The performance and observation of action shape future behaviour

The observation of other people's actions plays an important role in shaping the perceptual, cognitive, and motor processes of the observer. It has been suggested that these social influences occur because the observation of action evokes a representation of that response in the observer and that these codes are subsequently accessed by other cognitive systems to modify future behaviour. In the case of social search and movement tasks, the observation-evoked response code is thought to activate the same mechanisms that are activated following internally-generated response codes. In support of this hypothesis, the present study revealed that the magnitudes of the between-person inhibition of return (IOR) effects were correlated with within-person IOR effects. These findings provide substantial support for the link between observation-evoked response codes and social cognitive effects. (C) 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.