Heinemann, A. 1 , Janczyk, M. 1 , Pfister, R. 1 , Thomaschke, R. 2 & Kiesel, A. 1
1 Julius-Maximilians-University Würzburg
2 University of Regensburg
In the present study we investigated the perception of newly learned, arbitrary action effects. Participants associated two actions with two effects in a learning phase. In a test phase, preparing a specific action impaired the detection of the associated effect in a visual search display. Thus, our results suggest a blindness for intended action effects. The data is in line with the code-occupation hypothesis (Stoet & Hommel, 1999) which was put forth to explain a similar finding for effects whose identity is unrelated to the actions they follow (Müsseler & Hommel, 1997). Furthermore, our results indicate that action-effect blindness occurs on all stages of action control and corroborates its functional role for shielding the action-perception system against potentially conflicting stimuli.