Abstract
Previous studies have shown that, under specific conditions, arrays that have been pointed at encoding are recognized better than passively viewed ones. According to one interpretation, the superior recognition of pointed-to arrays can be explained by the motor inhibition of passively viewed arrays. The present study sought to determine whether a similar motor inhibition can be induced also when the participants observed a co-actor perform the pointing movements. Participants were presented with two spatial arrays, one of which was encoded via observation only (the no-move array), while the other was encoded with pointing movements (the move array); movements were performed either by the participant or by the experimenter. Experiment 1 replicated the advantage of self-pointed arrays over passively viewed arrays. Experiment 2 showed that, when participants passively observed the pointing movements performed by the experimenter, move arrays were recognized no better than no-move arrays. Finally, Experiment 3 demonstrated that, in a joint-action condition in which participants alternated with the experimenter in making pointing movements, the advantage of experimenter-pointed arrays over passively viewed arrays was significant and similar in size to the advantage produced by self-performed movements. Importantly, a series of cross-experiment comparisons indicated that the higher recognition of both self- and experimenter-pointed arrays in Experiment 3 could be explained by the motor inhibition of no-move arrays. We propose that, in a joint condition, the pointing movements performed by the experimenter were represented in the same functional way as self-performed movements and that this produced the motor inhibition of passively viewed arrays.
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Notes
In line with the previous studies, we will use the terms ‘pointing movements’ to refer to actions performed by participants on one of the two arrays presented in each trial. However, it is worth noting that the actions described by Chum et al. (2007) and Dodd and Shumborski (2009) were actually tapping movements, as participants were instructed to touch the location of the presented items on the screen—“Moreover, participants were instructed that they would be passively viewing the location of each object for one of the arrays (no-move array) and tapping each object as it appeared on the screen in the other array (move array)” (Dodd & Shumborski, 2009, p. 1239). In the present study, we followed the same procedure, although we acknowledge that there may be important differences between pointing and tapping gestures. In fact, only pointing gestures represent social-communicative acts that signal the protagonist's intention to direct the perceiver's attention to the pointed information (Gliga & Csibra, 2009; Yoon, Johnson, & Csibra, 2008). To our knowledge, the question of whether these two types of gestures have different effects on spatial memory has not been investigated and represents an interesting avenue for future research.
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The authors would like to thank Hubert Zimmer and Fruzsina Elekes for their interesting and useful comments on a previous version of the manuscript.
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Bhatia, D., Spataro, P., Mishra, R.K. et al. Pointing movements and visuo-spatial working memory in a joint setting: the role of motor inhibition. Psychological Research 84, 2065–2077 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-019-01209-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-019-01209-y