With hands I do not centre! Action- and object-related effects of hand-cueing in the line bisection

A variety of studies have shown action- and object-related visuo-motor priming in behavioural tasks. The peculiarity of this study lies in using a hand-cued line bisection task to explore the main properties of the motor effects evoked by action and object processing. In five experiments it is shown that flanking a line (thin vs. thick line) with images of hands (biological vs. non-biological hand) representing different actions (power vs. precision grip) biases performance towards the action more compatible with the object (power grip – thick line, precision grip – thin line). This effect is larger for the precision grip than for the power grip suggesting a functional rather than manipulative activation. In addition, the effect is larger for the biological than for the non-biological hand. We suggest that this paradigm could be potentially useful for neuropsychological studies as well as for addressing unsolved issues of embodied theories of cognition.

• We study the effects of hand cueing on a line bisection task with hand flankers. • We vary line (thin, thick), hand (biological or not), posture (power, precision grip). • The compatibility between hand-flankers posture and line affects performance. • The compatibility is larger for biological hand-flankers in a precision grip posture. • The hand-cueing line bisection is useful to investigate visuo-motor processing.