Department of Psychology

Interference in grasping movements

The two-pathways model visual information processing as suggested by Milner and Goodale, assumes that the ventral pathway processes information for the purpose of visual perception, while the dorsal pathway does so for action planning and control.

We investigated in particular interference from a secondary task and from variation of irrelevant stimulus dimensions on action and perception tasks. The findings are generally at odd with the claims ofn the theory and point to an inconsistency. Diffferent than was suggested in the literature, the dorsal pathway is also susceptible to dual-task interference, and various kinds of grasping movements appear not to differ with regard to their susceptibility to irrelevant stimulis variation.

Recent publications:

Janczyk, M., & Kunde, W. (2016). Garner-Interference in skilled right-handed grasping is possible. Motor Control, 20, 395-408.

Eloka, O., Feuerhake, F., Janczyk, M. & Franz, V.H. (2015). Garner-Interference in left-handed awkward grasping. Psychological Research, 79, 579-589.

Janczyk, M., Pfister, R., & Kunde, W. (2013). Mice move smoothly: Irrelevant object variation affects perception, but not computer-mouse actions. Experimental Brain Research, 231, 97-106.

Janczyk, M. & Kunde, W. (2012). Visual processing for action resists similarity of relevant and irrelevant object features. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 19, 412-417.

Janczyk, M., Franz, V.H. & Kunde, W. (2010). Grasping for parsimony: Do some motor actions escape dorsal processing? Neuropsychologia, 48, 3405-3415.

Janczyk, M. & Kunde, W. (2010). Does dorsal processing require central capacity? More evidence from the PRP paradigm. Experimental Brain Research, 203, 89-100.