Knowledge-based control of cognition and action

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Identifying or acting on objects often occurs in contexts where multiple target objects or action intentions are being considered. For example, when reaching for a mug of coffee during breakfast, one might be faced with a dining table that also holds a glass of orange juice, a piece of toast on a plate, and a bowl of cereal with a spoon, all of which invite actions quite different from grasping the vertical handle of a mug. Simply having these alternative target objects in view, or having recently interacted with them, has the potential to bring to mind a mental representation of their associated hand actions. These extraneous action representations may then compete with the intended action, slowing the reach and grasp response, or even modifying details of the movement, leading to an imperfect grasp or possibly a clumsy action that results in an unpleasant accident. Neurophysiological experiments measuring single-cell activity in the pre-motor cortex of monkeys shows that primates are capable of representing multiple action intentions simultaneously and of selecting among them, just as suggested by this hypothetical breakfast table scenario. The research described in this proposal examines the basic mental processes that are involved when humans successfully resolve potential conflicts between action representations that can arise in complex environments or even in intellectual tasks such as language comprehension.