| A coordinated and effective action requires that we can perceive and evaluate the possible action information provided by the object in the environment. The affordance of object provides such a possibility. Gibson (1979) used the term affordance to refer to the fact that visual perception of the environment is not just passive perception of objects, but direct perception of the potential actions that the perceiver can carry out with them without the need for high-level processes such as reasoning about object properties. For example, we will know how to sit when seeing a chair and know how to grasp when seeing a cup. The concept of affordance reveal an automatic link between vision and action. It has been argued, for instance, that the action property of object is an intrinsic part of its mental representation. Evidence for this view includes a series of studies employing a stimulus-response compatibility paradigm (Ellis & Tucker,2000; Tucker & Ellis,1998,2001) and showing that the sight of an object potentiates (affords) the actions associated with it.It has been demonstrated that even though the grasp response evoked by a visual object is irrelevant to the participant’s task, it still appears to be encoded, speeding response when congruent with a current action, and slowing response when incongruent. Tucker and Ellis (1998) reported a study in which the participants judged whether the household objects were upright or inverted and responded accordingly with a left or right hand key press. Tucker and Ellis found a significant congruency effect based on whether the affording handle appeared on the same side of space as the responding hand, e.g., a saucepan with its handle pointing leftwards promoted better left hand response performance. Tucker and Ellis interpreted these findings supporting for the object affordance. The TroPICALS model argues that the competition between the action activated by object and action of task demand is the main reason for the congruency effect in the object affordance. Relevant researches find that just observing others’ actions will activate their own corresponding actions (Heyes,2011; Vainio, Tucker,& Ellis,2007). The researchers hold that individuals will automatically mimic the observed action.Though many past studies had showed that action observation object would influence the object affordance, but they did not present a straightforward picture of the extent of this involvement, and under what conditions it occurred. Furthermore, TroPICALS model can only explain the congruency effect in object affordance when presented object separately, but can’t explain the situation in which other external action involved in the operation of object. In addition, in the field of imitation, recent studies found that individuals did not always imitate observed actions automatically. In certain situation, according to the semantics of observed action, the observation of the others’ action will activate complementary action which is incongruent with the observed action. How does the action observation influence the object affordance in the situation that need individual respond to others also needs further research. Again, previous studies focused on the influence of action observation on neutral object affordance, but related research had not discussed the influence of action observation on the dangerous object affordance, which attributes are different from the neutral object.The investigation on the above issues can advance the theory of object affordance. On the other hand, it can help us understand how we utilize the potential of information to produce coordinated and effective behavior when observing the picture that others operated object. A series of experiments of this study investigated the influence of action observation on the object affordance in different action situations. Specifically, this study explored the influence of action observation on the neutral and dangerous object affordance in the imitation situation and interaction situation, in order to answer under what condition and what extent the external action related information will influence the object affordance.The first part investigated the influence of action observation on the neutral object affordance in imitation situation. Experiment 1 investigated whether the interaction between imitate system and affordance system was conditional through controlling the degree of speculation. The results confirmed that only when individuals assumed that there was an correlation between observed action and object, the imitation system and affordance system would interact with each other. In Experiment 2, we manipulated the contact space between the actor and object to investigate the object affordance effect under different contact space conditions in the imitation situation. When the actor’s action matched the action afforded by the object, the object affordance effect was found both in the contact condition and uncontact condition. When the actor’s action mismatched the action afforded by the object, none of effect was found in the contact condition, whereas a reversed object affordance effect was obtained. Based on Experiment 2, the participants were required to respond by one hand instead of two hands in Experiment 3. None of effect was observed, suggesting influence of action observation on object affordance is caused by the procession of action information.Manipulating the action situation in the second part, two experiments were designed to examine the influence of action observation on the neutral object affordance in interaction situation. In Experiment 4, when complementary action activated by the actor’s information matched the action afforded by the object, the object affordance effect was observed. When complementary action activated by the actor’s information mismatched the action afforded by the object, the object affordance effect was not found. In Experiment 5, through tipping the action semantic to the participants, a reversed object affordance effect was obtained when complementary action activated by the actor’s information mismatched the action afforded by the object.The third part explored the influence of action observation on the dangerous object affordance in the imitation situation and interaction situation. Experiment 6 found that in the imitation situation, regardless of the actor and object contact or not, the object affordance effect was observed both when the actor’s action matched the action afforded by the object and when they mismatched. Experiment 7 showed that in the interaction situation, the object affordance effect was observed both when complementary action activated by the actor’s information matched the action afforded by the object and when they mismatched.According to the results above, we concluded that:1. When individuals assume that there is an correlation between observed action and object, the imitation system and affordance system will interact with each other. When there is not an correlation between observed action and object, the imitation system and affordance system will affect action independently.2. Regardless of imitation situation or interaction situation, the influence of action observation on the object affordance, manifests the cooperation and competition between imitation system and affordance system. When the action activated by the actor’s information matches the action afforded by the object, there is a cooperation between imitation system and affordance system. The final action is congruent the action activated by the object, and an object affordance effect will be found. When the action activated by the actor’s information mismatches the action afforded by the object, there is a competition between imitation system and affordance system, and the final action is congruent the winner of the competition. The competition result between imitation system and affordance system is affected by the contact space for object and the understanding for the observed action3. The affordance of dangerous object is not influenced by the external action information. In the cooperation and competition between imitation system and affordance system of dangerous object, the affordance system always holds the advantage.
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