Visuomotor priming of a manual reaching movement during a perceptual decision task

This paper deals with the mental simulation of manual movement that sometimes accompanies the visual perception of an object. Previous studies investigated how visual objects prime the grasping manual movement they afford. The principal purpose of the present experiment was to determine if such visuomotor priming also concerns the reaching manual movement that visual objects afford. During a perceptual decision task, 32 subjects were asked to grasp a proximal or distal switch, as fast and accurately as possible, depending on the color of a chess piece displayed on a computer screen. Results showed an effect on the reaction times of the interaction between the position of the chess piece on the chessboard and the manual response, suggesting that subjects mentally simulated a manual reaching movement toward the perceived chess piece.