses that are congruent with the direction of the reach, than responses that are incongruent. When the task involves a saccadic response (Experiment 1) this prediction is inhibited and results in a reverse-congruence, faster responses to incongruent than congruent cues, when the cue occurs after the reach is completed. This reverse-congruence is not present when the task involves a key press (Experiment 2) or a mouse movement (Experiment 3). We propose that the inhibition of the predictive saccade is overcome when the eye movements toward the goal are activated to guide the mouse movement.


Back to Table of Contents