Moving objects by imagination? Amount of finger movement and pendulum length determine success in the Chevreul pendulum illusion
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Moving objects by imagination? Amount of finger movement and pendulum length determine success in the Chevreul pendulum illusion. / Cantergi, Debora; Awasthi, Bhuvanesh; Friedman, Jason.
I: Human Movement Science, Bind 80, 102879, 2021.Publikation: Bidrag til tidsskrift › Tidsskriftartikel › Forskning › fagfællebedømt
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Moving objects by imagination? Amount of finger movement and pendulum length determine success in the Chevreul pendulum illusion
AU - Cantergi, Debora
AU - Awasthi, Bhuvanesh
AU - Friedman, Jason
N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2021 Elsevier B.V.
PY - 2021
Y1 - 2021
N2 - Hand-held pendulums can seemingly oscillate on their own, without perceived conscious control. This illusion, named after Chevreul, is likely a result of ideomotor movements. While this phenomenon was originally assumed to have a supernatural basis, it has been accepted for over 150 years that the movements are self-generated. However, until now, recordings of the small movements that create these oscillations have not been performed. In this study, we examined how participants produce these unconscious oscillations using a motion capture system. As expected, the Chevreul pendulum illusion was produced when the fingers holding the pendulum generated an oscillating frequency close to the resonant frequency of the pendulum, where very small driving movements of the arm are sufficient to produce relatively large pendulum motion. We found that pendulum length significantly affected the ability to produce the illusion - participants were much more successful with a 40 cm compared to an 80 cm pendulum. Further, we found that participants that tended to move their fingers more were more successful in producing the illusion but did not find a connection between inter-joint coordination and ability to generate the illusion.
AB - Hand-held pendulums can seemingly oscillate on their own, without perceived conscious control. This illusion, named after Chevreul, is likely a result of ideomotor movements. While this phenomenon was originally assumed to have a supernatural basis, it has been accepted for over 150 years that the movements are self-generated. However, until now, recordings of the small movements that create these oscillations have not been performed. In this study, we examined how participants produce these unconscious oscillations using a motion capture system. As expected, the Chevreul pendulum illusion was produced when the fingers holding the pendulum generated an oscillating frequency close to the resonant frequency of the pendulum, where very small driving movements of the arm are sufficient to produce relatively large pendulum motion. We found that pendulum length significantly affected the ability to produce the illusion - participants were much more successful with a 40 cm compared to an 80 cm pendulum. Further, we found that participants that tended to move their fingers more were more successful in producing the illusion but did not find a connection between inter-joint coordination and ability to generate the illusion.
KW - Chevreul pendulum illusion
KW - Hand-held pendulum
KW - Ideomotor theory
KW - Oscillating frequency
KW - Resonant frequency
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85116041731&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.humov.2021.102879
DO - 10.1016/j.humov.2021.102879
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 34607165
AN - SCOPUS:85116041731
VL - 80
JO - Human Movement Science
JF - Human Movement Science
SN - 0167-9457
M1 - 102879
ER -
ID: 306688435