Accuracy instructions differently modulate visual and nonvisual contributions to ongoing reaches.

The control of ongoing goal-directed reaches is influenced by both visual and nonvisual sensorimotor processes. Notably, intentions to produce accurate movements also influence reaching performance. However, it is not known whether these improvements associated with accuracy-based intentions can be attributed to changes in movement planning and/or online control. Notably, such improvements may come about via both visual and nonvisual online control processes. Using frequency domain analyses, the relative online contributions of visual and nonvisual subprocesses to reaching performance have been previously identified (e.g., de Grosbois & Tremblay, 2018a, 2018b). Thus, the current study tested whether the relative contributions of these online control subprocesses are influenced by instructions to be accurate. Reaching movements were completed in the presence of 3 experimental manipulations. First, vision during voluntary reaches was either provided or occluded. Second, high- and low-accuracy instruction sets were provided. And third, the predictability of visual information was manipulated through blocked and randomized feedback scheduling. The results indicated that the contribution of online visuomotor processes (i.e., visual subprocess) was increased by the availability of online vision and instructions to be accurate. In contrast, the nonvisual subprocess was promoted in the absence of online vision, but suppressed when a randomized feedback schedule was implemented with instructions to be accurate. Ultimately, instructions to be accurate increase the relative contribution of vision-based online sensorimotor processes and can decrease the contributions of nonvisual online sensorimotor processes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Body-part compatibility effects are modulated by the tendency for women to experience negative social comparative emotions and the body-type of the model.

Although exposure to physique-salient media images of women's bodies has been consistently linked with negative psychological consequences, little is known about the cognitive processes that lead to these negative effects. The present study employed a novel adaptation of a computerized response time (RT) task to (i) assess implicit cognitive processing when exposed to the body of another individual, and (ii) examine individual differences in social comparative emotions that may influence the cognitive processing of human bodies. Adult females with low (n = 44) or high (n = 23) tendencies for comparative emotions completed a task in which they executed responses to coloured targets presented on the hands or feet of images of ultra-thin, average-size, and above average-size female models. Although the colour of the target is the only relevant target feature, it is typically found that the to-be-ignored location of the target on the body of the model influences RTs such that RTs are shorter when the target is on a body-part that is compatible with the responding limb (e.g., hand response when target was on hand) than on a body-part that is incompatible with the responding limb (e.g., hand response when target was on foot). Findings from the present study revealed that the magnitude of the body-part compatibility effect (i.e., the index of the cognitive processing of the model) was modulated by tendencies for affective body-related comparisons. Specifically, women who were prone to experiencing social comparative emotions demonstrated stronger and more consistent body-part compatibility effects across models. Therefore, women with higher social comparison tendencies have heightened processing of bodies at a neurocognitive level and may be at higher risk of the negative outcomes linked with physique-salient media exposure.