Abstract
Previous studies have shown that object observation can automatically evoke motor programs for specific actions; this is referred to as affordance. Recent studies have evidenced that individuals are sensitive to the difference between dangerous and neutral objects. This study explored the influence of irrelevant dangerous object on individuals’ responses to the target object. In a priming task, participants were required to respond to a target object, which was preceded by a prime object. The object types varied between dangerous and neutral objects. The results revealed that the affordance of the neutral object only occurred when the orientation of the prime object corresponded to that of the target object. The affordance of dangerous object was modulated by a dangerous prime object. When the orientation of the prime object did not correspond to that of the target object, the affordance of the dangerous object was observed; whereas, when the orientation was in correspondence, the congruency effect was reversed. These findings suggest that object-action priming is modulated by the danger level of objects.
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Acknowledgments
This study was supported by a grant from Humanity and Social Science Youth foundation of Ministry of Education of China (17XJC190011), Shaanxi philosophy and social science fund (2017P016), and Programs of Scientific Research Foundation for Doctor (ZK2018032) of Baoji University of Arts and Sciences.
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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.
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Zhao, L. The influence of irrelevant dangerous objects on the action activation of target objects. Curr Psychol 39, 2320–2325 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-018-9939-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-018-9939-y