Interference in sequential grasping: effects of action and perception

Abstract

Past research has shown strong evidence supporting the notion that the visual control of action and the visual perception of objects are mediated by two functionally and anatomically distinct visual systems (Milner & Goodale, 2008). Little is known about how each visual system interferes with the other when performing a sequential task. However, it is known that the kinematics of an action can be affected by a subsidiary attention task (Castiello, 1996). In the current study participants (N =23) were presented with two rectangular objects placed one in front of the other. Participants were instructed to grasp the first object and place it on a specified target area and then either grasp, make a perceptual judgment about, or ignore the second object. The results revealed that preparing an action to the second object does not produce interference to the first action, but attending to its size for verbal judgment does.