Action adaptation during natural unfolding social scenes influences action recognition and inferences made about actor beliefs

Keefe, Bruce D.; Wincenciak, Joanna; Jellema, Tjeerd; Ward, James W.; Barraclough, Nick E.

Abstract

When observing another individual's actions, we can both recognize their actions and infer their beliefs concerning the physical and social environment. The extent to which visual adaptation influences action recognition and conceptually later stages of processing involved in deriving the belief state of the actor remains unknown. To explore this we used virtual reality (life-size photorealistic actors presented in stereoscopic three dimensions) to see how visual adaptation influences the perception of individuals in naturally unfolding social scenes at increasingly higher levels of action understanding. We presented scenes in which one actor picked up boxes (of varying number and weight), after which a second actor picked up a single box. Adaptation to the first actor's behavior systematically changed perception of the second actor. Aftereffects increased with the duration of the first actor's behavior, declined exponentially over time, and were independent of view direction. Inferences about the second actor's expectation of box weight were also distorted by adaptation to the first actor. Distortions in action recognition and actor expectations did not, however, extend across different actions, indicating that adaptation is not acting at an action-independent abstract level but rather at an action-dependent level. We conclude that although adaptation influences more complex inferences about belief states of individuals, this is likely to be a result of adaptation at an earlier action recognition stage rather than adaptation operating at a higher, more abstract level in mentalizing or simulation systems.

Citation

Keefe, B. D., Wincenciak, J., Jellema, T., Ward, J. W., & Barraclough, N. E. (2016). Action adaptation during natural unfolding social scenes influences action recognition and inferences made about actor beliefs. Journal of Vision, 16(9), 1-20. https://doi.org/10.1167/16.9.9

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Mar 23, 2016
• Publication Date: Jul 29, 2016
• Deposit Date: Oct 12, 2016
• Publicly Available Date: Oct 12, 2016
• Journal: Journal of vision
• Print ISSN: 1534-7362
• Electronic ISSN: 1534-7362
• Publisher: Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 16
• Issue: 9
• Article Number: ARTN 9
• Pages: 1-20
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1167/16.9.9
• Keywords: Action adaptation, Action recognition
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/444118
• Publisher URL: http://jov.arvojournals.org/article.aspx?articleid=2541698
• Additional Information: This is a copy of an open access article published in Journal of vision, 2016, v.16 issue 9.