Humans as intentional agents: the action-related intentional weighting mechanism across various modalities and domains
Final Report Abstract
Attribution of intentionality to agents, and inferring intentions from the observed behavior, influence perceptual processing and visual selection. In particular, when observing others’ actions, our perceptual selection becomes tuned to what we see, what we assume about the observed agent or how we expect them to behave. For example, attentional orienting in response to directional cues signaled by other agents is influenced by attributed intentionality, perceived human-likeness, or reliability. Interestingly, already early mechanisms of visual attention (as indicated by the P1 ERP component) are modulated by (1) expectations regarding how complex actions should unfold in a natural context, and by (2) whether observers attribute intentionality to the observed agent. Furthermore, we have sensitivity to certain subtle behavioural (human-like) characteristics of observed agents (also artificial agents). This evokes attribution of intentionality, and in turn, modulatory effects on attentional orienting. Finally, our own intentionality (specifically, intentional actions) also influences perceptual processing (within- and across modalities) in form of either facilitatory (congruency) or interference effects, dependent on whether the perceptual task involves feature-based processing and feature binding or processing at the level pf perceptual dimensions. To conclude, the aspect of intentionality, either attributed to others, or to our own actions has a significant impact on perceptual processing, already at the very early stages. Moreover, various types of expectations (about action sequences, reliability or human-likeness) concerning other agents present in our environment also influence our attentional processes. This is therefore yet another piece of evidence that the brain operates in a multidirectional manner, with various feedback signals being sent from higher-order to lower-level cognitive mechanisms.
Publications
- (2014). Beliefs about the minds of others influence how we process sensory information. PLOS ONE, 9 (4), e94339
Wykowska, A., Wiese, E., Prosser, A., Müller, H.J.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0094339) - (2014). Implications of Robot Actions for Human Perception. How Do We Represent Actions of the Observed Robots? International Journal of Social Robotics, 6 (3), 357-366
Wykowska, A., Chellali, R., Al-Amin, M. Md., Müller, H.J.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1007/s12369-014-0239-x) - (2015). Gaze following in the context of complex action scenarios. PLOS ONE 10(11): e0143614
Pérez-Osorio, J., Müller, H., Wiese, E., Wykowska, A.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0143614) - (2016). Embodied artificial agents for understanding human social cognition. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society London: B. Biological Sciences, 371, 20150375
Wykowska, A., Chaminade, T., & Cheng, G.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2015.0375) - (2017). Expectations regarding action sequences modulate electrophysiological correlates of the gaze-cueing effect. Psychophysiology
Pérez-Osorio, J., Müller, H., Wykowska, A.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1111/psyp.12854)
