Sensing, Perceiving, and Understanding Actions

Perceiving and naming actions and objects

Neuropsychological studies have suggested differences in the cortical representations of verbs and nouns. Assessment of word-class specific deficits often relies on picture naming with different sets of images used for action and object naming. Such a setup may be problematic in neuroimaging studies, as the perception of the image and the actual differences in retrieving verbs or nouns become i...

Bergmann on Perceiving, Sensing, and Appearing

Affective Agents Perceiving Each Other's Actions

In this paper, an extension of a formalized model of affective decision making is presented, based on the informally described I-PEFiC model. This extension manages that the actions agents undertake have an effect on other agents. The agents change their perceptions and beliefs about other agents if actions are taken. Further, the anger level of the agents is simulated. Simulation experiments s...

The impact of gain change on perceiving one's own actions

Tool use often challenges the human motor system, especially when these tools require sensorimotor transformations. We report an experiment using a digitizer tablet, in which different gains are introduced between the hand movement (proximal effect) and the intended action effect presented on a display (distal effect). The question is how one’s own movements are perceived in this situation. Wit...

The Temporal Dynamics of Perceiving Other’s Painful Actions

The present study investigates the temporal dynamics of the brain activity predicting the sensory outcomes of observed hand-object interactions of others. Participants are presented with pictures of a hand grasping or withdrawing from noxious and neutral objects. They are then asked to judge whether this hand-object interaction causes painful consequences. In the early stages of stimulus proces...