Oliver Herbort
To reach our goals, it is usually necessary to chain multiple actions and thus approach the goals step by step. Moreover, to enable a smooth and efficient execution of the action sequence, it is advantageous and sometimes even critical to adjust early actions anticipatorily to the requirements of forthcoming ones. Such anticipatory adjustments have been frequently reported when grasping objects for manipulation (e.g. Endstate Comfort Effect). Nevertheless, the mechanisms that enable anticipatory adjustments of actions are not well understood. Here, we aim to identify variables that affect anticipatory adjustments in reaching and grasping movements, evaluate subjective and objective criteria for the planning of such movements, and pinpoint possible reasons for limits in the ability to finely tune early movements to forthcoming ones. Additionally, we aim to integrate our findings to provide a concise model for the planning of reaching and grasping movements.
This project is supported by the German Research Council: Anticipatory planning processes for simple object manipulation. (DFG HE 6710/2-1).
Herbort, O., Koning, A., van Uem, J., & Meulenbroek, R. G. J. (2012). The End-State Comfort Effect Facilitates Joint Action. Acta Psychologica, 139(3), 404-416. doi:10.1016/j.actpsy.2012.01.001
Herbort, O. (2012). Where to grasp a tool? Task-dependent adjustments of tool transformations by tool users. Zeitschrift für Psychologie, 220(1):37-43. doi: 10.1027/2151-2604/a000089 (supplementary video file)
Herbort, O. & Butz, M.V. (2011). The continuous end-state comfort effect: weighted integration of multiple biases. Psychological Research. doi: 10.1007/s00426-011-0334-7
Herbort, O. & Butz, M.V. (2010). Planning and control of hand orientation in grasping movements. Experimental Brain Research 202(4), 867-878. doi:10.1007/s00221-010-2191-9
Herbort, O. & Butz, M.V. (2009). Anticipatory planning of sequential hand and finger movements. Journal of Motor Behavior 41(6), 561-569. doi:10.3200/35-09-003--RA