Knowledge-based control of cognition and action

识别或作用于对象经常发生在考虑多个目标对象或动作意图的环境中。例如，当早餐时伸手去拿一杯咖啡时，一个人可能会面对一张桌子，桌子上还放着一杯橙汁，盘子里放着一片烤面包片，勺子里放着一碗麦片，所有这些都引起了与抓住杯子垂直把手完全不同的动作。只要将这些可选择的目标对象放在视线中，或者最近与它们进行过互动，就有可能让玩家想起与之相关的手部动作的心理表征。这些无关的动作表现形式可能会与预期的动作相竞争，减缓伸手和抓握的反应，甚至修改动作的细节，导致不完美的抓握或笨拙的动作，从而导致不愉快的事故。测量猴子运动前皮层单细胞活动的神经生理学实验表明，灵长类动物能够同时表现多个动作意图，并在其中进行选择，就像这个假设的早餐桌场景所暗示的那样。本提案中描述的研究考察了人类成功解决复杂环境中甚至智力任务（如语言理解）中可能出现的行动表征之间潜在冲突时所涉及的基本心理过程。***我计划在一系列任务情境中检查竞争动作表征之间的相互作用，包括对象识别，做出伸手和抓握动作，以及理解描述应用于可操作对象的动作的句子。通过测量时间做一个动作,或眼球运动的模式用来读一个句子描述一个动作,或者详细的运动的手让它执行一个达到和把握行动,我将能够形成结论时诱发的各种行动表示某人的观点一个对象或理解一个句子,和这些表征之间的竞争是解决如何让正确的任务性能误差性能或结果。***这项研究将提供关于概念知识和动作表征如何支持熟练表演的重要信息。它还将有助于更深入地了解在执行手动操作和识别物体时通常由局部脑损伤或神经退化引起的选择性损伤

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.***     I plan to examine interactions between competing action representations in a range of task situations, including object identification, making reach and grasp actions, and understanding sentences that describe actions applied to manipulable objects. By measuring the time taken to make an action, or the pattern of eye movements used to read a sentence describing an action, or the detailed movement a hand makes as it executes a reach and grasp action, I will be able to form conclusions about the kinds of action representations that are evoked when someone views an object or understands a sentence, and about how competition between those representations is either resolved to allow correct task performance or results in a performance error.***     This research will provide important information about how conceptual knowledge and action representations support skilled performance. It will also contribute to a deeper understanding of the selective impairments in performing manual actions and identifying objects that often result from localized brain damage or neural degeneration.**