The unparalleled social abilities proper to human beings are mostly due to our capacity to understand each other and attribute a meaning to simple actions.
This faculty develops in parallel with our motoric and cognitive skills and is deeply grounded into them.
The reiterated exposure to a certain action and its consequence, creates a bond between the two that is very hard to change. As such, sometimes we do not need to see an actions performed to the end to read the actual intention of its actor. However, we encounter a strong surprise effect in the moment when the action develops in an ‘unpredictable’ way, meaning, its outcome does not match what we expected to see.
Two important questions that would add valuable insights to the understanding of social cognition are: 1, What information is actually used to predict someone else’s action? And 2, How do humans deal with surprise and what this surprise effect is cause by?
Answers to these questions can find important and multidisciplinary practical applications. The first question will inspire technological development, namely brain computer interface and robotics. In a digital era like the one we live now, machines and technology are expected to be predictive more than reactive to human commands. This will shorten their response making them more efficient and the human-machine interaction more fluid and ‘natural’. Social robots are nowadays a reality: they are mostly used for elderly, to keep them company and accompanying them in basic errands in the house. Making the interaction smoother means also make people more willing to accept this new form of help. The second question might as well be of great importance in the clinical domain. Big part of the literature links diseases like autism to an inherent inability to relate to other people. In particular, people with autism might have difficulty in understanding the meaning behind people’s actions. This project will give new insights about the possibility that predictive skills are actually jeopardized in this population.
This said, the literature does not provide yet a clear explanation of the cortical mechanisms behind our predictive ability, nor this surprise effect. Shedding light on them is the main objective of this project.
The overall aims of the study are:
- to investigate how different features impact the ability to predict someone’s action
- to unravel the mechanisms behind the surprise effect and what triggers it
The first aim was achieved by considering two main cues commonly related to action prediction and understanding: familiarity with the object and attention orientation of the actor. When we are familiar with an object and its use, it is easy to assume why someone is using it. Same is true when someone orients his attention towards an object. This is an important signal that he is willing to interact with it.
The second aim was achieved by creating a learning paradigm in which originally unpredictable actions become more predictable by making our participants repeatedly exposed to them.
