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The initiation of a hand grip is delayed by silently reading an incompatible syllable

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Abstract

The movements of phonation structures (e.g., tongue) have been shown to facilitate compatible hand movements. For example, reaction time (RT) of precision and power hand grips (made with tips of thumb and finger vs. whole hand) are shortened with the production of syllables that share similar action features (e.g., employing the proximal vs. dorsal portion of the tongue, respectively). This effect is coined the articulation-grip correspondence (AGC) effect. However, it is not known if the AGC effect is due to action facilitation vs. interference, and if such facilitation/ interference is due to covertly or overtly reading the syllable. To answer the associated empirical questions, the present experiment involved participants initiating a precision or power grip without the covert/ overt reading of a syllable, or while covertly or overtly reading the syllable /ti/ or /ka/. In both the covert and overt reading conditions, there were longer RTs for precision grips with the syllable /ka/ than /ti/, and there were longer RTs for power grips with the syllable /ti/. In contrast, the syllable /ti/ or /ka/ did not alter precision or power grip RTs, respectively. These findings support the notion of articulation-grip interference but not facilitation and that such interference can be observed with covert (silent) reading.

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Data availability

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

Support for this research was provided by grants from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), the Canadian Foundation for Innovation (CFI), and the Ontario Research Fund (ORF; all granted to L. Tremblay), a NSERC scholarship (granted to J. Hajj), and the University of Toronto.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Motor Control, Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education, University of Toronto, 55 Harbord Street, Toronto, ON, M5S 2W6, Canada

    Joëlle Hajj, Timothy Welsh & Luc Tremblay

  2. Department of Speech-Language Pathology, Rehabilitation Sciences Institute, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada

    Luc De Nil

Authors
  1. Joëlle Hajj
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  2. Luc De Nil
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  3. Timothy Welsh
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  4. Luc Tremblay
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Contributions

JH conceived and designed the research; JH performed experiment; JH analyzed the data; JH and LT interpreted results of experiment; JH prepared figures; JH drafted manuscript; JH, LT, LN, and TW edited and revised manuscript; JH and LT approved final version of manuscript.

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Correspondence to Luc Tremblay.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standard approved by the University of Toronto Research Ethics Boards and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or compared ethical standards.

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Hajj, J., De Nil, L., Welsh, T. et al. The initiation of a hand grip is delayed by silently reading an incompatible syllable. Psychological Research 87, 2419–2427 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-023-01828-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-023-01828-6

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